Kazuto Ioka vs. Fernando Martinez - July 7, 2024

[Ruthless-RKO]

Kazuto Ioka vs Fernando Martinez unification official for July 7th in Tokyo

Kazuto Ioka has not held two titles in one division in over a decade

Kazutio Ioka’s and Fernando Martinez’s previously revealed WBA/IBF super flyweight unification is official, as organizers held a press conference to announce that the pair will meet on July 7th at Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan.

No word on a stateside broadcast. One of ABEMA’s previous shows aired on DAZN when they partnered with Matchroom and they’re presumably partnering with PBC here, so I wouldn’t be shocked if it landed on Amazon Prime.

Despite being a four-division champion, the 35-year-old Ioka (31-2-1, 16 KO) has not successfully unified belts since beating Akira Yaegashi for the WBA and WBC minimumweight titles in 2012. His previous attempt saw him eke out a draw against Joshua Franco in 2022, and though he defeated Franco in their rematch six months later, he had to vacate his WBO belt beforehand to avoid a mandatory defense against Junto Nakatani.

He’d been pushing for his long-desired crack at WBC champ Juan Francisco Estrada, but with “El Gallo” on a collision course with “Bam” Rodriguez, he’ll instead meet the dangerous “Pumita” Rodriguez (16-0, 9 KO). The Argentinean slugger is no stranger to road games, having once gone from South Africa to Argentina to Dubai to America in a four-fight stretch, and has the horsepower to push Ioka to his limits.

[Sendo Takeshi]

Always a pain in the ass to find a stream when Ioka is fighting.
Seems like it's for free on Abema, but I can't get it working even with VPN...

[CMCanavessi]

That was an awesome fight

[ironbeard]

Nice win for Martinez.

I wonder what their fight time weights were. Martinez looked much bigger than Ioka. Or, am I just not awake yet?

[margaret thatcher]

2nd long time champ martinez has beat, nice stuff

bam vs martinez ?

[giacomino]

Fight with Bam would be awesome. Martinez hasn’t just won his alphabet title fights, but dominated against good comp. So has Bam.

[Sendo Takeshi]

Only if Estrada doesn't fxck it up with a rematch.

120:108 is a joke, though. I know Japan is alot fairer than the US, but that's a little too fair.

[handsofstone]

Brilliant fight, everything you want in a unification fight, thought both men were excellent, showed really high quality skills and aggression, Ioka very sharp puncher and love the way he whips that left hook downstairs, Martinez's combination punching was top notch, Ioka would get off then Martinez would come back in 3s, 4s, 5s, every round was competitive, can't believe the whitewash card, that's a hanging offense, still tremendous scrap