On December 29 at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Japan, Japanese featherweight champion Satoshi “Bazooka” Hosono (29-2-1, 20 KOs), from Yokahama, currently ranked #3 by the WBA, puts his 126-pound belt on the line against former WBA World super bantamweight champion Akifumi Shimoda (30-4-2, 13 KOs), the southpaw from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

In his three attempts to win the WBA title, Hosono has come up short. He lost a majority decision to Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym in 2010, a UD to Celestino Caballero in 2011, and in 2013 fought a draw with Chris John. Two fights after the loss to John, where the Indonesian retained his WBA Super World featherweight title, Hosono won the vacant Japanese featherweight title, which he has successfully defended four times.

Shimoda is a former Japanese super bantamweight champion who won the WBA World super bantamweight title by unanimous decision over Ryol Li Lee in 2011. Lee was down three times in the fight. Shimoda was down once. In his next fight, at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he lost his crown by 7th round knockout to then undefeated Rico Ramos.

Also on the card, Naoya Inoue (8-0, 7 KOs) defends his WBO World super flyweight title against Warlito Parrenas (24-6-1, 21 KOs). Naoya’s younger brother Takuma Inoue (5-0, 1 KO) will make the first defense of his OPBF super flyweight title against Rene Ducquel (15-5-1, 5 KOs). And last but not least, IBF World light flyweight champion Akira Yaegashi (22-5, 12 KOs) defends his title against Javier Mendoza (24-2-1, 19 KOs).

This article was penned by the author who is not related to the WBA and the statements, expressions or opinions referenced herein are that of the author alone and not the WBA.