Kazuto Ioka is once again a super flyweight champion after defeating Joshua Franco in Tokyo, Japan, on Saturday.
Ioka and Franco first fought for the WBA and WBO belts on New Year’s Eve last year, with the match scored a tie.
The 34-year-old Japanese fighter was later ordered to make a mandatory defence of his WBO belt but he elected to vacate in pursuit of a rematch, which he duly secured.
However there was drama in the build-up when Franco blew out the weight limit by more than six pounds for the fight. That meant that the belt was vacated when the American was stripped, and Ioka was the only competitor who could walk away with the championship.
The home fighter was scored the winner unanimously as the three judges, Pawel Kardyni (115-113), Guillermo Perez (116-112) and Giuseppe Quartarone (116-112) all gave Ioka the nod.
Ioka targeted Franco with bodyshots and as the fight wore on, he landed cleaner and more regular punches to pull away on the scorecards.
While one judge had the match tied in the ninth, that forced Ioka to rally after some brief showboating, to add some late drama to the night.