Kazuto Ioka vs. Juan Francisco Estrada Romero

WBA (Ioka's first defense) and WBC (Estrada's first defense) super flyweight title unification. Targeted for New Year's Eve.

note: Akihiro Honda of Teiken Promotions and Yusuke Ninomiya of Shisei Boxing are still negotiating terms but remain optimistic as this is the most desired match-up for both sides. If the negotiations stall too long, the backup plan is for Estrada to face Junto Nakatani (with Ioka then needing to wait on the sidelines while the winner of that match faces the winner of Fernando Daniel Martínez vs. Kōsei Tanaka for the IBF strap.

 

Interestingly, they've zero common opponents despite having faced everybody who's everybody in the fly range between them.

 

Fan of both fighters and two Hall of Fame level talents, rooting for Ioka in this one but feel like Estrada would win a close decision. Fantastic matchup and hope it happens. Junto Nakatani beats either of them at this point though!

 

Lovely stuff if it happens.

 

Excited to see this fight finally happen if it is really confirmed. It’s been long overdue for these 2 to meet in the ring. If Ioka is able to nullify Estrada’s output with his cute defense and more accurate counters like he did against Franco then he might have a chance. Gallo is on a different level from Franco though, it’s a question on how war torn he is now.

 

This a colossal bout. A dream match right after Ioka-Gonzales.

Ioka is coming off of the revenge againts both Nietes and Franco, and Estrada closed the razor close trilogy against Chocolatito. Both mature, but marginally on the good side of the thirties.

As far as accomplishments, pedigree, and history goes, this is the best fight produced this year, Crawford-Spence and Inoue-Fulton included.

 

It's meant to, and in Timeline B where it doesn't we still end up getting:

• Estrada vs. Nakatani
• Martínez vs. Tanaka
  
• Estrada/Nakatani vs. Martínez/Tanaka
• Ioka vs. whoever the hell Kazuto feels like going after...Chocolatito? Inoue? World is his oyster really.

 

Ioka has several great options. 115 is still a stacked division. Imagine if he actually manages to face everyone and perhaps clean out that division. It’s an unlikely scenario but certainly a huge achievement that could rival with Naoya Inoue.

 

Choco-Junto would be great in the co-feature.

 

I don't trust JFE like AT ALL.

He seems to be only be interested in running it back with Chocolatito. He's called out Inoue, but never seemed serious and he hasn't mentioned Ioka or Nakatani in the past.

 

You want Choco to die?

 

Did he look like a corpse in beating P4P-er Estrada? He's still at least A- Chocolatito, like a late Pac, dangerous to any up and comer and a HUGE step-up for Junto who could also gain MONUMENTAL experience & legacy points.

Logical passing of the torch fight where the old dog could still bite and where Choco, beloved in Japan, gets extremely handsomely paid. Probably career top 3 cash. Win-Win.

 

A real dream match. Also seems like we could get undisputed at superfly by the end of next year

 

Like the song goes, everyone's a winner babe.

 

Nice