The final scheduled title fight of 2024 will no longer take place.

The Ring has confirmed that Fernando ‘Pumita’ Martinez was forced to withdraw from planned junior bantamweight title defense against Kazuto Ioka. A battle with the flu was too much for Martinez to overcome, which prompted event handlers to cancel the New Year’s Eve clash.

Martinez’s medical scratch came just hours before he and Ioka were due to weigh-in for their rematch at Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo.

The development—while a massive letdown—was hardly a surprise.

Argentina’s Martinez (17-0, 9 KOs) canceled a scheduled open workout late last week at the eleventh hour. His team informed the media that The Ring No. 1 junior bantamweight contender was diagnosed with a 100-degree fever but that he was on course to proceed with the fight.

That turned out to be bullshit.

Ioka, No. 2 at 115 by The Ring, was left at the altar for Saturday’s final pre-fight press conference, raising doubt on whether Martinez would make it to fight night.

There were major concerns about the unbeaten titlist’s weight. Martinez was reportedly not on course to hit the 115-pound mark required to enter the ring with his WBA title still intact.

He will leave Tokyo as the reigning WBA titlist for now, pending an investigation by the sanctioning body to determine if disciplinary action is necessary.

A rescheduled date was not immediately known, nor were messages left by The Ring seeking clarification returned as this goes to publication.

Martinez was due to make the first defense of the WBA belt he lifted from Ioka (31-3-1, 16 KOs) in their July 6 thriller at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.

Their bout also came with the IBF title at stake. Martinez held the belt since Feb. 2022 and made his third successful defense with the win. However, he opted to vacate in lieu of an ordered mandatory defense versus Mexico’s Willibaldo Garcia (22-5-1, 13 KOs).

With that decision, Martinez was free to pursue the far more lucrative rematch against Ioka.

The development now leaves Ioka without a New Year’s Eve fight for just the second time since he began the tradition in 2011. The lone other year where such an event didn’t include his participation was in 2017, when Ioka was briefly done with the sport before his 2018 return.

Ioka has held titles in four weight divisions, including two separate reigns at junior bantamweight. He won the WBO 115-pound title in June 2019 and made six successful defenses. The last was a majority draw with Joshua Franco in their 2022 New Year’s Eve WBO/WBA unification bout.

Their June 2023 rematch came with just the WBA title at stake. Ioka preferred to settle unfinished business with Franco instead of an all-Japan showdown with ordered title challenger Junto Nakatani (29-0, 22 KOs), now a three-division titlist who is The Ring No. 1 bantamweight and No. 9 pound-for-pound entrant.

Ioka outpointed an overweight Franco over twelve rounds to win the WBA strap and enter his fifth title reign over the course of his Hall of Fame-worthy career. He made one successful defense before the heartbreaking defeat to Martinez earlier this summer.

Tuesday would have marked Ioka’s thirteenth overall New Year’s Eve headliner, and his fourth career rematch. He is 3-0 in repeat business, all which came in major title fights. He avenged a Dec. 2018 loss to Donnie Nietes and a Dec. 2022 draw with Joshua Franco.