Iwata to defend against Ouchi in March
Back in November Shokichi Iwata (7-0, 5) [岩田 翔吉] scored the biggest win of his career, as he stopped Rikito Shiba in 9 rounds to claim the Japanese Light Flyweight title. Today it was revealed that he will be making his first of that title on March 5th at Korakuen Hall as he takes on veteran Toshimasa Ouchi (22-11-3, 8) [大内 淳雅], in what will be the second bout between the two men.
In June 2021 Iwata took a clear 8 round decision over Ouchi, a win that late lead to Iwata getting his crack at the Japanese title just 5 months later. Since then Iwata has won the title, and moved towards a world title fight, though given the state of the Light Flyweight division he likely knows he will have to wait for a shot at world honours.
As for Ouchi, he's not fought since that loss, and at 36 he likely knows this will be his final major fight, and is his 4th shot at the Japanese title, having come up short against Masayuki Kuroda in 2012, Kenshiro Teraji in 2016 and Masamichi Yabuki in 2020.
Regarding this rematch Iwata explained, via the Teiken home page, "The opponent will be more cautious based on the previous experience. I don't think there is any doubt. I don't think it makes sense to rematch unless I win better than last time, so I'm firmly aware of that." From that comment we suspect he'll be looking to stop Ouchi, which is something that hasn't happened since March 2014, when Atsushi Aburada stopped him in 6 rounds.
The bout will headline the March episode of Dynamic Glove and is expected to be shown on G+.
In June 2021 Iwata took a clear 8 round decision over Ouchi, a win that late lead to Iwata getting his crack at the Japanese title just 5 months later. Since then Iwata has won the title, and moved towards a world title fight, though given the state of the Light Flyweight division he likely knows he will have to wait for a shot at world honours.
As for Ouchi, he's not fought since that loss, and at 36 he likely knows this will be his final major fight, and is his 4th shot at the Japanese title, having come up short against Masayuki Kuroda in 2012, Kenshiro Teraji in 2016 and Masamichi Yabuki in 2020.
Regarding this rematch Iwata explained, via the Teiken home page, "The opponent will be more cautious based on the previous experience. I don't think there is any doubt. I don't think it makes sense to rematch unless I win better than last time, so I'm firmly aware of that." From that comment we suspect he'll be looking to stop Ouchi, which is something that hasn't happened since March 2014, when Atsushi Aburada stopped him in 6 rounds.
The bout will headline the March episode of Dynamic Glove and is expected to be shown on G+.