By Miguel Rivera

Mexican bantamweight Christian "Italiano" Esquivel, 25-years-old, has regrouped after suffering a loss to Japanese southpaw Shinsuke Yamanaka (15-0, 11KOs) on the 6th of November in Tokyo. The fight was a war, with Esquivel going down in the sixth, and Yamanaka going down in the seventh, and then Esquivel going down again in the eleventh as the fight was stopped. They fought for the vacant WBC title and Esquivel (24-3, 18KOs) wants to fight his way back to a rematch.

Esquivel will return to the ring on February 4th in Mexico.

"No excuses [with Yamanaka]. I missed [my chance], but the preparation [for the fight] was not optimal and the long and delayed trip affected me. First, the plane could not land due to bad weather in Tijuana and had to descend in Mazatlan, where we spent seven hours. After arriving in Tijuana, we came over to Tokyo, which was another 13 hours. We arrived on November 3 at night and the fight was at three in the afternoon on the sixth [time difference]. The most important thing is to start the year well and then look for a rematch. The fight in Japan left me with a good experience that I plan to use when I get another shot at the WBC bantamweight championship," Esquivel said.