On March 13, 2025, the 29-year-old WBO light-flyweight world champion, Shokichi Iwata (14-1, 11 KOs), faced a 32-year-old Puerto Rican boxer René Santiago (13-4, 9 KOs), in a title defense fight.
Iwata came in to the fight on a 5-fight win streak with a 73% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 5 months. Santiago was on a 1-fight win streak with a 52% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 4 months and 13 days.
René Santiago defeated Shokichi Iwata via unanimous decision and wins the WBO title — in his first world-title fight. Santiago improves his record to 14-4, while Iwata adds a loss to his record at 14-2.
On November 1, 2022, a 26-year-old Shokichi Iwata (9-0, 6 KOs) got a shot at the light-flyweight WBO title held by 31-year-old Puerto Rican boxer Jonathan González (26-3-1, 14 KOs).
Iwata came in to the fight on a 9-fight win streak with a 66% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 3 months and 30 days. González was on a 4-fight win streak with a 46% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 4 months and 8 days.
Jonathan González defeated Shokichi Iwata via unanimous decision and successfully defended his WBO light-flyweight title. González improves his record to 27-3-1, while Iwata adds a loss to his record at 9-1.