Former world minimumweight champion Katsunari Takayama of Neyagawa Ishida Boxing Club will have his second fight on Sept. 10 in Osaka since losing to then World Boxing Organization light flyweight champion Elwin Soto of Mexico in Dallas, Texas in May 2021, the club said at a press conference on Aug. 3.

  According to the club, the 40-year-old Takayama, who returned to the ring on June 11 this year by decisioning Joel Lino of the Philippines in a light flyweight eight-rounder in Kyoto, will have an eight-round fight with another Filipino boxer, whose name has not yet been announced, at EDION Arena Osaka’s annex.

  Takayama has been engaged in training in Nagano Prefecture’s Chino and said online, ‘’I am glad that I can have a fight in such a short span of time after I returned to the ring in June. I have been running both in the morning and in the evening. I want to begin sparring sessions immediately after I return to the club.’’

  Takayama’s fight will serve as the chief supporting card for a 10-round nontitle fight between former WBO’s Asia-Pacific flyweight champion Riku Kano of Taisei Boxing Gym and Kitidech Hirunsuk of Thailand. The 25-year-old Kano is currently ranked first in the WBO’s world flyweight rankings and is said to be aiming at a world title challenge in the near future.

  Takayama, who made a professional debut in 2000, became the World Boxing Council minimumweight champion in 2005. He then captured the World Boxing Association minimumweight interim title in 2006. He also won the International Boxing Federation minimumweight title in 2013 and then the WBO title in the same division in 2014, becoming the first Japanese to win all the minimumweight titles of the four major sanctioning bodies.

  Takayama has a record to 33 wins, including nine KOs, against nine losses.