Juan Francisco Estrada had a ringside seat for the attempted unification bout between Kazuto Ioka and Joshua Franco last New Year’s Eve.
The reigning lineal and WBC junior bantamweight champion hopes to participate in this year’s edition.
BoxingScene.com has learned that talks are ongoing between the respective teams for Estrada and Ioka for a WBC/WBA championship clash. The bout would headline a New Year’s Eve show in Japan, which has become a tradition in Ioka’s career.
Additional measures were taken to ensure that neither would be bogged down with mandatory title defenses to get in the way of the bout. An interim title fight involving former junior flyweight titlist and current top WBC 115-pound contender Pedro Guevara is being explored, while the WBA has moved forward with a title eliminator between John ‘Scrappy’ Ramirez (12-0, 8KOs) and Ronal Batista (15-3, 9KOs) set for October 7 in Las Vegas.
Estrada (44-3, 28KOs) is a three-time titlist spanning two weight divisions. He claimed the lineal and WBC 115-pound championship in an April 2019 points win over Srisaket Sor Rungvisai to avenge a defeat 14 months earlier. Three defenses of the physical WBC title followed, including a March 2021 questionable split decision over Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez to also claim the WBA belt and avenge a November 2012 defeat at junior flyweight.
Two fights have followed for Estrada. The 33-year-old from Hermosillo, Mexico outpointed countryman Argi Cortes last September 3 with the lineal champion at stake after he exchanged the WBC belt for its ‘Franchise’ title. Estrada reclaimed the actual WBC belt in a repeat win over Gonzalez last December 3 in Glendale, Arizona to go up 2-1 in their trilogy.
Ioka (30-2-1, 15KOs) attempted to become Japan’s first-ever boxer to unify titles at two or more weights last New Year’s Eve. It ended in a twelve-round draw versus Joshua Franco in their WBA/WBO title fight last year in Tokyo. Ioka was since forced to relinquish the WBO belt as he chose to move forward with a rematch versus San Antonio’s Franco to win the WBA junior bantamweight title on June 24 also in Tokyo.
The 34-year-old Osaka native has headlined a New Year’s Eve show eleven times in his career dating back to 2011 during the first year of his WBC strawweight title reign. The only year he’s missed was in 2017, when he briefly retired from the sport before he returned one year later.
Ioka became Japan’s first male boxer to win four divisional titles after a June 2019 tenth-round knockout of Aston Palicte to claim the WBO junior bantamweight title. Six defenses followed before the belt was removed from his position for failure to defend versus mandatory challenger and countryman Junto Nakatani.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox