Ginjiro Shigeoka and his elder brother Yudai Shigeoka, both of Watanabe Boxing Gym, jointly held a press conference in Tokyo on March 7 that they will have their respective world minimumweight title fights on Apr. 16 at Tokyo’s Yoyogi National 2nd Gymnasium on Apr. 16.

The 23-year-old Ginjiro, the International Boxing Federation’s fourth-ranked minimumweight, will face third-ranked Rene Mark Cuarto of the Philippines for the division’s interim world title.

This is because IBF champion Daniel Valladares of Mexico, who is said to be suffering from his left ear problems since his fight with Ginjiro on Jan. 6 in Osaka, is out of action, and the IBF agreed to install an interim champion.

The Valladares-Ginjiro fight was declared no decision (no contest) as Valladares could not continue the fight due to an accidental head butt in the third round.

While both sides met the following day together with a supervisor of the IBF and Kameda Promotion Co. head Koki Kameda, who promoted the fight as part of the ‘’3150FIGHTVol.4’’ boxing series, and agreed that they will try to have their rematch. But it seems to have fallen on deaf ears as far as Valladares was concerned.

Ginjiro said, ‘’The interim title fight was not what I had wanted. I cannot trust Valladares, who sent a video message to the effect that he wants to have a rematch (with Ginjiro).’’

As for Cuarto, who lost the title to Valladares in his title defense last July with a split decision, Ginjiro commented, ‘’Honestly, he is better boxer than Valladares. I think he is a kind of boxer who comes out strong with his hard punches. It will be an interesting fight.’’

The left-handed Ginjiro has eight straight wins, including six knockouts, while the 26-year-old Cuarto has a 21-3-2 win-loss-draw tally with 12 KOs.

Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Yudai, the World Boxing Council’s fourth-ranked minimumweight, will take a crack at the division’s title held by Panya Pradabsri of Thailand.

Yudai said, ‘’My brother and I have been engaged in the fighting sport for 20 years. It will be our turn to become world champions.’’

Concerning the 32-year-old Panya, Yudai said, ‘’He is not weak but is an ordinary boxer. He is not in a class by himself. I promise I will knock him out by packing a hard punch to him, although I cannot predict in which round.’’

Panya has a record of 39 wins, including 23 KOs, against a loss, while Yudai, who fought more than 90 times as an amateur, has six straight wins, including four KOs.

In the day’s event called ‘’3150FIGHTVol.5,’’ Japanese heavyweight champion
Mitsuro Brandon Tajima of KWORLD3 Boxing Gym, third-ranked Japanese super bantamweight Mugicha Nakagawa of Ichiriki Boxing Gym and fourth-ranked Japanese featherweight Tsubasa Narai of RK Kamata Boxing Gym are also expected to participate.