Kazuto Ioka is ready for his last New Year’s Eve tradition.
The four-division champion will headline the 12th New Year’s Eve show of his career as he defends his WBA junior bantamweight title against Venezuelan Josber Perez. Both boxers made weight for their scheduled twelve-round title fight on an ABEMA TV broadcast this Sunday from the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.
Ioka and Perez weighed in at 114.6 pounds (52.0 kilograms) during Saturday’s official weigh-in under the supervision of the Japan Boxing Commission.
Ioka (30-2-1, 15KOs) won the WBA title in his previous outing, a twelve-round decision over American Joshua Franco (18-2-3, 8KOs) in their rematch on June 24 at this same place, where he will appear for his eighth consecutive fight. The two fought to a twelve round draw last New Year’s Eve in what was a WBA and WBO unification fight at the time. Ioka, a boxer born and raised in Osaka who now resides in Tokyo, was forced to relinquish his WBO title to move forward with a rematch against Franco instead of a mandatory title defense against compatriot Junto Nakatani.
Overall, Ioka is 7-1-1 in junior bantamweight title fights and 19-2-1 in major title fights spanning four weight divisions. The second-generation champion, whose uncle Hiroki was a two-division champion during the 1980s and 1990s, has won titles at strawweight, junior flyweight, flyweight and junior bantamweight. His June 2019 knockout victory over Aston Palicte saw Ioka make history as Japan’s first four-division champion.
Venezuela’s Perez (20-3, 18KOs) attempts the second title challenge of his career. The 28-year-old came up short in a February 2020 bet against undefeated WBA flyweight champion Artem Dalakian in kyiv, Ukraine. Since then, he has won three matches in a row, all by knockout against lesser opponents in 2023, before Sunday’s arduous battle.
Ioka is listed as a -1800 betting favorite according to sportsbook bet365, which lists Perez as a +850 underdog.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox
