Filipino three weight division champions Donnie Nietes and Japanese Kazuto Ioka will dispute the vacant WBO world junior bantamweight title on New Year?s eve at the Wynn Place resort in Macau.
Both Nietes and Ioka have to sign the fight contract, but ESPN?s Dan Rafael reported that Tom Loeffler of 360 Promotions told him on Tuesday him that a deal has been reached by promoters of both fighters ? TLAROCK for the Japanese and Miguel Aldeguer of ALA Promotions for the Filipino.
Rafael, ESPN senior writer wrote that handlers agreed to match their wards after several weeks of negotiations.
The fight is slated to take place on Dec. 31 at the Wynn Palace Resort in Macau, China. The New Year's holiday is a traditional time for world title bouts in Asia.
Nietes (41-1-5, 23 KOs), 36, who had previously held the WBO mini-flyweight title from 2007 to 2011; the WBO and The Ring magazine junior-flyweight titles between 2011 and 2016; and the IBF flyweight title from 2017 to 2018, will be eyeing his fourth weight division belt.
And so will Ioka (23-1, 13 KOs), 29, who wishes to follow up his grip of the WBA and WBC minimumweight titles between 2011 and 2012, the WBA light flyweight title between 2012 and 2014, and the WBA flyweight title between 2015 and 2017 with another crown.
Nietes had recently fought to a draw countryman Aston Palicte on Loeffler's "Superfly 3" HBO-televised card on September 8 at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
Ioka, in his last fight, ended a 17-month retirement and made his debut in the junior bantamweight division with a 10-round decision win over McWilliams Arroyo on the Nietes-Palicte undercard.
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