Fans were eagerly counting down the days until Kazuto Ioka squared off against Fernando Martinez on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo. However, Ioka’s Shisei gym said Monday that the Argentine WBA super flyweight champion came down with influenza, forcing them to cancel this highly anticipated matchup at the last minute.
Martinez had already shown signs of illness when he scrapped a public training session last Thursday. He also missed Sunday’s signing ceremony, which set off alarm bells that something was seriously wrong. It’s a punch to the gut for Ioka, who was hungry for a comeback after Martinez defeated him by unanimous decision in July’s WBA-IBF unification bout.
Martinez reportedly gave up his IBF belt, skipping a mandatory title defense to make this rematch happen.
Leave a reply