Japan Boxing Commission executive head Yuhei Nagata on July 12 directly apologized to World Boxing Organization super flyweight champion Kazuto Ioka of Ambition GYM for a series of doping-related scandals concerning Ioka’s alleged use of a banned drug in his successful title defense against Kosei Tanaka of SOUL BOX Hatanaka Boxing Gym on Dec. 31 last year, in which Ioka stopped Tanaka in the eighth round.

During the press conference at Tokyo Dome Hotel, Nagata, 66, handed a letter of apology directly to Ioka while bowing slightly as he said, ‘’We at the JBC caused a strain of grief not only to Mr. Ioka himself but also to his family members. From now on, we would like to establish a firm doping inspection system and the prevention of information leakage.’’

For his part, the 32-year-old Ioka, whose Ambition GYM will change its name to Shisei Boxing Gym on July 15, said, ‘’ Though it (Nagata’s apology) did not clear a cluttered mind, I accepted the apology to shut the door on the matter. I went through hardship. My family members also suffered the agony of the matter. I really hope no other boxer will suffer things like I did. But I decided to move on, will face forward and train myself to prepare for my next title defense.’’

After Ioka retained his title by stopping Tanaka on New Year’s Eve, a weekly magazine reported a banned substance was detected from Ioka’s urine samples. But the JBC reported the matter to the police without informing Ioka of the alleged leakage.

While it was turned out later the JBC’s slipshod storing system of the samples was responsible for the confusion, the police did Ioka’s house searching in front of his family members.
Also, no urine samples were left through the police investigations, which made it impossible to recheck the samples despite Ioka’s strong request to do so.