TBS: Kazuto Ioka vs. Ryoji Fukunaga & Akihiro Kondo vs. Aso Ishiwaki RBR

Kazuto Ioka vs. Ryoji Fukunaga, 12 rounds @ super flyweight

 

Is this singer/boxer walking up the ramp with Ioka performing his walkout song a friend of his or something?

(chorus of "I'm a real champion" is sung in English, the rest is mostly in Japanese or else I'd quickly Google the lyrics to find out what it was)

 

You know what I'm still pretty mad about? How the JBC tried ruining Ioka's career and derailing his comeback with those BS doping allegations.

This from the same organization that let the spoiled thug brat Kameda bros get away with so much nonsense for years before clapping down on them. Suddenly they become very strict, and choose to make an example of maybe the country's finest ambassador in the sport?

 

Oh yeah, still have a couple of those at my grandmother's house (aunt is a hoarder...also has a massive Disney tape library probably worth something now, especially with so much of their old school content being paywalled or "in the vault")

For me it gets me nostalgic for this very heavily accented old Asian lady named Koy, my favorite customer from my last barista gig, she would always drop a "Sank you!" in parting.

 

Round 1

Fukunaga is aggressive from the outset, knifing out southpaw jabs from his own forehead into the nose of Ioka, then burying left crosses into the gut. Ioka turning in place as Fukunaga circles and stalks him with a constant deluge of straight blasts and 1-2s. A few pawing left check-jabs by Ioka, parrying some of Fukunaga's right jabs, but sluggish to get any meaningful offense going. A few exploratory straight right leads on the body from Ioka, but he is countered by a hard 1-2 upstairs and backed into the ropes. Ioka squats and reaches in with a body jab, then slides out again before Fukunaga can give him a receipt. Nice sneaky left hook on the liver from Ioka weaving in, but thrown without full leverage, just a tap.

10-9 Fukunaga