JAPANESE hero Kazuto Ioka seems to be to show the clock again once more when he meets Joshua Franco of their rematch in Tokyo on Saturday evening. The super-flyweights fought out a majority draw on the similar Ota-City General Gymnasium final New Year’s Eve.
Franco, ranked because the fourth finest on the earth, places his WBA strap on the road this weekend (not the case, sadly, after Franco weighed in 6.25lbs over the 115lbs restrict) and the profession of Ioka – ranked three – might be at stake as nicely. The four-weight belt-holder – strawweight (105lbs) to super-flyweight (115lbs) – is now 34 years outdated and a veteran of 23 fights wherein a sanctioning physique title was at stake (20 wins, two losses, one draw). Though removed from ‘shot’, it’s laborious to disregard the indicators that he’s previous his finest.
The consensus after the primary bout amongst reporters was that Ioka was lucky to flee with a draw against the Robert Garcia-trained Texan after an all-action struggle. The scores had been 115-113 (Franco) and two scores of 114-114. Though by no means dominant, Franco had the look of the fighter in management. Compubox stats, a helpful however not definitive device, backs that up. They reveal that Franco threw extra in each spherical, however Ioka landed the upper proportion in each session.
According to these Compubox calculations, they threw 2,209 punches at one another, with Franco averaging 117 per spherical, in comparison with Ioka’s 66. The stats don’t show that Franco was all the time on the entrance foot and when his punches landed, they’d larger impact.
Franco, who has fought up at 118lbs, appeared the stronger of the 2 and was capable of push Ioka again onto the ropes. Even when there, Ioka wasn’t simple to catch cleanly and all the time appeared to attain with counters, notably a whipping proper in reply to Franco’s jab and left hooks to the physique, and for us, he outpunched Franco within the 10th after they went traded within the centre of the ring earlier than the American went up a gear within the final six minutes.
Watching the struggle once more final week, Boxing News had Franco successful 8-3-1 in rounds.
Joshua Franco
Soon after the struggle, Ioka was ordered to defend his WBO belt against countryman Junto Nakatini, however as an alternative opted to face Franco once more, explaining the necessary defence was “not an option at all… it was very important to settle things with Franco.” That’s to be admired.
Ioka vacated the title earlier than the Nakatini struggle went to purse bids.
There’s all the time the likelihood that, given the understand how he’s collected in additional than a decade combating on the prime stage and with Ismael Salas in his nook, Ioka can discover a strategy to flip the tables on the 27-year-old from San Antonio, the elder brother of flyweight boss Jesse Rodriguez. We shouldn’t overlook how smart outdated fighters like Azumah Nelson, after a contentious draw with Jeff Fenech in 1991, dominated the return the next 12 months.
After all, Ioka didn’t appear like an outdated fighter against Franco, only a smaller one. Furthermore, he was aggressive all through; unhurried, he wasted little, and appeared so clean when he put his punches collectively. But he merely couldn’t make a lot of an impression on Franco and although Ioka didn’t all the time take clear punches when underneath hearth, spending an excessive amount of time on the ropes is a dangerous technique in a distance struggle.
Regardless of how pundits learn that first battle, the scorecards show Ioka solely has to do a bit extra to win this time.
Ioka has avenged one of many different defeats on his 29-2-1 document, to Donnie Nietes, final July. The Filipino went into that rematch aged 40, however in Franco, Ioka faces a recent, younger boxer who’s a superb dimension for 115lbs and may struggle at a superb tempo for the complete 12 rounds.
As is to be anticipated, Ioka claims he underperformed of their first struggle but it shouldn’t be forgotten that the identical would possibly nicely be true of Franco. He had been out of the ring for 16 months going into the struggle. Franco had been ready for a shot at Juan Francisco Estrada and the Mexican veteran’s identify got here up once more within the aftermath of the draw with Ioka.
Franco, who has beforehand had trilogies with each Oscar Negrete (two attracts and a factors win) and Andrew Moloney (two factors wins and a no choice), heads again to Japan as an alternative the place we imagine he’ll outwork the native hero and get his rewards on the scorecards this time.
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