Ringside Report’s Top Ten Japanese Fighters of All–Time!

By Jeffrey “Italian Medallion” Cellini

Don’t look now, but some of the best fighters in the world today reside in Japan. Besides WBO Bantamweight champion Naoya “The Monster” Inoue, who is looking for a unification fight with pound-for-pound king Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez, Japan has a few world champions that are being overlooked by the majority of boxing fans. Shinsuke Yamanaka, 26-0-2, 18 KO’s is the current WBC Bantamweight Champion. Yamanaka is currently ranked 9th in The Ring (magazine) Pound for pound listings. Hozumi Hasegawa, 36-5, 16 KO’s is the current WBC Super Bantamweight champion, and is a former WBC bantamweight and featherweight champion. Ryoichi Taguchi, 23-2-1, 10 KO’s is the current WBA Light Flyweight champion. Sometimes boxing fans forget that some of the best fighters, today and yesterday, can come from the Far East as well as another part in the world.

Japan has given the sport of boxing some of the best fighters ever. Here is a list of the Top Ten Japanese fighters of All-Time. Let the debate begin.

10) Hiroki Ioka, 33-8-1, 17 KO’s, from Sakai, Osaka, Japan is a former Lineal and WBC Minimumweight and WBA Light flyweight champion. He was the first ever WBC Minimumweight champion, winning the title immediately after the minimumweight division was created. On December 17, 1991, Ioka defeated Myung Woo Yuh, who was unbeaten in thirty-six career fights, for the WBA World Light Flyweight title.

9) Akinobu Hiranaka, 20-2, 18 KO’s, from Okinawa, Japan is a former WBA Light welterweight champion. On April 29,1989, Hiranaka lost controversial decision to the reigning champion Juan Coggi for the WBA title. However, on April 10, 1992, Hiranaka knocked out Edwin Rosario in 92 seconds to claim the WBA Light Welterweight crown.

8) Guts Ishimatsu, 31-14-6, 17 KO’s, from Tokyo, Japan, is a former WBC Lightweight champion. In 1973, Guts challenged the legendary Roberto Durán in Panama for the WBA Lightweight title; however, he was knocked out in the tenth round of a brutal fight. On April 11, 1974, Guts stopped the WBC Champion Rodolfo Gato González in the eighth round to take the belt.

7) Katsuo Tokashiki,19-4-2, 4 KO’s, from Okinawa, Japan is a former WBA Light Flyweight champion who made seven successful title defenses. On December 16, 1981, Tokashiki defeated Hwan-Jin Kim by unanimous decision to claim the WBA Lightweight title.

6) Yasuei Yakushiji, 24-3-1, 16 KO’s, from Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, is a former WBC Bantamweight champion who made four successful title defenses. On December 23, 1993, Yakushiji, defeated Jung-II Byun by a twelve round split-decision to take the WBC belt from the defending champion.

5) Naoya “The Monster” Inoue, 11-0, 9 KO’s, from Kanagawa, Japan, is a former WBC Light flyweight champion and the current WBO Junior Bantamweight champion. On April 6,2014, Inoue stopped Adrián Hernández to be crowned the WBC Light Flyweight champion in only his sixth professional fight. On December 30, 2014, “The Monster” destroyed Omar Andres Narvaez with a second-round knockout to take the WBO Junior Bantamweight crown in only his eighth professional fight.

4) Kuniaki Shibata, 47-6-3, 25 KO’s, from Toyko,Japan, is a former WBA Featherweight champion, and a former WBC and WBA Super Featherweight champion. On December 11, 1970, Shibata won the WBA Featherweight title from Vincente Saldivar (RTD12). On March 12,1973, Shibata defeated Ben Villaflor by a fifteen-round unanimous decision to take the WBA Super Featherweight belt.

3) Yoshio Shirai, 46-8-4, 18 KO’s, from Tokyo, Japan. won the World Flyweight title in 1952, becoming the first Japanese boxer to win a world title. On May 19, 1952, Shirai met Dado Marino (for the third time) for the World Flyweight title, and walked away with the belt after winning a fifteen-round decision.

2) Masao Ohba, 35-2-1, 16 KO’s, from Toyko, Japan, was the WBA World Flyweight champion. On October 22, 1970, defeated the reigning champion Berkrerk Chartvanchai in Tokyo and retained the championship for an impressive five title defenses. He tragically died from a car accident at only 22, still holding his world title.

1) Fighting Harada,55-7, 22 KO’s, from Tokyo, Japan, is a former world boxing champion in the Flyweight and Bantamweight divisions, and also challenged for the Featherweight title twice. On October 10,1962, Harada defeated Pone Kingpetch by knockout to win WBA World Flyweight title; also, defeated Eder Jofre by split-decision to win the WBA/WBC World Bantamweight titles.

Honorable Mention: Takefumi Sakata; Satoshi Shimizu; Katsunari Takayama; Koki Kameda.

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