Say one thing for the IBF: they’re reasonably consistent about how they treat unification rematches. ESPN’s Salvador Rodriguez reports that they’ve stripped super flyweight champion Fernando Martinez of his title ahead of a planned New Year’s Eve rematch with Kazuto Ioka, which has yet to be officially announced.
“Pumita” Martinez (17-0, 9 KO) is admittedly overdue for a mandatory defense, having beaten top contender Jade Bornea in June of last year. The IBF gave him a bit of slack to overpower Ioka in July to claim the WBA belt, but the time came to pay the piper and Martinez went the more interesting route instead.
His current top challenger, Willibaldo Garcia (22-5-1, 13 KO), will reportedly face Rene Calixto (23-0, 9 KO) for the vacant belt in Japan this December. Seems like an odd place to host an all-Mexican title fight, but Calixto has twice fought on Japanese soil and is promoted by the Kamedas. I’m guessing it’ll join Ryosuke Nishida’s IBF bantamweight title defense on the 15th.
Becoming undisputed at 115 seems to just be straight-up impossible. Hopefully we’ll get the right matchmaking to make it happen before “Bam” Rodriguez moves on.