Ota-City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan. In the main event of the evening in a rematch, the ex-fighters of the “pound” met Kazuto Ioka (29-2, 15 KO) from Japan and Donnie Nietes (43-2-6, 23 KO) from the Philippines. As in 2018, they fought for the WBO belt in the second flyweight division (up to 52.2 kg). But this time the victory went to the Japanese.
Ioka again came out to the track “Champion” by the sidekick singer AK 69. As before, the tattoos had to be made up – such are the strange rules in Japan.
The fight began with a shootout with jabs. Both clearly strove to work as number two. Ioka would double punch with his front arm, forcing Nietes to make several not-so-prepared offensive runs.
In the 2nd round, the Filipino countered beautifully twice in a row. In response, the favorite began to work more aggressively, began to combine, played the episode with a couple of blows to the body. Ioka has a very powerful and clear jab, works beautifully on floors, underestimated footwork.
The champion pushed even more in the 5th round and at some point it seemed that Nietes was about to go into survival mode. But the experienced contender waited for the moment and countered beautifully a moment before the gong. Nevertheless, after the first half of the fight, he is clearly behind – he is too passive.
In the 8th three-minute period, the veteran picked up blows to the body – he had to run back a little. But he had a very decent 9th round, remembered for a beautiful uppercut. As soon as Ioka takes a break, the fight evens out, because Nietes is one of the best in positional boxing.
The champion pushed again, it immediately bore fruit: in the 10th round he hit the body great, inflicted a deep cut on the Filipino above his left eye. The championship rounds also remained with the favorite.
The winner is clear. Judges cards: 120-108, 118-110 and 117-111.
Ioka UD 12.
Interestingly, this is Nietes’ first defeat in 18 years and the first in a title fight.