Apparently if negotiations to face Josber Alexander "El Avalancha" Pérez of Venezuela (himself a second option after talks with Juan Francisco Estrada for the date stalled) on the customary New Year's Eve show in Japan fall through, the "KJ" is on standby to fill in. Cataraja (WBA #6) is actually rated higher than #8 Pérez anyway. He also brings an undefeated record of 16-0 (13) but has never fought outside his native Philippines and his biggest step in class to date was Edward Heno. In either case it's a massive let-down after our hopes were gotten up for El Gallo, but I'll say the same thing as when Pérez was said to be in the mix: I'm just glad to see Ioka keep up the NYE tradition. You can't fault him staying active with defenses over ranked opponents.
Kenta Nakagawa is another option apparently. I guess KJ is on paper the most promising of the three. Just can't help, but feel blue balled after the Gallo fight got scraped, at least Ioka is fighting, which is okay enough.
Still super bummed about the Estrada fight not going through… Feel the same though and at least he’ll be continuing the tradition of fighting. Any idea if Estrada will have interest next year maybe or is it a lost cause?
I've got Ioka by decision. Cataraja does have an easy points win over the better than mediocre Victor Reyes Bernabe but not much else to recommend him. I just can't see him giving Ioka that much trouble.
