Ryota Murata to return October 20 in Las Vegas

WBA “world” titleholder Ryota Murata is set to return to action on October 20, according to ESPN, and the Japanese middleweight will be coming to Las Vegas to headline a Top Rank on ESPN card on that date.

Murata (14-1, 11 KO) won the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics in the middleweight division, and has been perfect as a pro other than an outright robbery loss to Hassan N’dam in May 2017, a defeat Murata made right five months later by stopping N’dam after seven rounds to claim the WBA belt.

Most recently, he fought Emanuele Blandamura on April 15, scoring a TKO-8 victory in his first title defense.

Murata is being lined up to potentially face Esquiva Falcao, who is also with Top Rank, and was the man that Murata narrowly defeated to win gold in London six years ago. But his October opponent could be mandatory challenger Rob Brant (23-1, 16 KO), who returned to the middleweight division with a win on March 9 in Minnesota, after a one-off try at super middleweight in the World Boxing Super Series last year. Brant lost his first round fight with Juergen Braehmer.

Falcao (20-0, 14 KO) could be in the co-feature in October, which would set up he and Murata, should they win, to fight after that.