TBS + UFC FP: Kazuto Ioka vs. Aston Francis Melos Palicte & Hiroto Kyōguchi vs. Tanawat Nakoon RBR

Delighted for Ioka, a special special talent that always got his props but always seemed to slip under the radar with the average decent boxing fan. Hope he gets his deserving revenge against Nietes.

 

He kicked things off somewhat like Inoue did, yet never got half the attention.

 

Scorecards prior to the stoppage: 88-83 and 87-84x2 for Ioka.

 

What a long retirement that was

 

damn I was looking forward to it.

 

Ioka is severely underrated who gets overshadowed by the more popular Inoue. Glad to see that him back. Always enjoy watching the smaller weight fighters. They’re almost always more entertaining to watch with an aesthetically pleasing style. Hope to see Ioka face Nietes again or maybe even Estrada or Ancajas.

 

Didn't Ioka retire once before? Hopefully he reconsiders like some have mentioned there's plenty of good fights that could get made

 

What happened to Rodney Dangerfield?

 

Felt like a bit of a change still contemplating what to swap it with

 

Yeah, Inoue is definitely the favorite of the 2. Although many boxer friends have told me that If they both fought, they’d edge Ioka to win, one of the few. (But not so sure personally)

But glad to see Ioka out of retirement and is better than ever. Salas did a great job with with and hope he continues his run with him. 5-division champion in the future? Only time will tell.

 

Been repping Ioka since the Oleydong fight! Been calling him P4P for years and years now, too. He quite literally is the most pleasant boxer to watch I may have ever seen.

 

Anyone think the stoppage was a tad early? @CST80 @PinoyProdigy @UnleashtheFURY @IntentionalButt if it was against a journeymen I would 100% think it's fine, but this was a world title fight. I think Ioka would have stopped him anyways and he was up, but I think it's reasonable for Paltice's camp to be pissed.

 

Hell no. Do you fancy Palicte a dead man?!

 

Maybe I need to re-watch it. Palicte was never hurt before then, he wasn't being knocked down several times, and he was responsive to the ref after. This is a world title fight, I just feel like the ref should have let it go on for maybe 5-10 seconds, if Palicte didn't try and hold or throw a punch then stop it then.