IOKA WINS JAPANESE SUPER FIGHT; MERITS ENTRY ON POUND-FOR-POUND LISTS
Compiled By Scott Shaffer

The Boxingtalk Scoreboard

Kazuto Ioka W12 Akira Yaegashi... It's not too often a 105-pound boxer merits consideration for the mythical pound-for-pound top ten, but it has happened twice over the last couple of decades (Ricardo Lopez, Ivan Calderon). Now it is time to add a third name: Kazuto Ioka of Japan, who won an extremely rare 105-pound unification bout, defeating Akira Yaegashi over twelve hotly contested rounds in Osaka, Japan today.  Even rarer than a 105-pound unification bout is two reigning world champions from Japan fighting each other. The Japanese boxing community and everyone involved is to be complemented for pulling this off, and in the end, Ioka gets the glory, adding Yaegashi's WBA title to the WBC version he already held. Official scores were 115-113 (twice) and 115-114 for Ioka, a 23 year-old sensation who has had only 10 pro fights, all wins and all against tough competition. Ioka was just 6-0 when he fought for, and won, the WBC title. Yaegashi, 15-3, fought through a swollen eye and rallied at in the later rounds, but fell just short of winning/. source: associated press