Fans were anxiously counting down the days until Kazuto Ioka faced off against Fernando Martinez on New Year’s Eve in Tokyo. However, Shisei de Ioka’s gym said on Monday that the Argentinian WBA super flyweight champion was down with the flu, forcing him to cancel this much-anticipated bout at the last minute.
Martinez had already shown signs of illness when he canceled a public training session last Thursday. He also missed Sunday’s signing ceremony, which raised the alarm that something was seriously wrong. It’s a gut punch for Ioka, who was hungry for a comeback after Martinez defeated him by unanimous decision in the WBA-IBF unification fight in July.
Martinez relinquished his IBF belt, skipping a mandatory title defense to make this rematch.
