By Ryan Burton

Rob Brant will defend his WBA "regular" middleweight title for the second time on Friday.  Standing across the ring from him in Osaka, Japan will be Ryota Murta.  The fight will be streamed live on ESPN+.

In October Brant captured the title by beating Murata via a dominant unanimous decision in Las Vegas, Nevada. After that he stopped Khasan Baysangurov in 11 rounds in a homecoming bout in Minnesota.

This will be the American's second fight on foreign soil.  He fought in Germany in 2017 and suffered his only career defeat when he move up to 168 pounds and faced Juergen Braehmer in the World Boxing Super Series.

He said that he isn't worried about going on the road again, stating that the Japanese audience is usually laid back..

“It is a very quiet and calm type of country so it’s not necessarily as hostile as say going to the UK and fighting a UK champion or something like that but it is very exciting," Brant stated.

Brant also believes that it is only fair that he faces Murata in his homeland because the 2012 Olympic gold medalist gave him the opportunity to fight for his world title in his home country.

“He gave me the opportunity coming to the United States to give me a shot as me being the challenger and now I am going to go to Japan and giving him that same opportunity and I am very excited to fight him and have the same result,” Brant told BoxingScene.com.

Brant-Murata 2 will be streamed live on the ESPN+ application at 7am eastern time on July 12th.

Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter