This is a good fight and a hard one for Tanaka to take after suffering a knockout loss in his last fight. Sho Ishida has challenged for a world title and his only other loss is to highly rated contender Israel Gonzalez on a split decision.
Sho Ishida is tall for the weight and has a solid jab though never doubles it up and rarely throws anything behind it. He overall doesn’t throw all that many punches and isn’t interested in exchanging on the inside. He’s tough and won’t give in without a hard fight but is slightly limited in my opinion.
Kosei Tanaka is a multi weight world champion who opposed to Ishida is most likely a bit small for a super flyweight. He works well to the body and applies good educated pressure. He throws a good amount of punches and knows how to get on the inside which will help him massively against Ishida. While he was stopped in his last fight he still put up a good fight versus Ioka who is an excellent fighter and a multi weight world champion himself. Tanaka also has respectable power which breaks opponents down as the fight goes on.
I personally think Tanaka will be able to get inside and work the body of Ishida who doesn’t have the power to keep Tanaka off him. A jab with no variety will be easily picked off by Tanaka as the fight progresses and I imagine he’ll stop Ishida in the 9th or 10th round due to an accumulation of punches. Tanaka’s body work will play a major role in slowing Ishida down and stopping him late on.
Boxing Fulcrum 