Donnie Nietes set to face Kazuto Ioka for WBO junior bantamweight title

FILE – Boxing world champion Donnie “Ahas” Nietes. Photo by Mark Giongco/INQUIRER.net

Filipino boxing icon Donnie Nietes can get another chance to become a four-division World champion after the World Boxing Organization ordered him to fight Japanese star Kazuto Ioka.

The bout will be for the sanctioning body’s vacant World junior bantamweight (the super flyweight division in the WBC, IBF, and WBA) belt.

As per Ring Magazine, the ruling was brought upon during the WBO Convention in Panama with Nietes’ promoter Michael Aldeguer of ALA Promotions confirming the news.

“In principle, the fight is done is a done deal,” said Aldeguer.

Ring added that Aldeguer and Ioka’s promoter TLAROCK and manager Taku Nagashima discussed everything and that the contract signing was a mere formality.

Nietes (41-1-5) had his first chance at the WBO junior bantamweight belt when he took on fellow Filipino Aston Palicte (24-2) but the judges ruled on a split decision draw in the Sept. 8, 2018 fight that left the sanctioning without a champion in the division.

Ioka (23-1), who is seven years the junior of the 36-year-old Nietes, ended a 16-month retirement when he scored a unanimous decision win over McWilliams Arroyo after 10 rounds in his first fight in the junior bantamweight division and in the United States.

Nietes and Ioka were actually in the same SuperFly 3 card on Sept. 8, 2018.

Both Nietes and Ioka are three-division World champions winning titles in the flyweight, light flyweight, and minimumweight divisions.

“It won’t be an easy fight either way but Donnie has always been confident,” said Aldeguer. “Ioka is a bigger name and comes from a respected country like Japan.”

“Nietes wants the biggest fights out there and this fight is a step towards it.”

If Nietes wins the bout, he will join fellow Filipino IBF World super flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas as titlists in the 115-lb division.