Kosei Tanaka bids to become a four-weight champion against Kazuto Ioka
The year ends with a genuine super fight as Kosei Tanaka and Kazuto Ioka clash in Tokyo
THE year ends with a genuine super fight in Tokyo. On New Year’s Eve, Kosei Tanaka bids to become a four-weight world champion in only his 16th fight by taking the WBO super-flyweight title off Kazuto Ioka at the Ota-City General Gymnasium.
The older of the fighters by six years at 31, Ioka is already a four-weight world champion. He went into the record books as the first Japanese fighter to achieve the feat with a 10th-round stoppage of Aston Palicte (25-2-1) for the vacant WBO 115lbs belt last June. Ioka went on to keep the title with a points win over lanky left-hander Jeyvier Cintron (11-0).