Why Did Joshua Franco Get Stripped of His WBA Boxing Title: Boxing News: Joshua Franco’s super flyweight title was taken away from him by the World Boxing Association on Friday after the American failed to make weight before his title defence against Kazuto Ioka. Follow Boxing News Updates with InsideSports.IN.
In contrast to challenger Ioka, who successfully weighed in at 52 kilogrammes, Franco was too heavy and had to forfeit his belt in accordance with WBA rules. On Saturday, Franco will have another weigh-in to establish a limit of 130 pounds (58.9 kg).
Joshua Franco Gets Stripped of His WBA Boxing Title Ahead of Fighting Kazuto Loka. Fans React- “6 Pounds”
With a win, Ioka (29-2-1, 15 KOs) can still win the championship. The championship will be vacated in the case of a tie or a Franco triumph. In a title unification fight that took place in December in Tokyo, Franco (18-1-3, 8 KOs) and Ioka battled to a draw. Ioka, a 34-year-old Tokyo-based boxer, surrendered his WBO title following the fight in favour of the rematch rather than making the required defence against Junto Nakatani.
The flyweight champion, Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez, has an older brother named Franco, a 27-year-old San Antonio native. At 115 pounds, Franco is ranked No. 4, and Ioka is No. 3.
According to the Japanese Boxing Commission, if Ioka wins on Saturday at Tokyo’s Ota City General Gymnasium, he would be crowned the new champion of his division; however, if Franco wins or draws, the title will stay vacant.
Fans were, not very thrilled about the result, as they comment on the Instagram post “ 6 pounds over is wild”, while there were other comments like “Bussy weighed two weigh classes above”.
Why Did Joshua Franco Get Stripped of His WBA Boxing Title Ahead of Fighting Kazuto Loka? Fans React- “6 Pounds”
After the initial weigh-in, Franco’s trainer Robert Garcia told the media: “We were very close to cancelling everything. A really difficult training camp has been had. It won’t be easy, but we’ll try our best for the following two hours.
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