Kazuto Ioka and Joshua Franco meet in a unification bout

WBO junior bantamweight champion Kazuto Ioka of Japan and Joshua Franco the WBA champion from San Antonio, Texas, meet in a unification bout at the Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo on Saturday, in the traditional end-of-the-year world title fight to be held in Japan.

Ioka, 33, who has a record of 29-2; 15 is considered to be one of the best fighters to come out of Japan in recent years and has won world titles at minimumweight, light flyweight and flyweight. He moved up to junior bantamweight in 2018.

On 31 December 2018, he lost a disputed decision against Donnie Nietes in a clash for the vacant WBO junior bantamweight belt.

Since the loss he has scored wins against Aston Palicte for the vacant WBO junior bantamweight belt, and made successful defences against Jeyvier Cintron (pts 12), Kosei Tanaka (tko 8), Francisco Rodrigues Jr (pts 12), Ryoji Fukunaga (pts 12) and a one-sided win against Nietes (pts 12) in a return match

The 27-year-old Franco has a record of 18-1-2; 8, with his last three fights all against Andrew Maloney, with a win in 2020, a no contest when Franco’s eye was damaged due to an accidental head-butt and in the third fight in August 2021, he once again beat Maloney.

Franco was elevated from the secondary titleholder to the full WBA champion when Juan Francisco Estrada gave up the title in August.

Ioka goes into the fight as a slight favourite.