Iwata, rated No. 6 by The Ring at junior flyweight, has followed the defending champion since his lengthy title reign at strawweight.

"My impression has always been that he repeatedly turned back challenges from Japanese fighters," Iwata (15-2, 12 KOs) told The Ring. "He is a champion who built a long reign as the WBA super champion [at strawweight], and I see him as an opponent with experience, toughness, and strong physicality.

"I'm truly grateful to be given the chance to become a world champion for the second time, and I spend every day with the tension of knowing that failure is not an option.

"For me to win, I need to execute what I've been working on in training and carry out the game plan inside the ring."

Iwata began his career with nine consecutive wins collecting the Japanese and OPBF titles, but was outhustled by slick WBO 108-pound titlist Jonathan Gonzalez (UD 12) in an ambitious title attempt back in November 2022.

The 30-year-old returned with four inside the distance wins and when Gonzalez vacated his title, Iwata was nicely positioned to face Jairo Noriega for the vacant title. He made the most of his opportunity, impressively stopping Noriega in three rounds in October 2024.

However, just when it looked like he would settle into his new position, he was surprisingly beaten by Rene Santiago (UD 12) last March. That led to a testing time in his life.

"After losing that fight, I went through a long period where it was difficult to rebuild the desire to fight," he admitted. "But after winning my comeback bout [against Edwin Cano (KO 7) on October 4], the fire for boxing was lit inside me once again."

Since then, he has remained at the Teiken Gym, in Tokyo, training under the watchful eye of famed trainer Sendai Tanaka, who has worked with a who's who of boxing, including Jorge Linares, Marco Antonio Barrera, Takahiro Ao and Roman Gonzalez.

Iwata knows the importance of this fight, if he is to go on to achieve his future goals.

"This is the most important fight of my career so far," he said. "I'm glad that I've been able to prepare better than ever before.

"I want to capture world titles in multiple weight divisions."

Freshmart (29-1, 11 KOs), who is unranked by The Ring at 108 pounds, was the WBA strawweight titleholder for over eight years. The 35-year-old Thai veteran made 12 defenses before losing to WBO counterpart Oscar Collazo (TKO 7). They also contested the vacant Ring title.

He returned up at 108 pounds and when Carlos Canizales was unable to defend his WBC title due to the political situation in Venezuela, Freshmart bested Junior Zarate over 12 rounds to fill the vacancy on December 4.