Jeyvier Cintrón ready for showdown with Ioka
The WBO #1 ranked fighter at 115 pounds, Jeyvier Cintrón, worked out today for the Japanese media en route to his bout on Tuesday, December 31, when he challenges Kazuto Ioka, the 115 pounds WBO champion, at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokío, Japan.
“We are working comfortably, we are doing well with the weight and training to complete what we need for when the day of the weighin arrives,” said Cintron (11-0 1ND, 5 KOs), the first Puerto Rican boxer to participate in two Olympic Games (2012 and 2016), who worked with his trainer Iván “Iron Boy” Calderón, also trainer Alfonso “Ury” Ramos and his father and former boxer Javier “Perrito” Cintrón.
“I feel very good, waiting for the fight to come.”
I haven’t raved about it enough but that Dec. 31 boxing card in Tokyo, Japan is absolutely loaded:
– Kazuto Ioka vs. Jeyvier Cintron
– Kosei Tanaka vs. Wulan Tuolehazi
– Ginjiro Shigeoka vs. Rey Loreto
– Miyo Yodhida vs. Li Ping Shi
– Yusaku Kuga vs. Jhunriel Ramonal— Carlos Toro (@CarlosToro360) December 29, 2019
The Puerto Rican fighter won the right to challenge Ioka (24-2, 14 KOs) when he defeated Japan’s Koki Eto by unanimous decision in August in a world elimination fight. The unanimous decision victory in June was a retry of the fight they both previously had in May but was waived off as a no-contest by the Florida State Commission when a TKO victory for Eto was caused by a headbutt. This will be the fourth bout of 2019 for Cintron, who debuted in 2017.
His trainer and former world champion at 105 and 108 pounds, Ivan Calderón said that “Jeyvier is comfortable in his work, in his weight, he’s well motivated. And what remains is that the bell rings and that Jeyvier demonstrates the skills he has.”
Ioka is the first Japanese to be crowned world champion in four divisions (105, 108, 112 and 115 pounds). The champion won the WBO belt at 115 pounds when he defeated Filipino Aston Palicte by TKO in 10 rounds in June when they faced off for the vacant belt. The card is one that will close out the official calendar year and is looking like that will be a good one.
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.
