ESPN Boxing

If there is any kind of offseason in boxing, in most of the world anyway, it’s usually the second half of December and early January. But not in Japan, where having a big show -- or shows -- on New Year’s Eve is becoming something of a tradition.

So on Monday, there were two major cards in Japan featuring five world title bouts.

There were three In Tokyo and two more about 300 miles away in Osaka.

Here’s a look at the what happened in Tokyo:

• Junior lightweight titlist Takashi Uchiyama (19-0-1, 16 KOs) stopped Costa Rica’s Bryan Vasquez (29-1, 15 KOs) at the end of the eighth round to retain his belt for the sixth time. Vazquez was the mandatory opponent because he had been the interim titleholder.

• Junior bantamweight titlist Yota Sato (26-2-1, 12 KOs) kept his belt with a unanimous decision against countryman Ryo Akaho (19-1-2, 12 KOs). Scores were 118-110, 117-112, 117-111.

• Kohei Kono (28-7, 11 KOs) pulled an upset against Thailand’s Tepparith Kokietgym (21-3, 13 KOs) to claim a version of the junior bantamweight title. Kono scored three knockdowns in the fourth round for a TKO at 2:08. Kokietgym’s three previous defense had come against Japanese challengers -- Daiki Kameda, Tomonobu Shimizu and Nobuo Nashiro -- so Kono got a little revenge. Kokietgym led on all three scorecards through three rounds.

And here’s what went down in Osaka:

• Ryo Miyazaki (18-0-3, 10 KOs) won a vacant strawweight belt by split decision over Thailand’s Pornsawan Porpramook (27-5-1, 17 KOs) on scores of 116-111, 116-112 for Miyazaki and 114-113 for Porpramook, who is best known for being stopped in the 10th round by Akira Yaegashi 14 months ago in the spectacular 2011 ESPN.com fight of the year.

• Former unified strawweight titlist Kazuto Ioka (11-0, 7 KOs) stopped Mexico’s Jose Rodriguez (28-2, 17 KOs) at 2:50 of the sixth round to win a vacant junior flyweight belt. Ioka, who vacated his strawweight belts and moved up in weight, dropped Rodriguez three times, once in the first round and twice more in the sixth.

The fight won't get a lot of play in the United States, but if you're a hard-core fight fan, how can you not be at least a little bit interested in Kazuto Ioka versus Akira Yaegashi? I, for one, think it could be a terrific fight.

Ioka and Yaegashi, who hold belts in boxing's smallest weight class, are due to meet in a strawweight title unification bout on June 20 in Osaka, Japan, Ioka's hometown.

I'm interested in the fight for a variety of reasons. First, even though they are only 105-pounders, they are entertaining fighters. That is the most important element.

The 23-year-old Ioka (9-0, 6 KOs) is a really good fighter who has scored some sensational knockouts in his brief pro career. Don't believe me? Just search YouTube for his second title defense from December, a spectacular first-round knockout of Yedgoen Tor Chalermchai. Yaegashi (15-2, 8 KOs) became something of a cult figure to boxing fans after an incredible October fight, in which Yaegashi, 29, stopped Pornsawan Porpramook in the 10th round to win a version of the title in one of the sickest action fights I've ever seen. In fact, I picked it as the 2011 ESPN.com fight of the year. This will be Yaegashi's first fight since that all-time classic.

The styles of Ioka and Yaegashi figure to mesh well because Ioka is a good counterpuncher and Yaegashi is more of a straight-ahead brawler. Both were excellent amateurs on the Japanese scene. Ioka was 95-10 with 64 knockouts in the unpaid ranks, and he barely missed making the 2008 Olympic team. Yaegashi was a Japanese amateur national champion.

Besides the likelihood that it will be a fun fight, I also dig the historical aspect of the match because strawweight unification bouts are very, very rare.

In addition, this fight also will be the first time in history that two Japanese titleholders will meet to unify belts in any weight class, according to friend and Japanese boxing historian Joe Koizumi. When you consider all of the titleholders Japan has produced over the years, that's stunning.

"I wish to prove who's the No. 1," Ioka said through a translator when the fight was recently announced.

Said Yaegashi: "Ioka will be a star player in Osaka, while I may take a supporting role. But the winner should take a stellar role in the ring."