Kazuto Ioka vs Joshua Franco Prediction: Kazuto Ioka Makes Weight on Second Attempt

Kazuto Ioka will be facing Joshua Franco at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Ota on 31st December 2022.

Kazuto Ioka

Kazuto Ioka is a Japanese professional boxer. He is a four-weight world champion, having held the WBO super-flyweight title since 2019. He previously held the unified WBA and WBC mini-flyweight titles between 2011 and 2012, the WBA (Regular) light-flyweight title between 2012 and 2014, and the WBA flyweight title between 2015 and 2017. As of December 2020, he is ranked as the world’s fourth-best active super-flyweight by BoxRec, and third by The Ring magazine and the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board. He is also ranked as the world's ninth-best boxer, pound for pound, by The Ring.

Joshua Franco

Joshua Franco is a professional boxer from the United States who has held the WBA super flyweight belt since 2020. BoxRec ranks him as the world's sixth best active super flyweight as of June 2020. On a DAZN broadcast card on January 11, 2020, Franco was slated to meet Jose Alejandro Burgos in a non-title contest. For this match, Franco dropped from bantamweight to super flyweight. He won the bout through technical knockout in the ninth round.

Expert Betting Tips

Franco looks to make the third defense of his WBA belt. It has been over a year since he last competed and Franco has a great chance of vaulting himself to the top of 115 pounds and legitimizing himself here even more in the eyes of many. Ioka is a four-weight division world champion and looks to punch his ticket towards eventually cementing himself as the undisputed champion in this weight category if he gets his idealized outcome this weekend.