Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com confirmed that super flyweight world champion Kazuto Ioka will face fellow champion, Joshua Franco, in a junior bantamweight title unification clash on New Year’s Eve in Japan.
This is no shock as it is almost standard practice for Ioka to fight on this date, for years now.
Ioka, the WBO champion, would face Estrada the WBA super champion, as the fight has no official venue as of yet.
Ioka, a legend in Japan, who is the country's only male boxer to hold four world titles in four weight classes, dating back to 2011, seemingly started the tradition of New Year’s Eve fight cards.
This will be a formidable test as Franco has been a solid world champion, but could never get fellow WBA champion Juan Francisco Estrada in the ring with himself. The reason, a trilogy with Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, was more interesting to him. Now, we see where both fighters sit in the division and have some of the unanswered questions in super flyweight get a bit of resolution.
