Kazuto Ioka Makes Weight After Two Attempts For His Bout With Joshua Franco

Kazuto Ioka had to weigh himself twice, taking off all of his clothes, so that he could make 115 pounds for his New Year’s Eve match against Joshua Franco.

Kazuto Ioka Makes Weight After Two Attempts For His Bout With Joshua Franco

Franco, who is fighting out of town, did not have any issues hitting the 114 ¾ pound mark for their WBA/WBO junior bantamweight championship fight on Saturday at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.

Franco of San Antonio will have his inaugural defence of the WBA title he was named the full champion of in the summer. Before that, he held the WBA “Regular” title, which he attained in a twelve-round match with the then-undefeated Andrew Moloney in June of 2020.

He defended that belt twice against Maloney, once under a no-contest in November 2020 and then in a third fight on August 14th of last year in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in which he was declared the victor.

Since his last bout, Franco has been waiting to fight Juan Francisco Estrada, the holder of the WBA’ Super’ title, only for the contest to fall through. This Saturday will be his first professional fight in Japan.

Meanwhile, Ioka is the only male Japanese boxer who has earned championship titles in four different weight classes. He has fought eleven times, out of which ten were in his home nation.

His record to this day is nine wins and one loss, with the loss being a split decision against Donnie Nietes for the WBO 115-pound championship in Macao, China.

Two months after Nietes gave up the belt, Ioka acquired it after a tenth-round knockout victory against Aston Palicte in June 2019.

To further demonstrate his Hall of Fame credentials, he has gone on to defend his title five times, his most recent being a knockout victory against countryman Kosei Tanaka, the undefeated former triple division champion.

The boxing match will be broadcast live on TBS-Japan at 5:00 in the evening local time or 3:00 in the morning Eastern Time.