Ryosuke Nishida will wind up with a true home game for his first career title fight.
BoxingScene.com has learned that Nishida’s challenge of IBF bantamweight titlist Emmanuel Rodriguez is targeted to take place on May 4 in Nishida’s hometown of Osaka, Japan. A venue was not yet confirmed for the ordered mandatory title fight, which was won by Kameda Promotions in a January 30 purse bid hearing.
Puerto Rico’s Rodriguez (22-2, 13KOs; 1NC) will enter the first defense of his second title reign. The 31-year-old from Manati regained the belt in a twelve-round shutout of Miami’s Melvin Lopez in their vacant title fight last August 12 in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
The upcoming fight versus Nishida will mark Rodriguez’s third career fight outside of The Americas and his first time in Japan.
Nishida (8-0, 1KO) is being fast-tracked to a major title. The 27-year-old southpaw from Osaka was advanced to 12-round affairs in just his fourth pro bout. On that April 2021 night, he soundly outpointed former WBC flyweight titlist Daigo Higa via unanimous decision in what remains his most notable win to date.
It marked the first of five straight fights where he has gone ten or more rounds, all in decision victories. Nishida went the twelve-round distance in both of his 2023 appearances. The latter came in a twelve-round, unanimous decision over Mexico’s Cristian Medina (21-4, 14KOs) in his Osaka hometown to advance to the top of the IBF bantamweight rankings.
Should the date hold up, it will present the Japanese boxing scene with two shows topped by major title fights in a span of three days. Four-division champ and reigning undisputed junior featherweight king Naoya Inoue (26-0, 23KOs) is due to defend his crown versus former two-division titlist Luis Nery on May 7 in Tokyo.
Inoue previously served as undisputed bantamweight champion. His first full title won at the weight came in a second-round knockout of Rodriguez, who was the undefeated IBF titlist at the time of their May 2019 meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. Inoue abdicated the throne last January, one month after he fully unified the division.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox
ADD COMMENT VIEW COMMENTS (1)