As expected, WBA super flyweight champion Fernando Martinez and former titlist Kazuto Ioka will run it back on New Year’s Eve at Tokyo’s Ota-City Gymnasium.
Martinez (17-0, 9 KO) took a competitive decision over four-division champ Ioka (31-3-1, 16 KO) when they met in July, building up an early lead and fending off a late charge to retain the IBF belt and take Ioka’s WBA. His punishing, high-volume style seems like more than Ioka can handle at his age, but Ioka has a history of coming on strong in rematches, so don’t count him out.
“I felt endless frustration after that loss,” Ioka said at a press conference in Tokyo. “I’m definitely going to make amends and prove I can get back on top.”
“I won’t necessarily retire if I lose, but this isn’t a world where you can keep thinking there will always be another chance,” Ioka said.
Only the WBA title will be at stake, as Martinez vacated his IBF belt in the face of an ordered clash with Willibaldo Garcia.
The most noteworthy undercard bout features blue-chip super featherweight prospect Hayato Tsutsumi (5-0, 2 KO) facing durable but overcooked former titlist Rene Alvarado (34-14, 22 KO). Tsutsumi boasts notable amateur victories over Otabek Kholmatov and Lazaro Alvarez and looks like a potential star in the making, though he did break one of Japanese boxing’s cardinal taboos by missing weight in last April’s win over Anselmo Moreno.
That said, he apparently had COVID during training camp, so hopefully the JBC didn’t go biblical on him.