A pair of world title bouts from Japan will stream live on ESPN+ on Dec. 30 after Top Rank announced on Thursday that it has acquired the United States rights for the platform.
Junior lightweight titlist Masayuki Ito will make his first defense against Evgeny Chuprakov in the main event at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo. In the co-feature, Takuma Inoue will face Petch Sor Chitpattana for a vacant interim bantamweight title.
The stream is scheduled to begin at 5 a.m. ET with the Ito-Chuprakov main event expected to begin at approximately 6:20 a.m. ET.
Ito (24-1-1, 12 KOs), 27, of Tokyo, won a hard-fought unanimous decision against Christopher Diaz on July 28 in Kissimmee, Florida, in an ESPN+ main event. Chuprakov (20-0, 10 KOs), 28, of Russia, has boxed twice in the United States but all of his other fights have been in Russia.
Inoue (12-0, 3 KOs), 22, of Japan, who is the younger brother of three-division titleholder and top-10 pound-for-pound fighter Naoya Inoue, outpointed Mark John Yap on Sept. 11 in a title elimination fight to get a title opportunity. Sor Chitpattana (48-0, 33 KOs), 25, will fight outside of his native Thailand for the first time.
The winner will be the mandatory challenger for the winner of the vacant full title fight between former titlist Rau’shee Warren (16-2, 4 KOs) and Nordine Oubaali (14-0, 11 KOs), who meet Jan. 19 on the Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner undercard in Las Vegas.
In a third title bout on the card, junior flyweight titlist Ken Shiro (14-0, 8 KOs), 26, of Japan, will make his fifth defense when he faces Saul “Baby” Juarez (24-8-2, 13 KOs), 28, of Mexico. That fight will be part of the ESPN+ presentation, time permitting.