Kazuto Ioka Made Japanese Boxing History With a Fourth
Kazuto Ioka became Japan’s first male four-division world champion by stopping Aston Palicte in Chiba on June 19, 2019. The tenth-round victory secured the vacant WBO super flyweight championship.
The Palicte breakthrough
Ioka fought patiently against the bigger Palicte at Makuhari Messe, relying on defense and footwork before finding the decisive opening. A counterpunch in the tenth round led to a sustained attack and the referee’s intervention.
He later held the WBA super flyweight championship. Fernando Martínez defeated him by unanimous decision in Tokyo in July 2024, unifying the WBA and IBF titles.
The Martínez rematch and bantamweight challenge
Martínez won their May 2025 return meeting by another unanimous decision. Ioka scored a tenth-round knockdown but could not overturn the Argentine champion’s lead on the scorecards.
Ioka subsequently challenged Takuma Inoue for the WBC bantamweight championship at the Tokyo Dome on May 2, 2026. Inoue won unanimously over twelve rounds, ending Ioka’s bid to become a five-division champion that night.
The Palicte victory followed an unsuccessful attempt against Donnie Nietes in Macau in December 2018. Ioka, who had returned from a brief retirement, was boxing in Japan for the first time in more than two years. The win improved his record to twenty-four victories and two defeats, including fourteen knockout wins, and completed the four-division achievement on home soil.
Sources
- World Boxing Organization: Ioka’s historic Palicte victory
- World Boxing Association: Martínez wins the 2024 unification
- World Boxing Association: Martínez–Ioka rematch report
- World Boxing Council: Inoue–Ioka championship result
- World Boxing Council: confirmation of the May 2, 2026 title contest
