Mizuki Hiruta is just under two weeks away from her latest world title defence and the active 115-pound champion was honored on Thursday at Japan's consulate in her Los Angeles training base.

She was greeted by and took pictures with consul general Kosei Murota, appointed in his role this summer.

In a press release, she said: "It was a great honor to meet with Consul General Kosei Murota, he is very supportive of my career and I look forward to welcoming him to a future fight. It was a perfect way to take a short break from the training for my title defense on November 22."

360 Promotions president Tom Loeffler deemed this 'perfect timing' for Hiruta (9-0, 2 KOs) to make the sixth defence of her WBO belt in her adopted Los Angeles home a few weeks after the MLB's Dodgers successfully defended the World Series.

"It's great to see the support Mizuki has received from Japanese fans in the United States and Japan. Mizuki hails from the same Okayama hometown as World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto comes from, clearly something special there to produce World Champion athletes," he mused.

Southern California and Arizona is home to approximately 90,000 Japanese nationals and L.A. is widely recognised as the city with the largest Japanese population worldwide outside the country.

Hiruta, whose last three fights have all been exclusively on US shores, will face Gloria Gallardo (16-3-3, 7 KOs) for her WBO and Ring 115-pound titles on Saturday, November 22 in Long Beach, California.

Earlier this year she told The Ring that despite her steadily growing profile, she's not satisfied. Through a translator, the 29-year-old was quoted as saying:

"I have a lot of room to improve still, and I'm not satisfied yet, not at all. I don't think I'm recognized very well, and then to have that, I have to unify titles and also move up the divisions, so that way I can be a superstar. I want to be a superstar."