Masamichi Yabuki was determined to land a big fight or nothing at all.

A big fight, it is.

Yabuki will officially move up in weight to challenge IBF flyweight titlist Angel Ayala. Their scheduled twelve-round title fight is confirmed to take place on March 29 at Aichi Sky Expo in Yabuki’s hometown of Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.

Mexico City’s Ayala (18-0, 8 KOs) was granted permission by the IBF to bypass a mandatory title fight rematch with Felix Alvarado (42-4, 35KOs), who is now guaranteed a shot at the winner within 120 days of the show.

The ruling paved the way for a matchup between The Ring’s No. 1 flyweight in Ayala and No. 1 junior flyweight in Yabuki (17-4, 16 KOs), the current IBF junior flyweight titlist who would move up in weight. The bout will serve as the first leg of a two-day Lush BOMU Vol. 4’ event.

Yabuki made a point to seek out Ayala after his collapsed talks for a targeted IBF/WBA junior flyweight title unification with Erick Rosa (8-0, 2 KOs).

Ayala was more than willing to not only negotiate with Yabuki, but agree to fight the two-time junior flyweight titlist in his hometown. The unbeaten Mexican won the vacant IBF title in an Aug. 9 sixth-round knockout of Dave Apolinario (20-0 at the time) in his Mexico City hometown.

The showdown with Yabuki will mark his first title defense.

Yabuki dethroned Sive Nontshinga (13-2, 10 KOs) via a stirring ninth-round knockout last Oct. 12 in his home state of Aichi, Japan. The 32-year-old fighting hero of Nagoya, Aichi resurrected his career with the win, but is now at a point where his mentality is big fights or bust.

The win came more than three years after Yabuki’s massive upset knockout win over then-unbeaten Kenshiro Teraji in Sept. 2021 to win the WBC junior flyweight title. Teraji regained the belt six months later in a third-round knockout.

Four wins have followed for the 32-year-old Yabuki, all inside the distance. He now moves up the scale in a bid to become a two-division titlist in the twilight of his inspiring career.