The Rematch of 2023: Kazuto Ioka vs Joshua Franco

Published

1 year ago

June 19, 2023

The-Rematch-of-2023-Kazuto-Ioka-vs-Joshua-Franco

The most fascinating rematch of the year will take place this weekend in Tokyo, Japan where the world’s number four super-flyweight, Kazuto Ioka (29-2-1) meets the world’s number five super-flyweight, Joshua Franco (18-1-3). This is a re-run of their December 2022 split draw and promises something fascinating.

Franco, out of Texas, is perhaps the most aggressive fighter in the world. In December, he threw 1400 punches, nearly double the number thrown by Ioka, out of Osaka, who deployed all his experience to remain in control of the early part of the fight, relying upon superior accuracy and technical excellence to outscore a fighter who outworked him in every single round. In the first, they threw over a hundred jabs between them and landed almost none, striking at one another’s high guards, Ioka giving ground in those small increments and showing better head-movement.

Part of what Franco struggled with in the early part of that fight was range. Ioka is a general of renown and he knows the ring-ranges and how to access them. If Franco stood off, he found himself engaged in a technical battle he absolutely could not win; if he overstepped, he found himself rushing an opponent who has mastered small moves and has the uppercut to protect them and the right-hand to exact a wearying toll. Both men have chins equal to the other’s power and it is unlikely that the rematch will produce a stoppage unless the thirty-four-year-old Ioka has gone back considerably, but Franco’s problem was not one of accumulation but one of points. Wherever he tried to fight he seemed outmatched.

Meanwhile, he was forced to continue to fight at a demanding pace because any round in which he was outworked he was sure to lose. He had no choice but to continue to attack and to try to rack up points of his own while placing his fight-engine under the closest scrutiny imaginable. Rounds fell through his fingers like sand, until, in the fourth, he banked one.

Franco had found the Goldilocks range for his punches, putting his left foot inside Ioka’s left foot and staying there. He allowed Ioka his superior boxing and bet upon himself to out-punch the Japanese, and it worked. Franco is not fast handed, but he throws meaty punches that sound and look dramatic. Both men were busier in the fourth round and it suited Franco to get hit if it meant he could land important punches of his own. He had established a foothold in the fight. He would not have it all his own way, far from it, but he won the remainder of the fight, arguably stringing together four through nine before dropping off in the tenth.

Ioka seemed genuinely befuddled to me. He did jab, he did push off with both gloves, he did slip and duck and throw the right when his back hit the ropes and he did make those incremental moves, but Franco now matched them and it seemed no matter where Ioka turned, Franco was in his space without over-reaching in the way he had through three. If Franco hit as hard as his punches looked and sounded, Ioka would have been in trouble in the sixth, but a knockout percentage of thirty-five won’t cut it. In fact, Ioka (46%) is probably the puncher of the two.

Ioka tried to neaten up even further, fighting only along the direct front, uppercuts and jabs, while Franco threw meathooks, going to the body with more frequency as the fight progressed, both throwing eye-watering beltline work throughout. But it should be noted that within this chaos, Ioka did not panic. And he continued to outland Franco. Only human, Franco ceded the tenth and I thought the eleventh, though the final and official scorecards were probably settled in this confusing and difficult spell of the fight, nine and eleven so close as to be scored either way so far as I could tell.

Those scorecards ran 115-113 for Franco and 114-114, 114-114, a majority draw. To rescue that draw, Franco had to win that twelfth round. Had Ioka, who came out of his corner screaming, won this round, he would have been fighting someone else this Saturday and Franco would be cursing his flagging stamina and looking to match more minor contenders. Instead, he turned in the best round of his professional career, throwing an overwhelming number of punches in what was his busiest round of a hard fight. As has been said, quantity has a quality of its own, and if Ioka wasn’t quite overwhelmed, he was certainly chased out of contention of this three minutes, which you should see if you haven’t.

I enjoyed the first fight enough to watch and score it twice, emerging once with a 114-114 card, and once with a 115-113 card for Franco, mirroring the judging exactly. But it is not a classic. Perhaps it is the sight and sound of the punches both men landed, hard and sure but never drawing a serious reaction. There was something bloodless about it. A good fight but not a great one.

What is exciting about the rematch is not that it might be the same, which would certainly be worth watching in its own right, but that it might be different. Franco found his man, beyond all hope of contradiction and for all that he slipped a bit in the late rounds, he rallied magnificently to find him again in the twelfth. When a swarmer finds his man, it tends to be a permanent arrangement. Franco knows how Ioka moves, where he will be and so was able to force him to fight with more frequency, and often to outfight him. Will round one of the rematch just be round thirteen?

If that is the case, Ioka cannot hope to win. There is no way Franco will lose each of the first three rounds again and Ioka needed each of these just to score the draw first time around. The only solutions for the Japanese veteran is for him to change where he will be, or changes up his fight plan completely enough that it doesn’t matter that Franco finds him.

The notion of Ioka on his bike is attractive but at thirty-four years of age, it is unlikely he could sustain this strategy. Worse, Franco thrives on momentum. Vacating the space might just encourage the American to fill it. It seems likely to me then that Ioka will try to increase his punch output early which is going to lead to a very dramatic late showdown, or, my guess, that he will have prepared some pet-punch, some by-design combination that will place the predictable Franco under his control or in his wheelhouse. This is likely to produce something very agreeable for both the Sweet Scientists and the casual fan.

On balance, and based upon very little, I think that Ioka’s time has come and gone. He’s in with the wrong man, a man who would have been beaten back by Ioka in his prime but who now represents a nightmarish prospect for an older fighter. It will once again be close, but this time Franco will be contesting the twelfth in search of the win rather than the draw and will do enough to get there, split on the official cards.

One fight of intrigue appears on the undercard. Daigo Higa (Japan, 19-2-1) and Sirichai Thaiyen (Thailand, 65-4) wore straps in previous lives down at 112lbs. Now they meet in a crossroads dust-up at 118lbs. For the loser, professional oblivion, but the winner will become a person of interest at bantamweight.

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Matt McGrain

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Floyd Schofield Wins a Banger and Gabriela Fundora Wins by KO

Published

2 days ago

November 3, 2024

David A. Avila

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Floyd Schofield Wins a Banger and Gabriela Fundora Wins by KO

LAS VEGAS-Shades of Henry Armstrong and Baby Arizmendi. If you don’t know those names, look them up.

Floyd Schofield battled his way past Mexico’s super tough Rene Tellez Giron who walked through every blow the Texan could fire but lost by decision on Saturday.

It was a severe test and perfect matchmaking for Schofield who yearns for the big bouts against the lightweight giants roaming the world.

Schofield (18-0, 12 KOs) remains undefeated and won the war over thick-necked Mexican Tellez Giron (20-4, 13 KOs) who has never been knocked out and proved to be immune to big punches.

In the opening rounds, the Texas fighter came out firing rapid combinations from the southpaw and orthodox stances. Meanwhile the shorter Tellez Giron studied and fired back an occasional counter for two rounds.

Tellez Giron had seen enough and took his stand in the third stanza. Both unleashed blazing bombs with Schofield turning his back to the Mexican. At that moment referee Tom Taylor could have waved the fight over.

You never turn your back.

The fight resumed and Schofield was damaged. He tried to open up with even more deadly fire but was rebuked by the strong chin of Tellez Giron who fired back in the mad frenzy.

For the remainder of the fight Schofield tried every trick in his arsenal to inflict damage on the thick-necked Mexican. He could not be wobbled. In the 11^th round both opened up with serious swing-from-the-heels combinations and suddenly Schofield was looking up. He beat the count easily and the two remained slugging it out.

“He hit me with a good shot,” Schofield said of the knockdown. “I just had to get up. I’m not going to quit.”

In the final round Schofield moved around looking for the proper moment to engage. The Mexican looked like a cat ready to pounce and the two fired furious blows. Neither was hit with the big bombs in the last seconds.

There was Tellez Giron standing defiantly like Baby Arizmendi must have stood in those five ferocious meetings against the incomparable Henry Armstrong. Three of their wars took place in Los Angeles, two at the Olympic Auditorium in the late 1930s as the U.S. was emerging from the Great Depression.

In this fight, Schofield took the win by unanimous decision by scores 118-109 twice and 116-111. It was well-deserved.

“I tried to bang it out,” said Schofield. “Today I learned you can’t always get the knockout.”

Fundora

IBF flyweight titlist Gabriela Fundora needed seven rounds to figure out the darting style of Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz before firing a laser left cross down the middle to end the battle and become the undisputed flyweight world champion.

Fundora now holds all four titles including the WBO, WBA and WBC titles that Alaniz brought in the ring.

Fundora knocked down Alaniz midway through the seventh round. She complained it was due to a tangle of the legs. Several seconds later Fundora blasted the Argentine to the floor again with a single left blast. This time there was no doubt. Her corner wisely waved a white towel to stop the fight at 1:40 of the seventh round.

No one argued the stoppage.

Other Bouts

Bektemir Melikuziev (15-1, 10 KOs) didn’t make weight in a title bout but managed to out-fight David Stevens (14-2, 10 KOs) in a super middleweight fight held at 12 rounds.

Melikuziev used his movement and southpaw stance to keep Pennsylvania’s Stevens from being able to connect with combinations. But Stevens did show he could handle “The Bully’s” punching power over the 12-round fight.

After 12 rounds one judge favored Stevens 116-112, while two others saw Melikuziev the winner by split decision 118-110 and 117-111.

Super middleweight WBA titlist Darius Fulghum (13-0, 11 KOs) pummeled his way to a technical knockout win over southpaw veteran Chris Pearson (17-5-1, 12 KOs) who attempted the rope-a-dope strategy to no avail.

Fulghum floored Pearson in the first round with a four-punch combination and after that just belted Pearson who covered up and fired an occasional blow. Referee Mike Perez stopped the fight at 1:02 of the third round when Pearson did not fire back after a blazing combination.

Young welterweight prospect Joel Iriarte (5-0, 5 KOs) blasted away at the three-inch shorter Xavier Madrid (5-6, 2 KOs) who hung tough for as long as possible. At 2:50 of the first round a one-two delivered Madrid to the floor and referee Thomas Taylor called off the beating.

Iriarte, from Bakersfield, Calif., could not miss with left uppercuts and short rights as New Mexico’s Madrid absorbed every blow but would not quit. It was just too much firepower from Iriarte that forced the stoppage.

Photos credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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Results and Recaps from Turning Stone where O’Shaquie Foster Nipped Robson Conceicao

Published

2 days ago

November 2, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Top Rank was at the Turning Stone casino-resort in Verona, New York, tonight with an 8-bout card topped by a rematch between Robson Conceicao and O’Shaquie Foster with the victor retaining or recapturing his IBF world junior lightweight title. When the smoke cleared, the operative word was “recapturing” as Foster became a two-time title-holder, avenging his controversial setback to the Brazilian in Newark on July 6.

This was a somewhat better fight than their initial encounter and once again the verdict was split. Foster prevailed by 115-113 on two of the cards with the dissenting judge favoring Conceicao by the same margin. Conceicao seemingly had the edge after nine frames, but Foster, a 4/1 favorite, landed the harder shots in the championship rounds.

It was the thirteenth victory in the last 14 starts for Foster who fights out of Houston. A two-time Olympian and 2016 gold medalist, the 36-year-old Conceicao is 19-3-1 overall and 1-3-1 in world title fights.

Semi-wind-up

SoCal lightweight Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) made a big jump in public esteem and moved one step closer to a world title fight with a second-round blast-out of Jose Antonio Perez who was on the canvas twice but on his feet when the fight was stopped at the 1:24 mark of round two. Muratalla, a product of Robert Garcia’s boxing academy, is ranked #2 by the WBC and WBO. A Tijuana native, Perez (25-6) earned this assignment with an upset of former Olympian and former 130-pound world titlist Jojo Diaz,

Other Bouts

Syracuse junior welterweight Bryce Mills, a high-pressure fighter with a strong local following, stopped scrawny Mike O’Han Jr whose trainer Mark DeLuca pulled him out after five one-sided rounds. Mills improved to 17-1 (6 KOs). It was another rough day at the office for Massachusetts house painting contractor O’’Han (19-4) who had the misfortune of meeting Abdullah Mason in his previous bout.

In a junior lightweight fight that didn’t heat up until late in the final round, Albany’s Abraham Nova (23-3-1) and Tijuana native Humberto Galindo (14-3-3) fought to a 10-round draw. It was another close-but-no- cigar for the likeable Nova who at least stemmed a two-fight losing streak. The judges had it 97-93 (Galindo), 96-94 (Nova) and 95-95.

Twenty-one-year-old Long Island middleweight Jahi Tucker advanced to 13-1-1 (6 KOs) with an eighth-round stoppage of Stockton’s teak-tough but outclassed Quilisto Madera (14-6). Madera was on a short leash after five rounds, but almost took it to the final bell with the referee intervening with barely a minute remaining in the contest. Madera was on his feet when the match was halted. Earlier in the round, Tucker had a point deducted for hitting on the break.

Danbury, Connecticut heavyweight Ali Feliz, one of two fighting sons of journeyman heavyweight Fernely Feliz, improved to 4-0 (3) with a second-round stoppage of beefy Rashad Coulter (5-5). Feliz had Coulter pinned against the ropes and was flailing away when the bout was halted at the 1:34 mark. The 42-year-old Coulter, a competitor in all manner of combat sports, hadn’t previously been stopped when competing as a boxer.

Featherweight Yan Santana dominated and stopped Mexico’s Eduardo Baez who was rescued by referee Charlie Fitch at the 1:57 mark of round four. It was the 12^th knockout in 13 starts for Santana, a 24-year-old Dominican father of three A former world title challenger, Mexicali’s Baez declines to 23-7-2 but has lost six of his last eight.

In his most impressive showing to date, Damian Knyba, a six-foot-seven Pole, knocked out paunchy Richard Lartey at the 2:10 mark of round three. A right-left combination knocked Lartey into dreamland, but it was the right did the damage and this was of the nature of a one-punch knockout. Referee Ricky Gonzalez waived the fight off without starting a count.

Knyba, 28, improved to 14-0 (8 KOs). A native of Ghana coming off his career-best win, a fourth-round stoppage of Polish veteran Andrzej Wawrzyk, Lartey declined to 16-7 with his sixth loss inside the distance.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 303: Spotlights on Lightweights and More

Published

3 days ago

November 1, 2024

David A. Avila

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Those lightweights.

Whether junior lights, super lights or lightweights, it’s the 130-140 divisions where most of boxing’s young stars are found now or in the past.

Think Oscar De La Hoya, Sugar Shane Mosley and Floyd Mayweather.

Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) a Texas product, hungers to be a star and takes on Mexico’s Rene Tellez Giron (20-3, 13 KOs) in a 12-round lightweight bout on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada.

DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotion card that includes a female undisputed flyweight championship match pitting Argentina’s Gabriela Alaniz and Gabriela Fundora.

Like a young lion looking to flex, Schofield (pictured on the left) is eager to meet all the other young lions and prove they’re not equal.

“I’ve been in the room with Shakur, Tank. I want to give everyone a good fight. I feel like my preparation is getting better, I work hard, I’ve dedicated my whole life to this sport,” said Schofield naming fellow lightweights Shakur Stevenson and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.

Now he meets Mexico’s Tellez who has never been stopped.

“I’m willing to do whatever it takes,” said Tellez.

Even in Las Vegas.

Verona, New York

Meanwhile, in upstate New York, a WBC junior lightweight title rematch finds Robson Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs) looking to prove superior to former titlist O’Shaquie Foster (22-3, 12 KOs) on Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, N.Y. ESPN+ will stream the Top Rank fight card.

Last July, Conceicao and Foster clashed and after 12 rounds the title changed hands from Foster to the Brazilian by split decision.

“I feel that a champion is a fighter who goes out there and doesn’t run around, who looks for the fight, who tries to win, and doesn’t just throw one or two punches and then moves away,” said Conceicao.

Foster disagrees.

“I hope he knows the name of the game is to hit and not get hit. That’s the name of the game,” said Foster.

Also on the same card is lightweight contender Raymond Muratalla (21-0, 16 KOs) who fights Mexico’s Jesus Perez Campos (25-5, 18 KOs).

Perez recently defeated former world champion Jojo Diaz last February in California.

“We’re made for challenges. I like challenges,” said Perez.

Muratalla likes challenges too.

“I think these fights are the types of fights I need to show my skills and to prove I deserve those title fights,” said Fontana’s Muratalla.

Female Undisputed Flyweight Championship

WBA, WBC and WBO flyweight titlist Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz (15-1, 6 KOs meets IBF titlist Gabriela Fundora (14-0, 6 KOs) on Saturday Nov. 2, at the Virgin Hotels Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. DAZN will stream the clash for the undisputed flyweight championship.

Argentina’s Alaniz clashed twice against former WBA, WBC champ Marlen Esparza with their first encounter ending in a dubious win for the Texas fighter. In fact, three of Esparza’s last title fights were scored controversially.

But against Alaniz, though they fought on equal terms, Esparza was given a 99-91 score by one of the judges though the world saw a much closer contest. So, they fought again, but the rematch took place in California. Two judges deemed Alaniz the winner and one Esparza for a split-decision win.

“I’m really happy to be here representing Argentina. We are ready to fight. Nothing about this fight has to do with Marlen. So, I hope she (Fundora) is ready. I am ready to prepare myself for the great fight of my life,” said Alaniz.

In the case of Fundora, the extremely tall American fighter at 5’9” in height defeated decent competition including Maria Santizo. She was awarded a match with IBF flyweight titlist Arely Mucino who opted for the tall youngster over the dangerous Kenia Enriquez of Mexico.

Bad choice for Mucino.

Fundora pummeled the champion incessantly for five rounds at the Inglewood Forum a year ago. Twice she battered her down and the fight was mercifully stopped. Fundora’s arm was raised as the new champion.

Since that win Fundora has defeated Christina Cruz and Chile’s Daniela Asenjo in defense of the IBF title. In an interesting side bit: Asenjo was ranked as a flyweight contender though she had not fought in that weight class for seven years.

Still, Fundora used her reach and power to easily handle the rugged fighter from Chile.

Immediately after the fight she clamored for a chance to become undisputed.

“It doesn’t get better than this, especially being in Las Vegas. This is the greatest opportunity that we can have,” said Fundora.

It should be exciting.

Fights to Watch

Sat. ESPN+ 2:50 p.m. Robson Conceicao (19-2-1) vs O’Shaquie Foster (22-3).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Floyd Schofield (17-0) vs Rene Tellez Giron (20-3); Gabriela Alaniz (15-1) vs Gabriela Fundora (14-0).

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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