Negotiations for the necessary WBO jr. bantamweight title fight between current champion Kazuto Ioka (29-2-1, 15 KOs) and top contender and former WBO flyweight champion Junto Nakatani (24-0, 18 KOs) have been ordered by the WBO World Championship Committee.
Nakatani, who had been promised the ranking in exchange for relinquishing his WBO flyweight title, was announced as the required challenger at the WBO convention. The 24-year-old southpaw from Sagamihara, Japan made his junior bantamweight debut in Saitama, Japan, when he outpointed Francisco "Chihuas" Rodriguez, a former unified strawweight champion and current top ten junior bantamweight contender.
The bout marked Nakatani's return to action after a two-year reign as the WBO flyweight champion, a title he successfully defended twice before relinquishing after admitting he could no longer make the 112-pound limit.
Ioka will make his seventh defense of the WBO junior bantamweight championship, which he has held since June 2019 after knocking out Aston Palicte in the tenth round. The native of Osaka, who now calls Tokyo home, achieved the feat of becoming the first Japanese male boxer to hold titles in four different weight classes but was prevented from making more Japanese history when he was held to a majority decision draw with San Antonio's Franco.
Prior to this, Ioka was a champion at strawweight, junior flyweight, and flyweight. His strawweight career came to an end with a nail-biting twelve-round victory over fellow countryman Akira Yaegashi in their WBC/WBA unification fight in June 2012—the first contest in history to feature two reigning champions from Japan.
Image Credit: ESPN