Kazuto Ioka didn’t get the knockout win he craved but lived up to his vow to make every punch count.

Japan’s only-ever male boxer to win titles in four weight divisions got it right the second time around in a WBA junior bantamweight title-winning effort over Joshua Franco. Ioka—Osaka-born and Tokyo-based but who trains out of Las Vegas—landed the more telling blows throughout their rematch, which he won via unanimous decision Saturday evening at Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.

Judges Pawel Kardyni (115-113), Guillermo Perez (116-112) and Giuseppe Quartarone (116-112) all awarded the fight to Ioka, who became a six-time titleholder through four weight divisions.

The feat came six months after Ioka and San Antonio's Franco fought to a twelve-round, majority draw in their December 31 WBA/WBO junior bantamweight title unification bout at this same venue.

Just one belt was at stake for the rematch and only available for Ioka to win after Franco was more than six pounds over the 115-pound divisional limit. The miserable scale fail ended his brief stay as a full WBA titlist, while Ioka entered as the challenger after he was relieved of his WBO reign outside the ring earlier this year.

Franco opened the fight similar to their first meeting. The 26-year-old American was jab-heavy and significantly outworked Ioka, whose punches were more impactful but far less frequent.

It didn’t take long for Ioka to warm up.

He came out fired up in the second round and briefly stunned Franco who used lateral movement to recover. Ioka was effective to the body and was able to back up Franco, who remained the more active fighter but whose combinations mostly caught Ioka’s gloves and arms.

The trend would continue over the next several rounds. Franco threw punches in bunches but not with a lot behind them. Ioka continued to target the body and landed crisp uppercuts in round three.

A right hand to the body by Ioka punctuated a fourth round that saw Franco begin to land with greater frequency but overshadowed by Ioka’s cleaner, straighter punches down the middle.

Franco was forced to deal with a cut over his right eye in round five, as blood would stream down the side of his face for the balance of the fight.

The action became much closer in the middle rounds. Franco showed improvement from the early portion of the fight but continued to struggle with Ioka’s greater accuracy.

Ioka did not want to leave anything to chance but began to feel good about his performance, as he showboated toward the end of round nine. Franco seized the moment and outworked his foe but was still unable to land clean with the majority of his punches.

It was back to serious buisness for Ioka in the tenth, who used feints to set up his left hook and straight right hands. He wasn’t as accurate as was the case in the previous rounds but still more so than Franco who followed the trend of the first fight where the volume far exceeded the impact.

It was apparent heading into the championship rounds that Franco needed a knockout to leave Tokyo with a win, even if without his title. Interestingly, the fight was even on Kardyni's card (99-95) through ten, while Franco trailed 96-94 and 97-93 on the remaining two cards.

Instead, it was Ioka who continued to apply heavy pressure and a persistent body attack along with potent left hooks upstairs. Franco continued to let his hands go but was unable to time Ioka's head movement.

Ioka was reduced to tears of joy after his name was announced as the official winner. He advanced to 30-2-1 (15KOs) with the win, a record that includes 16-2-1 (7KOs) in primary title fights across four weight divisions.

The 34-year-old Ioka now enters his second title reign at junior bantamweight, as he gave up his WBO belt to proceed with Saturday’s rematch.

Franco fell to 18-2-3 (8KOs) as the night completed a road trip he will soon want to forget. It was an emotionally exhausting week for the visiting American, who was left to believe just days ahead of the rematch that that bout would not go through. His body never recovered as he miserably missed weight and ended his title reign at the scale.

The setback saw Franco fall to 0-1-1 in primary title fights, both versus Ioka. Franco was upgraded to full WBA titleholder when Juan Francisco Estrada was stripped of his ‘Super’ title status for failure to honor an ordered title consolidation bout.

Ioka similarly ended his WBO junior bantamweight reign after four years and six successful title defenses. He chose to proceed with the Franco rematch in lieu of an ordered mandatory title defense versus countryman Junto Natakani, who claimed the vacant belt with a 12th round knockout of Andrew Moloney.

Estrada, Natakani and even the winner of the Fernando Martinez-Jade Bornea IBF junior bantamweight title fight later this evening in the U.S. are now targets for Ioka who strongly desires to unify the division.

The goal was in place last New Year’s Eve, when Ioka had the chance to become Japan’s first ever boxer to unify two or more titles in at least two weight divisions. Naoya Inoue now has the chance to beat him to that mark, should he prevail over WBC/WBO junior featherweight champ Stephen Fulton on July 25 in Tokyo.

That won’t discourage Ioka from still making his mark on the sport and Japanese boxing history, something he has grown accustomed to doing for much of his 14-year career.

Saturday’s result was merely the latest entry in a career destined for Hall of Fame enshrinement.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox