SAN ANTONIO – Naoko Fujioka has won major titles in more weight divisions than any other fighter—male or female—to come out of Japan.

Among the few things not achieved by the legendary five-division champion over the course of her 12-plus year career is a unified title reign.

A shot at that is now well within reach, as Tokyo’s Fujioka puts her WBA flyweight crown on the line versus 2012 Olympic Bronze medalist and reigning WBC titlist Marlen Esparza (11-1, 1KO) of Houston, Texas. The two meet this Saturday as the co-feature of a four-fight DAZN telecast live from Alamodome in San Antonio, with the biggest fight of Fujioka’s career taking place three hours from her opponent’s hometown.

“It doesn’t matter to me that I am fighting in her home state,” Fujioka noted after her portion of an open media workout Wednesday afternoon at Will Naylor Smith Riverwalk Plaza in downtown San Antonio. “I will put on a performance to make sure everyone knows I am the better fighter.”

The fight comes nearly eleven years after Fujioka (19-2-1, 7KOs) won her first crown, an eighth-round stoppage of Anabel Ortiz to win the WBC strawweight belt in May 2011. All but eight of her pro fights have come with a major title at stake, claiming belts at—in chronological order—strawweight, junior bantamweight, bantamweight, flyweight and junior flyweight.

The title win at flyweight came on Fujioka’s third try, suffering the lone two defeats of her career at the weight before winning a vacant belt in March 2017. Three defenses have followed, including a ten-round draw with countrywoman Tsunami Tenkai—a former junior flyweight titlist—and a ten-round decision over Sulem Urbina last July in Los Angeles, marking just her second career road win and first with a belt at stake.

Despite boasting more title fights (14) than Esparza has overall fights (12), Fujioka enters Saturday’s unification bout as a +225 underdog, according to BetMGM sportsbook, to prevail on the road.

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Fujioka vowed of the perceived uphill battle. “I am excited for this fight and ready to perform at my best.”

Esparza-Fujioka serves as the co-feature to a scheduled 12-round bout between lightweight contenders Ryan Garcia (21-0, 18KOs) and Emmanuel Tagoe (32-1, 15KOs), to be fought at a maximum contracted weight of 139 pounds.

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