Joshua Franco spent nearly the past six months looking forward to a second go with Kazuto Ioka.
He now has two hours to lose as much weight as he can but pressed with the harsh reality of losing his WBA junior bantamweight title before he enters the ring.
The San Antonio native weighed an announced 55.2 kilograms, roughly 121.7 pounds—well above the 115-pound divisional limit for his rematch with Ioka, who weighed 52 kg. (roughly 114.6 pounds) on the first try. A pre-fight agreement between the respective teams will allow the fight to move forward, though likely with only Ioka eligible to win the WBA title this Saturday at Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.
The same venue hosted their terrific first fight, which ended in a twelve-round, majority draw last New Year’s Eve. Franco won 115-113 on one card, overruled by scores of 114-114 to produce the stalemate in their WBA/WBO unification bout.
Ironically, Ioka missed weight on the first attempt ahead of their year-end clash. The four-division titlist stripped down to successfully make 115 pounds on the second try while Franco was under the limit at roughly 114 ¾ pounds.
The roles were reversed in a big way on Friday, though admittedly at a point when Franco was uncertain that he would be able to fight.
“It’s been a tough week. There was a point when we thought the fight wasn’t going to happen,” Franco admitted during the post weigh-in press conference. “Both teams came to an agreement. We’re going to continue the fight. Everything is good.”
Franco (18-1-3, 8KOs) was upgraded to full WBA titlist from his ‘Regular’ title status last summer after Juan Francisco Estrada vacated the belt in lieu of honoring an ordered title consolidation bout. In a bizarre twist of fate, Estrada regained the WBC junior bantamweight title vacated by Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez, Franco’s younger brother who moved down to flyweight where he holds the WBO title.
Ioka (29-2-1, 15KOs) entered the first fight with the WBO junior bantamweight title which he defended for the sixth time in the draw versus Franco. He subsequently vacated the WBO title to move forward with the Franco rematch rather than proceed with an ordered mandatory title defense versus countryman Junto Nakatani, who won the belt in a 12th round knockout of Andrew Moloney on May 20 in Las Vegas.
The chance to become a six-time titlist in four weight divisions and two-time junior bantamweight comes after yet another drug testing dilemma involving Ioka.
The Japanese Boxing Commission (JBC) revealed that trace amounts of cannabis were discovered in the 34-year-old Ioka’s system stemming from a sample collected after their fight last December 31. The amount was below the tolerated level, which means that Ioka won’t face any disciplinary action, though his team is prepared to challenge the results.
He went through a similar ordeal in 2021 but was able to prove contamination after his “B” sample did not match the originally tested “A” sample.
Meanwhile, the show goes on this weekend in Tokyo after what “hasn’t been an easy week for” Team Franco.
“There [were] a lot of situations where we thought the fight wasn’t going to happen,” Robert Garcia, Franco’s trainer, apologetically stated to the assembled media. “We have two hours to [lose] as much as we can. We’re going to try. It’s not going to be easy… we were very close to canceling everything.
“In the next two hours we will know how far we can make it. We just want to try to go make weight, focus on the fight and get everything over with. It hasn’t been an easy week. It’s been pretty tough.”
Saturday’s fight will air live on pay-per-view via Abema TV in Japan. The service is available in the U.S. only through VPN; there is no U.S. TV, as was also the case for their first fight which aired live on TBS-Japan.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox