Looking forward to catching this tomorrow... Also, I haven't been able to find anything on the Uchiyama fight. Curious how that goes. Big Uchiyama and Ioka believer... and Miura for that.
Round 11 Alvarado is whipping in left hooks and looping in the right hand. Ioka tosses short 1-2s and low slashing combos above the belt of Alvarado, leaning forward with his arms folded up in a shield. Alvarado is pressing in and landing on the sides of Ioka's head with a variety of shots, mostly arm punches, but touching him regularly. Uppercuts inside by Alvarado. Both are breathing through open mouths now but firing every second, Alvarado forcing Ioka to work. Higher quality shots from Ioka, but his own high work rate pales in comparison with Alvarado's. 10-9 Alvarado 105-104 Ioka
Round 12 Alvarado is leading with overhand rights, bowing forward on the outside, clamping onto Ioka with one wrist on his neck and setting himself up to drop hammer-fists on the head and carry uppercuts into his middle. Ioka counters with hooks and uppercuts on the body while sliding away. Alvarado is following and looking to bullwhip Ioka with both long arms. Alvarado walks into a MASSIVE left hook on the jaw. Alvarado keeps marching forward and lands his own giant hook on Ioka. Body shots by Ioka, digging hard downstairs as he bends his knees deeply and circles away. Alvarado presses in and throws a combination of left hooks and looping rights. HUGE CHOPPING RIGHT UP TOP BY IOKA! That was a knockout punch, and yet Alvarado took it with only a slight wobble. Final bell. Both men are hoisted up on their camp's shoulders after embracing. Warriors. 10-9 Ioka 115-113 Ioka
Hopefully this isn't the sort of close fight that makes me think less of or rethink my opinions of Ioka. I'm guessing not though. His fight with Yaegashi was razor close. The Hernandez fight was close. He lost a couple rounds against each of his 108 pound "title" fights before he has KO'd them. Given his age and weight, I'm telling you, Ioka deserves praise from casuals for what he has accomplished and the manner he has done it.
Sucre and Prayadsab, by the way, are the same pair who saw Kameda over De La Mora by a comfortable margin...
His resume was thin heading in but Alvarado has enough 'street cred' that Ioka struggling with him in victory is no great shame. I mean, he is a prized sparring partner for Chocolatito.
I know Japan has a reputation for consistently horrible, biased judging against foreign fighters. Per IB's RBR, two of those cards were horrible and unexplainable. My question, does the Japanese boxing commission (whatever its title) perceive this as a problem, and what steps might be taken to address it. Considering Japanese fighters are usually loath to fight outside Japan, I think this is a significant problem that needs fixing.