The US Marine gets his chance at a belt, deserving or not.
WBO junior lightweight titleholder Masayuki Ito (25-1-1, 13 KOs) has had a pretty remarkable career given that he had no amateur career whatsoever. The rising 27 year old Japanese star made a big statement in largely dominating favored Top Rank prospect Christopher Diaz on American soil in July to pick up his belt. More recently he stopped previously unbeaten Russian challenger Evgeny Chuprakov as part of Japan’s annual year end fight festivities. Ito is a very physically talented fighter who I think would be a legitimately tough out for anyone but the top couple fighters at 130 lbs.
Jamel Herring (19-2, 13 KOs) is not on his level. He isn’t even ranked in the WBO top 15, a thing that is necessary for a title shot until randomly it isn’t in this sport. The US Marine was a prospect being brought up by Al Haymon and PBC until he was completely overwhelmed by Denis Shafikov in 2016. A second loss to Ladarius Miller two fights later ended his tenure with them.
2018 saw Bob Arum and Top Rank bring him on anyway, however. That looks to have been a wise decision for the busted prospect as three lower level wins have vaulted him into a title shot, likely because his new promoters think his military story is highly marketable more so than because of anything they saw in the ring. I don’t think he can be competitive with Ito, but at least he is getting the chance.
Of course, this is hardly official. All we have on this fight so far is Bob Arum tweeting that it would be happening. Since Arum runs Top Rank and works closely with Ito’s Japanese promoter, it does seem real. We don’t have an expected date or anything. I’d expect this to headline a Top Rank on ESPN+ when it does happen though, whether the fight takes place stateside or in Japan.
