By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

Speedy, skillful and smart Japanese Kazuto Ioka ( 23-2, 14 KOs), 114.75, gained his fourth world belt as he won the WBO 115-pound title by impressively chalking up a fine TKO victory over hard-punching Filipino Aston Palicte (25-3-1, 21 KOs), 115, at 1:46 of the tenth round on Wednesday in Chiba, Japan.

For Ioka, it was a wonderful Miguel Canto-like display of defensive skills and effective counterpunches. Steadily piling up points, Ioka, 30, connected with a beautiful right counter and had Palicte, 28, in great trouble midway in round ten. Kazuto swarmed over the fading Filipino, battered him with a fusillade of punches and made him look so helpless that referee Kenny Chevalier (US) had a well-received intervention. Ioka became the first Japanese that acquired world belts in four weight categories—of 105, 108, 112 and 115 pounds.

Prior to the stoppage, all the judges had Kazuto leading on points: Leszek Jankowiak (Poland) 88-83, Richard Blouin (Canada) and Philip Austin (Australia) both 87-84.

Ioka (pronounced as e-o-car) was an underdog by a simple analogy: Palicte drew with Donnie Nietes, who outscored Ioka even by a split decision. But such a syllogism sometimes wouldn’t stand in boxing.

Having strenuously training for eight weeks in Las Vegas under the tutelage of his Cuban trainer Ismael Salas, Ioka entered this important fight with his best physical and mental condition. The three-class and four-time world champ Kazuto displayed excellent defensive skills as well as his last surge in the fatal round.

“Palicte was a taller and difficult opponent. He was a hard-puncher. In the seventh he came all out to hurt me, and I then responded to his desperate attack by fighting toe-to-toe. In round ten I realized that my counter damaged him so much that I went for a kill with all my energy left. I was very excited to win the fourth belt—as high as my first coronation in the minimumweight division.” The jubilant victor eloquently reviewed his best fight of career.

Palicte, however, criticized the third man’s stoppage, saying, “I could still go on. He stopped the fight a bit too early. I didn’t absorb much punishment at his stoppage.”

Ioka, in round one, made a good start, throwing sharp jabs and moving side-to-side, while Palicte, taller by an inch and a half, landed just a single overhand right that made the Japanese cautious like an alarm clock. Ioka raised his guard and kept moving to and fro to avert Aston’s highly touted hard punches that had collected twenty-one victims by knockouts or TKOs.

From the third round on it became apparent that Palicte looked frustrated by Ioka’s lateral movement and his incapability to catch up with him. Kazuto had Aston missing so many strong shots in earlier rounds that the Filipino became less aggressive than in the first two rounds since he realized he wouldn’t catch the shifty target.

The tide almost turned in round seven, when Palicte began to incessantly keep punching regardless of precision—and Ioka, though on the defensive, averted almost all blows from the more powerful Filipino. Midway in the round Palicte stopped punching due to his fatigue, and then it was Ioka that turned aggressive and retaliated with compact and effective shots to the fading Filipino. Two judges gave it to Palicte, while another to Ioka.

The eighth and ninth sessions witnessed Ioka give a boxing lesson to the slower rival, connecting with jabs and counters with high precision. Palicte appeared too confused to catch the faster Fancy Dan.

The tenth and dramatic round saw Ioka explode a very strong counter at the face to have Palicte badly lose his equilibrium. Kazuto, with his face still unbruised, accelerated his attack with solid accurate combinations to have him reeling from pillar to post. It looked very logical that Kenny Chevalier called a halt to Ioka’s furious combination punching then and there.

It might be true that it became much easier than in old days to win plural belts in different weight categories with the current proliferation and so many weight classifications as seventeen. But beyond such cynical analysis on the status quo of boxing we may celebrate Kazuo Ioka’s fourth coronation in as many divisions. The Makuhari Messe, with 3,800 spectators in attendance, was far from the center of Tokyo, but people looked happy on their way back to be able to watch such a dramatic stoppage by the Japanese hero. We temporarily forgot the name of “The Monster” Naoya Inoue for a while.

Watanabe Promotions.
WBO Supervisor: Leon Panoncillo (US).

–