The last remaining major title fight of 2020 is official one sleep away.
Kazuto Ioka and Kosei Tanaka made weight for their highly anticipated junior bantamweight title fight, which headlines a New Year's Eve boxing event live from Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan. Both boxers weighed in right at the 115-pound limit for their scheduled 12-round bout, which will air live on TBS-Japan and on several other platforms around the world including ESPN in Latin America.
Ioka (25-2, 14KOs) attempts the second defense of the junior bantamweight title he claimed in a 10th round stoppage of Philippines' Aston Palicte last June in Chiba, Japan. The win netted the Osaka native his fourth divisional title, becoming the first-ever male boxer from Japan to accomplish the feat.
Tanaka (15-0, 9KOs) aims to join his countryman on that very short list, while attempting to do so quicker than anyone else in boxing history.
The unbeaten 25-year old already shares an all-time boxing mark, when he outpointed Sho Kimura to win a flyweight belt in his Nagoya hometown in September 2018. With the win, Tanaka claimed his third divisional title in just his 12th pro fight, matching Vasiliy Lomachenko who established the mark just four months prior.
Tanaka's fantastic win over Kimura was recognized by many outlets—including BoxingScene.com—as the 2018 Fight of the Year. The charismatic boxer has also claimed belts at strawweight and junior flyweight, now with his eye set on owning a record all to himself. A win on Thursday will allow Tanaka to surpass Oscar de la Hoya, who became a four-division titlist in his 24th pro fight after outpointing Pernell Whitaker to win the World welterweight championship.
On the other side, a win by Ioka should cement what can already be argued as a Hall of Fame-led career. The 31-year old claimed a strawweight belt in just his 8th pro fight back in Feb. 2011, a reign which concluded with a watershed mark in Japanese boxing history—a June 2012 win over countryman Akira Yaegashi in the first-ever unification bout between two reigning titlists from Japan.
The terrific war marked the last time Ioka has faced a fellow boxer from Japan in a title fight, which changes this Thursday. More familiar territory is headlining a New Year's Eve show, doing so for the ninth time in his memorable career. Ioka is 7-1 on such occasions, the lone defeat taking place outside of Japan in a split decision defeat to Donnie Nietes in their Dec. 2018 vacant 115-pound title fight in Macao.
Ioka won the belt one fight later in his aforementioned stoppage of Palicte. One successful defense has followed, a 12-round win over two-time Puerto Rico Olympian and unbeaten challenger Jeyvier Cintron last New Year's Eve in this very venue.
The same show featured Tanaka in the third and final defense of his flyweight title, scoring a 3rd round stoppage of Wulan Tuolehazi in the evening's chief support.
A mandatory title fight between the two was ordered soon thereafter, only for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to leave both boxers out of the ring for nearly all of 2020.
The evening's chief support features the continued rebuilding process for Daigo Higa (16-1-1, 16KOs). The former flyweight titlist weighed 118 pounds for his scheduled 12-round regional title fight versus Osaka's Yuki Strong Kobayashi (16-8, 9KOs), who weighed 117.6 pounds.
Higa fights for the third time since moving up from flyweight, where his title reign ended in disaster after badly missing weight ahead of an eventual 9th round knockout loss to Cristofer Rosales in April 2018. In addition to suffering his lone defeat, Higa was dealt a one-year suspension by the no-nonsense Japanese Boxing Commission.
The bantamweight run has not quite yet taken off; Higa scored a 6th round stoppage in his divisional debut this past February pre-pandemic, but was held to a 10-round draw versus unbeaten countryman Seiya Tsutsumi in his most recent start this past October.
All boxers on the New Year's Eve telecast—along with their respective cornermen—have tested negative for COVID-19.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox