Report, Photo by Joe Koizumi

By Fightnews.com

Having failed to win the vacant WBO featherweight belt due to a seventh round stoppage by Oscar Valdez in Las Vegas last November, Japanese veteran Hiroshige Osawa (30-4-4, 19 KOs) will square off against WBA#15 Ecuadorian Julio Cortez (13-0, 11 KOs) tomorrow (Sunday) in Sakai city, Osaka prefecture, Japan. This will be his first appearance since his unsuccessful world title shot. Cortez, four years his junior at 28, made weight today, and said, “I’m comfortable here in Osaka, and will show my good performance to beat Osawa.” Osawa, who also looked fine and fit, also showed his good motivation to keep on fighting, saying, “I wish to fight in a world title bout again, so I must win over the world contender Cortez tomorrow.” It will be a competitive confrontation of the taller outboxer (Osawa) and the shorter puncher (Cortez).