On October 14, 2024, the 29-year-old WBO super-flyweight world champion, Kosei Tanaka (20-1, 11 KOs), faced a 20-year-old South African boxer Phumelele Cafu (10-0-3, 8 KOs), in a title defense fight.
Tanaka came in to the fight on a 5-fight win streak with a 52% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 7 months and 20 days. Cafu was on a 6-fight win streak with a 61% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 9 months and 28 days.
Phumelele Cafu defeated Kosei Tanaka via split decision and wins the WBO title — in his first world-title fight. Cafu improves his record to 11-0-3, while Tanaka adds a loss to his record at 20-2.
On December 31, 2020, a 25-year-old Kosei Tanaka (15-0, 9 KOs) got a shot at the super-flyweight WBO title held by 31-year-old fellow Japanese boxer Kazuto Ioka (25-2, 14 KOs).
Tanaka came in to the fight on a 15-fight win streak with a 60% KO rate, and was fighting after a gap of 1 year. Ioka was on a 2-fight win streak with a 51% KO rate, and fighting after a layoff of 1 year.
Kazuto Ioka stopped Kosei Tanaka via TKO in the 8th round of the 12-round world-title fight, and successfully defended his WBO super-flyweight title. Ioka improves his record to 26-2 (15 KOs), while Tanaka adds a loss to his record at 15-1.