What's up with this guy? His championship reign was short but impressive (defeating "Pitufo" and "Happy Gilmore" consecutively to capture and retain, with both the Puerto Rican and Russian have been well-regarded and previously unbeaten) yet there has been hardly a peep about him since he dropped the belt to Jamel Herring a little over 13½ months ago. He quietly knocked out an Indonesian journeyman at home (on the undercard of Reiya Abe vs. Ryo Sagawa, quite possibly not even televised) in September but was already collecting dust on the shelf for several months before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nothing seems to be lined up for him despite there being literally dozens of domestic Japanese shows penciled in for the next few months. Did he take his ball and go home?
If he still holds any major org world ranking, he is lower than fifteenth - and if he doesn't compete in the next 8 weeks (unlikely with nothing scheduled) he will forfeit even that.
He was lined up for the now ill fated Chinese Top Rank card that was one of the first boxing casualties of Corona (he got injured in the build up before the card was canned) Abe Vs Sagawa never got televised in full IIRC (only highlights) but Ito was televised This content is protected
How the hell an ex-Top Rank champion fight a cannon fodder like Ruben Manakane ?? The guy has 20 losses and that's 43% of his total fight. To be honest, I think Ito is just another mid-level boxer who is lucky enough to be in the right place and right time to win a world championship. Many good boxers never had the chance to reach wear world champion belt. He was lucky to meet Pitufo whose style and size suits him. The likes of Ryan Garcia and Francisco Vargas were placed several ranks behind them.
It was a tuneup, in Japan. Probably to get ready for that big Chinese card Top Rank was putting together. Could he have fought someone better? Sure. But money talks and I highly doubt they were looking to spend money on a tuneup.
