In a close and very entertaining bout with a controversial result, Argentina’s Juan Carlos Reveco (35-2, 19 knockouts) lost what appeared to be a home-cooked majority decision at the hands of local superstar Kazuto Ioka (17-1, 10 KOs) in Osaka, Japan.

The superbly talented Ioka, a former two-division champion with a stellar amateur career, had a lot of trouble with Reveco’s stalking tactics and his continuous side movements, which he used not only defensively but also to land accurate combinations from all angles.

But Reveco’s connect rate began to drop in the second half of the bout as Ioka gained confidence and managed to land more sporadically than Reveco but with a lot of power.

Ioka surged in the seventh round and won two more before relinquishing control of the bout back to Reveco, who had a terrific 10th and 11th round. The challenger, however, closed the show with a very solid final round, landing with power and rocking Reveco towards the end. The scorecards were 115-113 and 116-113 for Ioka, with the remaining card being scored a draw at 114. Ring TV had 115-113 for Reveco, who was attempting to make the ninth defense of his WBA “regular” belt.

Ioka had previously won the WBC strawweight belt in his seventh professional bout against Oleydong Sithsamerchai and defended it three times before moving up to junior flyweight, where he picked up the vacant WBA belt against Jose Alfredo Rodriguez and defended it on three occasions as well. His only loss came against Amnat Ruenroeng in an IBF junior flyweight bout in 2014.

[Note: A previous version of this story described Ioka as now being a three-division titleholder. However, the belt he won from Reveco is the WBA’s “World” title. THE RING recognizes the WBA “Super World” belt, which is held by Juan Francisco Estrada, as the true 112-pound title.]