There isn’t a whole lot of continuity in terms of the annual boxing calendar, but there are a few things fans know they can look forward to. In the United States, a major fight is always scheduled for Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day weekend respectively, generally featuring a major star from Mexico, but not always. However, since 2011, fans have been able to mark a Kazuto Ioka fight on their calendars for New Year’s Eve with relative certainty. Save for a brief retirement in 2017, the last major fight of the year has belonged to Ioka, Japan’s most consistently popular fighter of the last decade, and one of the country’s most accomplished of all-time.
This year is no different, as Ioka, the WBO super flyweight champion will close out the 2022 boxing calendar with a 115-pound unification bout against WBA titleholder Joshua Franco. In terms of additional predictable scheduling, the bout will be held at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, the home of the Earthfriends Tokyo Z basketball club, and the site of Ioka’s last five fights.
A week after Naoya Inoue became the first Japanese fighter in history to become undisputed champion in the four-belt era, Ioka has an opportunity to make more national history. Already the country’s first male fighter to win world titles in four weight classes, Ioka could become Japan’s first unified world champion in two weight classes. In 2012, Ioka defeated Akira Yaegashi in the first-ever unification bout between two Japanese titlists to marry his WBC minimumweight title with Yaegashi’s WBA strap in his final appearance at 105.
Despite his historic success, Ioka has felt like a fighter underappreciated in the Western world. A major reason is that Ioka has had the same issue that most Asian fighters have in terms of visibility outside of their home country. Though his 2020 victory over Kosei Tanaka was aired on ESPN platforms and on BoxNation in the United Kingdom, and of course made a 2018 appearance on HBO, the vast majority of his fights have aired in Japan exclusively. For those who have ever attempted to find a feed or a copy of Japanese boxing matches online, you’ll know it’s more heavily policed by rightsholders than action from seemingly anywhere else.
But beyond the logistical difficulties Ioka has had in terms of Western visibility, he’s also found himself overshadowed by his contemporaries in his weight neighborhood and several fellow countrymen. Ioka has run parallel to names like Chocolatito Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada who have been staples of the pound-for-pound list for years and have become household names in the US boxing market. Ioka never ran into either Chocolatito or Estrada, or the two other fighters often lumped in with them in this era, Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras. Instead, he’s essentially mirrored Gonzalez’s movement in weight, winning titles in the same weight classes as he has. Though he didn’t clash with any of the aforementioned greats, he certainly hasn’t avoided challenges, scoring wins over Tanaka, Oleydong Sithsamerchai, Akira Yaegashi, Felix Alvarado, Juan Carlos Reveco, McWilliams Arroyo and Donnie Nietes.
During Ioka’s run, several Japanese fighters have garnered significant buzz in America, including Inoue, Tanaka and Ryota Murata, leading many outside of Japan to assume that Ioka lagged behind them in terms of star power. That said, although Murata is still likely the biggest single-event draw in Japan thanks to his Olympic gold medal, Ioka has been the country’s most consistent television draw dating back to the early 2010s. His bout against Tanaka drew over a ten per cent share of the country’s two largest regions, Kanto and Kansai, and his previous bout against Jeyvier Cintron topped out just below those numbers as well, producing what Scott Graveson of the indispensable website Asian Boxing estimated to be a multi-million viewer turnout.
There has also been the issue of Ioka quite literally being an enemy of the Japanese Boxing Commission (JBC). Ioka was punished by the commission for having tattoos visible during his win over Tanaka. Body markings continue to be a thorny cultural issue in Japan where they are often associated with criminality, despite a younger generation’s pushback against that line of thinking. For a period of time, Ioka suggested that he would consider not fighting in Japan anymore in protest, but opted for a bolder method instead. Just months later, Ioka was suspended for a positive cannabis test, one which was overturned after his B-sample came up negative. Prior to his name being cleared however, the results were leaked to the local police and national media, resulting in what Ioka has described as a traumatizing time in which he lost sleep, battled depression and generally thought his career was over. Yuhei Nagata, JBC chairman, admitted publicly that “the handling of the samples was sloppy, and it’s a fact that Ioka’s reputation was tarnished by his name being leaked to the media,” and offered to apologize to Ioka in person, an invitation Ioka did not immediately accept.
As his accolades have piled up and his popularity in Japan has maintained, Ioka has reached a point in his career in which observers are starting to look back and re-contextualize it. His resume is already plenty good enough to land him in Canastota, although Asian fighters of repute have historically had difficulty on the ballot when placed next to fighters who received more Western attention. With a win over Franco, and some of the opportunities that could present, Ioka could make himself undeniable. Bouts against Estrada, WBO mandatory Junto Nakatani and even Inoue have all been rumored or hinted at to varying degrees.
Ioka has felt like an outlaw of sorts. Comfortable with his immense popularity at home, but never vocally envious of any of the buzzy fighters who have overshadowed him at times. Proud of his role as one of the leaders of Japanese boxing but not afraid to confront authority, and willing to walk away in the times he felt necessary. A fighter who has stayed the course and been one of the sport’s most reliable high-level operators, and the last man we see with his hand raised each and every year.
Corey Erdman is a boxing writer and commentator based in Toronto, ON, Canada. Follow him on Twitter @corey_erdman