Xu Can, one of the few Chinese boxing world champions in the country's history, will be returning home for his first title defense.
The Chinese star will defend his title in his hometown of Fuzhou, Jiangxi province in China on May 26 against former super bantamweight champion Shun Kubo.
The fight will mark his first title since a dominant performance against Jesus Rojas in Houston, Texas this past January in what turned out to be an action-packed fight. Can won the title by unanimous decision with the fight featuring 2,574 total punches being thrown between the two fighters. Can is on a very short list of Chinese-born boxers to win a world title, a list that only features Zou Shiming and Xiong Zhao Zhong. Can also becomes the third WBA "Regular" titleholder at 126 pounds in the span of a year with Abner Mares and now Rojas as the previous titleholders.
Kubo once held the WBA "Regular" super bantamweight title in 2017, but in his first title defense, he lost the belt to Daniel Roman by being stopped in the ninth round. Since then, he has only fought once. That fight was a split decision against Hiroshige Osawa.
The card will also feature a number of top Asian boxers. Former WBO flyweight champion Sho Kimura will fight current WBA "Regular" light flyweight champion Carlos Canizales in what will be Canizales' second defense of the belt. WBA International flyweight titleholder Wulan Tuolehazi will take on an opponent to be named at a later date in the co-main event.
