## IOKA TO DEFEND WBC 105LB BELT TODAY

December 31, 2011

OSAKA, JAPAN

Unbeaten WBC 105-pound champ Kazuto Ioka (8-0, 5 KOs), a 22-year-old Japanese, will put his title on the line against also unbeaten Thailander Yodgoen Tor Chalermchai (8-0, 4 KOs) today (Saturday) in Osaka, Japan. We now have no less than eight male world champs and six female titlists, but Ioka is the youngest and one of the most talented. Kazuto, a nephew of formerly two-class champ Hiroki Ioka (his manager now), captured the WBC belt by disposing of previously unbeaten Oleydong Sithsamerchai with a single body shot in the fifth this February. Ioka, making his second defense, will face Yodgoen, a year his junior at 21, on the last day of the year, along with a couple of WBA title goes in Yokohama.

As Mexican televisions of Televisa and TV Azteca compete every Saturday, Ioka's defense will be shown by TBS TV from 7:30 pm, while the Yokohama twinbill by TV Tokyo from 9:30 pm to 11:30 pm. It's a battle of TV ratings.

Ioka, a baby-faced youngster popular in his native Osaka, scaled in at the 105-pound class limit, while Yodgoen 104.25, three quarter pound lighter, at the weigh-in ceremony open to some 300 people at a big electronic shop. We don't know how good or strong the Thai challenger is, but Yodgoen is the WBC youth strawweight champ, having kept his belt four times to his credit.

Ioka confidently said, "I'll keep my belt without problem." Yodgoen, a stablemate of the dethroned ex-champ Oleydong by Ioka, also showed his motivation, saying, "I hope to bring back a good gift to my family in Thailand. I'm not scared of Ioka but keep going forward to win the belt."

Boxing is interesting. Bernard Hopkins is still fighting at the age of 46, while the young men, 21 and 22, fight for the championship. Forty-six is greater than twenty-one plus twenty-two. Vitali Klitschoko weighed at 243 pounds, which was heavier than a couple of the 105-pound contestants. It's a simple arithmetic.

(12-31-2011)

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