Kosei Tanaka to defend WBO World Flyweight title on August 24th Against WBO #1 Jonathan González

WBO.com

Back at the end of April we reported that the WBO had given their Flyweight champion Kosei Tanaka (13-0, 7) [田中恒成] and 28 year old Puerto Rican Jonathan Gonzalez (22-2-1, 13) 30 days to negotiate a deal for a mandatory world title fight.

That 30 day period was expected to result in a deal being made, with the teams though to have been close to securing a deal before the order was even made.

Today a deal for the bout has been announced!

The Hanatanaka gym, lead by former world champion Kiyoshi Hatanaka, held a press conference earlier today to announce that the Tanaka Vs Gonzalez bout was a done deal for August 24th at the Takeda Teva Ocean Arena in Nagoya, the same venue that Tanaka won the title last September with a win over Sho Kimura.

For Tanaka, a 3-weight world champion, the bout serves as his second defense of the title, following the previous mentioned win in September, and comes on the back of a commanding win over Ryoichi Taguchi in March. As for Gonzalez this will be his first world title fight, and his first bout in Asia, following bouts in a number of American countries.

It’s worth noting that the challenger will be one of the first southpaws that Tanaka has faced during his professional career, though his team and especially his father, showed no worries given that Tanaka faced a number of southpaws in the amateur ranks.

The bout will air on CBC, but specifics in regards to time haven’t yet been confirmed. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to continue our working relationship with the channel to be able to bring you a live, legal stream to the bout in August.