WBO Jr. Lightweight Champion Masayuki Ito Returns to Japan!

This past weekend we saw Masayuki Ito (24-1-1, 12) [伊藤 雅雪] score a major win and over-come Puerto Rican Christopher Diaz (23-2, 15) to claim the WBO Jr. Lightweight title. The Japanese fighter hasn’t rushed home but has enjoyed a few days in the US, only getting back to Japan earlier today, after doing some sight seeing and enjoying himself after a career defining performance.

Speaking to the press at Narita Airport today Ito stated that he was happy to win the belt, but that wasn’t going to be enough and he wanted to challenge himself as a champion, fighting both at home and overseas.

Before returning to the UK Ito revealed that he hired a 15 seating bus to do some sight seeing with friends and family in the US and certainly seemed happy to have had some time Stateside to enjoy him, though stated he was happy to be back in Japan.

It was revealed that the ring for the Diaz fight was smaller than Ito had expected, likely to try and favour Diaz who went into the bout as the fighter with the reputation of being a puncher. The small ring however never seemed to be an issue with Ito controlling the range through out the bout.

Ito’s next bout is yet to be decided though sources have reported that he’s been approached by Fuji TV, so could be featured on their cards in the future, and he also revealed that he wants to fight on an end of year show, which seems to be one of the big dreams he shared today.

http://www.asianboxing.info/asian-news/masayuki-ito-returns-to-japan
​(Image courtesy of boxmob.jp)