Ryota Murata (13-1, 1KO’s) will be defending his World Boxing Association (WBA) World Middleweight title against Emanuele Felice Blandamura (27-2, 5KO’s) this Sunday, April 15th.  The bout will be aired live on ESPN2 from Yokohama, Japan.

The final press conference was held today at the Grand Palace Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.  Murata and Blandamura have been very cordial to each other in the lead up to the fight, with Murata praising Blandamura’s speed at the final press conference and Blandamura praising Murata’s career up to this point.

Bob Arum of Top Rank, Murata’s legendary promoter, was on hand at the press conference.  Arum hopes for a good performance from his fighter so that it can lead to bigger fights, saying “He is getting better and better every fight and everybody loved his last performance. As I said it got a very good rating in the United States for the early morning. We hoped this would get a good rating and then will lead into a fight in the United States whenever he’s ready to do it.”

Murata is making the first defense of his title after winning from Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam this last October in a seven round route.  That fight was a rematch, with their first bout being in May of 2017 when the title was vacant.  That fight ended in a very controversial split decision win for N’Dam where two referees were suspended for six months by the WBA and a rematch was ordered.

Blandamura is coming off of a unanimous decision victory over Alessandro Goddi this last June.  Blandamura is not a household name and has lost by stoppage the two times he has stepped up in class.  He lost to Michel Soro via knockout in the eighth round in June of 2015 and then Billy Joe Saunders by knockout in the eighth round in July of 2014.