Tomorrow at Korakuen Hall fight fans are set for a treat as Japanese Lightweight champion
Hironori Mishiro (16-1-1, 5) [三代大訓] faces off with former Japanese Featherweight champion
Hinata Maruta (14-2-1, 10) [丸田陽七太] in a mouth watering main event of "WHO'S NEXT DYNAMIC GLOVE on U-NEXT". The bout pits two stylistically similar fighters, who are both technical and intelligent fighters, with excellent jabs, reach speed and boxing brains, against each other in what is expected to be one of the best high speed chess matches in Japan this year.
Today the two men took part in the weigh-in for the bout. On the scales Mishiro was the heavier man, unsurprisingly, coming in at 134.5lbs, and looked in great shape. He was asked about the recent OPBF/WBO Asia Pacific title unification bout, which saw Shu Utsuki (15-1, 13) [宇津木秀] stopping Katsuya Yasuda (14-2, 9) [保田克也] in a crazy fight that saw both men hitting the canvas, multiple times. He knows both men, and explained "I wasn't hoping for either of them to win, so I was watching with an open mind, but I couldn't help but shout out loud," and added that he didn’t want to be in fights like that "I'm conscious of matches like that, but I can't be swayed by them. I want to fight calmly."
Regarding Maruta, the champion stated "He's really big after all," seemingly surprised by the fact Maruta didn’t look like a fighter who had began his career at Bantamweight, but looked like a fully fledged Lightweight and added "I think I have good chemistry with Maruta. But I'm sure he feels the same way about our chemistry, so it will be a close match with a lot of tension." He also admitted to having a real desire coming into this bout, "This is the first time I've felt this way since my fight with Ito," referring to his 2020 win over former world champion Masayuki Ito.
As for the challenger he was only slightly lighter, coming in at 134.25lbs, and explained "The weight cut has become easier, and I'd say I'm in the best shape I've ever been in,". As for Mishiro, we saw Maruta explain "He's good at controlling the action and putting things together," going on to say, "Speed, distance, jabs. Broadly speaking, he's a similar type to me." and added "Even if my strategy works, Mishiro will probably make adjustments. Tomorrow's match will require a lot of thinking." Maruta also went on to say "I want people to see me enjoying boxing. This is my third fight since moving to the lightweight class. People have high expectations of me,"
Notably the winner of this knows that they will need to make their first defense next year, during the
Champion Carnival, against
Yudai Murakami (6-2) [村上雄大] who booked his shot at the title with a split decision win against
Hiromasa Urakawa (10-3, 7) [浦川大将].
