By Joe Koizumi

The WBO junior bantamweight title bout will take place tomorrow (Wednesday) behind closed doors at the Ota-city General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan. Japanese defending champ Kazuto Ioka (26-2, 15 KOs), 32, scaled in at the 115-pound class limit, while Francisco Rodriguez (34-4-1, 24 KOs), 29, Mexico, tipped the beam at 114, a pound under the limit.

Ioka, a four-division titlist making his third defense of the current 115-pound belt, will be a prefight favorite thanks to his impressive stoppage of previously unbeaten three-class champ Kosei Tanaka on New Year’s Eve.

Rodriguez, however, once held the WBO, IBF 105-pound belts before moving up to the junior bantam category, and has scored fifteen victories in a row including eleven stoppages over such ex-titleholders as Hernan Marquez and Oswaldo Novoa, etc.

Ioka says, “I’m thankful to be able to fight under the pandemic, so I wish to show my best performance to respond to people’s support.”

Rodriguez, a gallant and ambitious challenger, also says, “We Mexicans fight with heart. We are warriors. I am ready to be victorious.”

It will be shown nationwide by TBS Television from 9 PM tomorrow.