Kazuto Ioka & Fernando Daniel Martinez vs Chocolatito / Estrada

Both Ioka and Puma were (and are) top fighters during their primes, I don't see either of them beating prime Chocolatito though. Going up against Estrada, I feel like Ioka and Martinez both have a good shot: I'd slightly favor Ioka over Estrada while Martinez would be 50/50 against Estrada. I am slightly biased since I'm an Ioka fan and feel like his underrated power + top quality technical skills give him an edge in that matchup.

While Puma is a tough fight for anyone in the division, I don't think he is a particularly versatile boxer. Am excited to see him go up against Bam to see if he can prove me wrong and bring out that extra gear when needed.

 

For sure, rematch was a very close fight and I think Ioka in his prime would have won a close but clear decision.

Ioka has had a long career, curious to hear when people think he was in his prime. I'd go for when he fought Kosei Tanaka (brilliant performance against a tricky opponent) but can definitely understand if you'd say earlier since he was already on the wrong side of 30 when that happened.

 

Bit too early to tell but he certainly wasn't at the top of his game against Ioka in the second fight (I think there were rumors that he was sick?)

Either way, will wait until the actual fight takes place to decide whether he's washed up or not, but Bam has certainly gotten a lot of credit for taking out aging legends so far in his career (the Cafu and Sunny Edwards wins were solid though).