El Desperado to defend IWGP Junior Heavyweight title against Francesco Akira at NJPW 53rd Anniversary card

Image Credit: NJPW

El Desperado’s next IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match has been booked.

Desperado will meet Francesco Akira as part of NJPW’s 53rd Anniversary Event, which is scheduled to go down on March 6th at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan. The new title fight was announced on Wednesday.

Junior Heavyweight champ Desperado will be looking to defend his title for the third time since earning it at Wrestle Kingdom 19. He first put the belt on the line as part of Battle In The Valley last month, defeating Taiji Ishimori at the San Jose card.

Desperado appeared earlier this week in Korakuen Hall to retain his belt once again, working 23 minutes before finding a victory against Kosei Fujita. It was after their match that Akira appeared and issued the challenge to Desperado.

Desperado and Akira have previously met just once in singles action. The two collided as part of the 2023 Best of the Super Junior block action, with Desperado winning in 25 minutes.

The matchup is a first-ever singles title shot for Akira since he started working in NJPW three years ago. Apart from Best of the Super Junior appearances, the “Fireball” has mostly focused on the promotion’s tag division alongside TJP.

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Jack Wannan is a journalist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He writes and reports on professional wrestling, along with other topics like MMA, boxing, music, local news, and more. He graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University in 2023 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He can be reached at [email protected]