Fifth-ranked challenger Kai Ishizawa of M.T Boxing Gym was disqualified for the Apr. 22 World Boxing Organization minimumweight title match at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall as he failed to meet the division’s weight limit in an official weigh-in on Apr. 21 in Yokohama.

The 25-year-old Ishizawa tipped the scale at 50.1 kg (110. 45 lbs.), as much as 2.5 kg over the class limit of the boxing’s lightest weight division of 47.6 kg (105 lbs.) in his first attempt. Taniguchi weighed in at 47.6 kg.

While Ishizawa was given a two-hour period of grace for making the weight, he managed to cut down his weight only by 0.2 kg as he weighed in at 49.9 kg and was disqualified according to the regulations in force.

After the parties concerned discussed the advisability of staging the fight, they reached an agreement to the effect that if Ishizawa can contain the weight within 3 kg above the minimumweight limit or 50.6 kg at 5:30 p.m. on Apr. 22, the fight will be held. Should he fail to observe the weight, the fight will be cancelled.

Under such circumstances, if Taniguchi, 28, wins the fight, it is designated as Taniguchi’s successful defense of the title he won from Wilfred Mendez of Puerto Rico last December.

Should he lose the match, Taniguchi will lose the title, which is different from the similar rules of the other three world sanctioning bodies: A champion who meets a given weight limit can retain the title when his challenger has been disqualified for not being able to make the weight. But in the case of the WBO, if a champion loses, the title will become vacant.

According to Japan Boxing Commission’s rule, if a boxer’s weight is more than 3 percent of the weight limit of a given division (1.4 kg in the case of minimumweight), the planned fight is cancelled then and there. But this rule does not apply to a world championship fight.

Taniguchi said after hearing Ishizawa’s overweight problems, ‘’I was surprised. But I think he did what he had to do to the utmost limit. I don’t think he did it on purpose. He could not reduce the weight by any possibility.’’

But the Watanabe gym side is disgruntled about the fact that Ishizawa could reduce only 200 grams in as long as two hours in addition to the fact Taniguchi could lose the title should he get defeated in the fight, which made the champion vacillate a lot, according to boxing sources familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, Ishizawa, recently nicknamed ‘’Micro Tyson’’ a la Mike Tyson, curtly said, ‘’I was not able to move suddenly in yesterday morning because I suddenly became ill. I thought I would do my training at night. But I could not do it enough nor correctly.’’

This is the second time that a Japanese boxer has been disqualified due to failing to make weight in a world title matche. In April 2018, then World Boxing Council flyweight champion Daigo Higa of now-defunct Shirai-Gushiken Sports Gym lost the title for this reason.

Taniguchi has 15 wins, including 10 KOs, against three losses, while Ishizawa has a 9-1 win-loss tally with eight KOs.