FIGHT WEEK
LUIS ortiz will face fellow contender charles martin in an all-heavyweight card saturday.
Kazuto Ioka (27-2, 15 KOs) vs. Ryoji Fukunaga (15-4, 14 KOs)
- When: Friday, Dec. 31
- Time: 5:30 a.m. ET / 2:30 a.m. (main event later in show)
- Where: Ota-City General Gymnasium, Tokyo
- TV/Stream: No TV in U.S.
- Division: Junior bantamweight
- At stake: Ioka’s WBO title
- Pound-for-pound ranking: Ioka No. 15
- Odds: NA
- Also on the card: Akihiro Kondo (32-10-2, 18 KOs) vs. Aso Ishiwaki (9-4-1, 7 KOs), junior welterweights
- Prediction: Ioka UD
- Background: Ioka, a four-division titleholder, has been one of the best boxers in the world over the past decade. The 32-year-old Japanese fighter has beaten a long list of championship-caliber opponents – almost exclusively in Japan – and his only losses have come by split decision, the second (against Donnie Niete) of which was disputed. He won his 115-pound belt by stopping Aston Palicte in June 2019 and has successful defended three times. He’s coming of a unanimous decision over Francisco Rodriguez on Sept. 1. Ioka was supposed to have faced IBF champ Jerwin Ancajas in a title-unification bout but the Filipino was unable to enter Japan because of COVID-19 precautions. Thus, Ioka’s countryman Fukunaga agreed to step in. The challenger has won regional titles but has never faced anyone near the caliber of Ioka. Fukunaga is a solid boxer and can punch, as his high knockout percentage (74) indicates. He’s coming off a majority-decision victory over Hayate Kaji on Oct. 2.
Luis Ortiz (32-2, 27 KOs) vs. Charles Martin (28-2-1, 25 KOs)
- When: Saturday, Jan. 1
- Time: 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
- Where: Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Florida
- TV/Stream: Fox Sports Pay-per-view
- Division: Heavyweight
- At stake: No major titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: None
- Odds: NA
- Also on the card: Frank Sanchez vs. Carlos Negron, heavyweights; Jonnie Rice vs. Michael Coffie, heavyweights; Gerald Washington vs. Ali Eren Demirezen, heavyweights; Viktor Faust vs. Iago Kiladze, heavyweights
- Prediction: Martin SD
- Background: Ortiz and Martin are both contenders fighting to stay in the title hunt on this all-heavyweight pay-per-view card. Ortiz, a 42-year-old southpaw from Cuba, came close to stopping then-titleholder Deontay Wilder but ended up being knocked out in the 10th round himself in March 2018. He lasted only seven rounds in the rematch with Wilder in November 2019. He rebounded by stopping Alexander Flores in the first round this past Nov. 7, which was his most recent fight. Martin, 35, is a former IBF titleholder who lost his belt to Anthony Joshua by a second-round knockout in 2016. He said he fought with injured ribs in that fight. He is 5-1 since, with stoppages of Daniel Martz and Gerald Washington in his last two fights. Ortiz is ranked by three of the four major sanctioning bodies; Martin is the IBF’s No. 2-ranked heavyweight. Frank Sanchez (19-0, 13 KOs), who fights Carlos Negron (25-3, 20 KOS) in the co-feature, might be the best fighter on the card. The Cuban has outclassed all of his opponents, including contender Efe Ajagba by a unanimous decision on Oct. 9.