Franco and Ioka meet in a rematch

Joshua Franco defends his WBA junior bantamweight title against Kazuto Ioka in a rematch at the Ota-City Central Gymnasium in Japan on Saturday.

Franco and Ioka fought to a majority draw in December 2022.

The WBO belt will not be on the line this time as Ioka relinquished the belt to enable him to challenge for the WBA belt.

The 27-year-old Franco (18-1-3; 8) won the WBA belt when he outscored Andrew Maloney in Las Vegas and in a rematch, it was declared a no contest after two rounds when Franco damaged his eye.

In a third matchup he retained the belt on points over 12 rounds before fighting to a majority draw with Ioka (29-2-1: 15).

The 34-year-old Ioka, rated at No 6, is a four-weight world champion from minimumweight to junior bantamweight.

The man from Japan moved up to junior bantamweight in 2018 after losing on points against Donnie Nietes in a WBO flyweight title fight.

He then captured the vacant WBO title in June 2019 when he stopped Aston Palieta.

He made five successful defences and beat Nietes in a return fight.

This could be another closely contested match with Franco possibly edging it.

On the undercard Musashi Mori (13-1-1; 7) and Takuya Watanabe (39-11-2, 22), who fought to a draw in their first fight, meet again with the vacant OPBF junior featherweight title at stake.

BORNEA CHALLENGES MARTINEZ

Filipino Jade Bornea challenges Fernando Martinez of Argentina for the IBF junior bantamweight title on Saturday at the Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The 28-year-old Bornea (18-0; 12) has been training in Las Vegas for the past two years.

Martinez (15-0; 8) won the title on 26 February 2022 with a 12-round points decision over Jerwin Ancajas and retained the title against Ancajas on points in a return match on 8 October 2022.

Martinez, 31, goes into the fight as the favourite.

On the same card the 29-year-old Carlos Adames (22-1; 17) from the Dominican Republic and former unified champion Julian Williams (29-3-1; 16) meet in a clash for the interim WBC middleweight title.

Philadelphia’s Williams, 33, became a unified world champion at junior middleweight in May 2019 when he beat Jarrett Hurd but lost the titles in his first defence against Jeison Rosario in January 2020.