Japan Boxing Commission said on March 10 it took disciplinary action against World Boxing Association super flyweight champion Kazuto Ioka of Shisei Boxing Gym as of March 7 in violation of ethical provision vis-à-vis his title unification fight with then WBA champion Joshua Franco of the United States in Tokyo on New Years’s Eve of 2022.

  While Ioka, the then World Boxing Organization super flyweight champion, fought to a draw with Franco, a small amount of a hemp substance was detected from Ioka’s urine sample after the fight.　

While JBC said three days before their direct rematch last June that the detected amount of the substance called THC-COOH (Carboxy-THC) was far below the average level set by the World Anti-Doping Agency and, therefore, did not run counter to doping violation in accordance with its relevant rules.

But JBC did say at that time that it might consider imposing some kind of sanction on Ioka. This is because while the detection of the hemp substance itself might not violate the Article 97 that regulates the prevention of various doping, it thought such detection was not favorable in light of fostering healthy athletic activities.

Ioka relinquished his WBO title in February last year and decisioned Franco in the rematch.

  JBC is currently of the view that Ioka, one of Japan’s three four weight-division world champions in history, gave rise to suspicion that he might have used the hemp substance despite Ioka being one of Japan’s representative boxers.