Ioka vs Gonzalez Officially Announced For Korakuen Hall

By Hisao Adachi

At the Ioka Boxing Gym in the city of Osaka, a press conference was held to officially announce the fight involving undefeated Japanese WBC strawweight world champion Kazuto Ioka (7-0, 5KOs, 22 years old and Ioka Boxing Gym in Osaka), who returns on August 10 in Japan to face #1 WBC ranked, NABF champion Juan Hernandez (18-1, 13KOs, 24 years old and from Mexico City). It will be Ioka's first defense of the title he captured in February when he beat Oleydong Sithsamerhai of Thailand by TKO in five. 

The fight is going to take place at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, the mecca of Japanese boxing since 1962 with a capacity of just over two thousand spectators. The same venue where Mexico's Ricardo Lopez was crowned the WBC world strawweight champion with a convincing win by TKO in the fifth round over Japan's Hideyuki Ohashi, who is now president of the Professional Boxing Association in Japan.

Korakuen Hall in Tokyo was the starting point for Mexico's Ricardo Lopez, who became one of the best champions in boxing history. Let's see if Juan Hernandez is capable of inheriting the laurel joy of Ricardo Lopez, who managed to end up with a strong puncher via Nipon, Hideyuki Ohashi, whose nickname was the Savior of Japanese boxing.
 
Juan Hernandez is an up and coming brave Mexican puncher who is proud of his power and now has 11 wins in a row without defeat.

"I recognize that the Mexican Juan Hernandez is a dangerous challenger for me. This is the reason why I get excited and motivated as ever to further enrich my quality and value as world champion. Well worth it to defeat him. I have to beat Juan Hernandez in a high level fight, defending my world title with dignity. I hope that a lot of fans will attend the show at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo to see my fight with Juan Hernandez, because it's going to be exciting.

According to the team of Ioka, the Japanese world champion aims to defend his title twice and then he plans to go up in weight to capture the flyweight, which is his natural weight, to capture a world title. He wants to become a double world champion in different weight categories.
 
Kazuto Ioka debuted in professional boxing in a fight scheduled for 6 rounds in 2009 after having been an amateur in college with a boxing record of 95-10, 64KOs. First, Ioka had a desire to participate in the Olympics, but he couldn't. Since he started in the professional ranks, his career development has always taken place in Kansai, the district far from Tokyo. Ioka born and raised in Osaka, which is the center of the Kansai district.

This is the first occasion for Ioka to see action at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo as a professional boxer. But when he was an amateur boxer, Ioka fought ten times at the venue, and won all of those fights. 

Ioka is part of the Ioka Boxing Gym in Osaka. The Ioka Boxing Gym Preisdent is former world WBC strawweight and WBA flyweight champion, Hiroki Ioka. Kazuto is the nephew of Hiroki.