By Jake Donovan

Ryota Murata won his first major title by avenging the lone loss of his career. He hopes to find the same type of magic in his quest to regain that very strap.

The 2012 Olympic Gold medalist from Japan will return to his home country for a planned rematch with his recent conqueror, Minnesota’s Rob Brant. Their middleweight title fight sequel will take place on either July 12 or July 13 in Osaka, Japan, with ESPN+ to stream the event live.

ESPN.com’s Steve Kim was the first to report news of the bout being a done deal. Official details are still forthcoming, although BoxingScene.com has learned that a press conference is due to take place next week in Japan with final confirmation of the exact date and venue.

Brant (25-1, 17KOs) pulled off one of the bigger upsets of 2018 with a surprisingly lopsided points win over Murata last October in Las Vegas, which was also carried live on ESPN+. The feat netted the American middleweight his first major title, coming exactly 51 weeks after the lone loss of his career, a 12-round decision to Jurgen Braehmer in their World Boxing Super Series quarterfinals battle in Germany.

The aforementioned defeat was also Brant’s lone fight outside of the United States, although also taking place at super middleweight. He’s since won three straight since returning to middleweight, with his win over Murata followed up by his first successful title defense.

Brant scored an 11th round knockout of previously unbeaten Khasan Baysangurov this past February in front of a sold-out crowd at Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minn., roughly 90 minutes from his original hometown in St. Paul. He now gets to head overseas for the most lucrative opportunity of his still young career.

Interestingly, it comes through means of a common potential opponent for both boxers.

Murata (14-2, 11KOs) always had the option of an immediate rematch, but hasn’t yet returned to the ring. His decision to sit back and think hard on the best course of action moving forward afforded Brant a voluntary defense. It also gave the 33-year old former titlist from Japan a chance to explore a lucrative, low-risk showdown with former welterweight title claimant Jeff Horn.

The two sides had entered advanced talks only for Horn—who stopped countryman Anthony Mundine in the 1st round of their catchweight bout last November—to remove himself from the mix when an originally offered June date was pushed back to mid-July. Horn was unable to commit due to his wife Jo expected to give birth to their second child around that time and didn’t want to risk not being there for the moment.

It left Murata with little choice but to proceed with what will be the second rematch of his pro career. Both involve the secondary version of the World Boxing Association (WBA) middleweight title, which he was denied in a highly questionable 12-round loss to Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam at home in Tokyo in their May ’17 clash.

Murata avenged the first loss of his career in emphatic fashion, stopping N’Dam in the 7th round of their rematch just five months later. One successful defense followed—an 8th round stoppage of Italy’s Emanuele Blandumara last April—before running into Brant’s windmill-style offense in conceding the crown.

Now, he looks for the boxing gods to be as kind as the last time he was afforded a second chance at a lasting impression. Even if this time comes against a younger and stronger foe who proved without a doubt who was the better fighter the first time they met.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox