Kazuto Ioka defends WBA title against Josber Perez

In the last world title fight of the year, Japan’s Kazuto Ioka 30-2-1; 15 defends his WBA junior bantamweight title against former world title challenger Josper Perez 20-3; 16 from Venezuela at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan on Sunday night.

Ioaka has won world titles in four weight classes and this will be his first fight since winning on a 12-round unanimous points decision over Joshua Franco in June this year.

Perez has power with an 80% knockout ratio and two of his defeats have come against WBA flyweight champions Artem Dalakian and Rober Barrera.

However, he has come off three good wins in his last three fights.

The champion has fought at a higher level than the challenger and is listed as The Ring magazine’s number-one-ranked junior bantamweight.

Ioka was hoping to meet The Ring and WBC champion Juan Francisco Estrada but the management of both teams were unable to agree on terms.

Despite his power and high knockout ratio, the challenger has not fought at the same level as the champion, and it is on the cards that Ioka will win on a decision over 12 rounds.

The other main organisation champions are WBC, Juan Francisco Estrada (Mexico), WBO, Junto Nakatani (Japan) and IBF Fernando Martinez (Argentina).

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