Former featherweight titleholder Billy Dib, a mandatory challenger to face rising Puerto Rican contender Jose Pedraza for a vacant junior lightweight title, instead has signed to challenge Takashi Miura for another version of the 130-pound world title.
The reason: Dib, ever the competitor, preferred to face a reigning titleholder, Miura, rather than compete for a vacant belt. Miura and Dib will meet May 1 at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Teiken Promotions announced Tuesday.
"I'm so humbled and happy that both the IBF and WBC have considered me [to fight for their title]," Dib told ESPN.com. "I have decided to go with the WBC option as I feel it's an opportunity to prove I belong with the best of my division."
Dib (39-3-1, 23 KOs), 29, of Australia, said he was thinking about history when he decided to pursue the fight with Miura instead of one with Pedraza because it was "an opportunity to dethrone the champion on his home soil and follow in the footsteps of the late, great Lionel Rose, who traveled to Tokyo to capture world championship glory against Fighting Harada."
In 1968, Rose, a boxing hero in Australia, traveled to Tokyo and won a unanimous 15-round decision against Japanese legend Harada, later elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame, to win the unified bantamweight world title.
"I want to face the best, and I know if I can dethrone Miura, I will be given that opportunity to once again be on the big stage," Dib said.
Dib won a vacant featherweight belt in 2011, made two successful defenses and then lost it by split decision to Russia's Evgeny Gradovich in Mashantucket, Connecticut, in 2013. In a rematch later in the year in Macau, China, Gradovich knocked Dib out in the ninth round. Since then Dib, who moved up in weight, has won three fights in a row.
Miura (28-2-2, 21 KOs), 30, a Japanese southpaw, won his title by ninth-round knockout of Gamaliel Diaz in April 2013 and has successfully defended it three times, most recently by sixth-round knockout of Edgar Puerta on Nov. 22.
Also on the card, middleweight Ryota Murata (6-0, 4 KOs), 2012 Japanese Olympic gold medalist, will take on Douglas Damiao Ataide (13-1-1, 6 KOs), of Brazil, in a scheduled 10-round bout.
Former flyweight and strawweight world titleholder Akira Yaegashi (20-5, 10 KOs), who has lost back-to-back flyweight title bouts by knockout, will appear on the undercard against an opponent to be determined.