The Olympics - Japan

[sugar555]

Japan my hometown a country with a very rich boxing history and currently has 8 world champions. All together Japan has created over 60 world champions over the last century but they fail at the Olympics miserably every time.
Japan has only had in the past only 3 Olympics medalists in the past and only one gold medal in which Sakurai Takao had won by RSC in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics but that was the last time Japan was able to get even near a Olympic medal of any kind. Time and time again they sent out amateur standouts to fight for a medal but time and time again they fail and most of the amateur standouts today will go on to be a pro for example Ioka Kazuto the unified WBC and WBA Minimum weight champion, he was suppossed to go to the 2008 bejing olympics but failed to qualify. Tomoki Kameda was rejected because he was to young (16) and decided to move to Mexcio and start his pro career and now you see him currently as the WBC super-bantamweight silver champion.
So why does this country with likely more world champions than any other country have so few medals in the Olympics? That is because the level at which the amateur's compete in japan is not as high as you would say America.
Are there any Olympics hopefuls this year? Yes there is actually and he is in the MIDDLEWEIGHT division his name is Murata Ryota currently #2 in the world his record stands at a amazing 133 fights 114 wins 19 losses and 88 ko (RSC) Last year at the Baku world championships he lost a close decisions and was able to get the silver medal which put him in the place to be able to qualify to go to the Olympics in 2012. below is a video of his match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaNYAJ6hJ6M

[sugar555]

I would think they probably don't have success for the same reason as Mexico, they must not have good amateur program or money for this version of the sport and their best young athlethes are in hurry to turn pro because they have better conditions and money there. I would like to hear from some Japanese about it though.

Japan isn't like other countries were you go to a gym and sign up and pay to box. All or most of the amateur boxing programs are based in schools like high school and college. They have a national championships 2 3 times a year I think and unlike America were they have Olympic trials they just choose based on past performance such as getting a silver medal in the world championships.

[sugar555]

That's interesting, but basing on their limited success in amateur, it's obviously not working well. Do people care about amateur boxing there at all?

I would say not as much as say baseball because high school baseball is huge in japan but from the way I see it no not really but that is only because there is a relativity small population of high school amateurs I think it was about 2000 or so. But as a added note every school club and gym in japan has winning gear if you walk into a high school that has boxing in japan there is only winning and everyone's boxing shoes are either mizuno or asics. So all the winning gear that you guys on this site just wish you could have is something normal to a high school student in japan, they have no idea what the hell everlast or grant is.

[sugar555]

Thanks for good info, always interesting for me to hear how the things works in Japan. It's all very different indeed.
And I will definitely support Japanese boxers during olympics, hopefully they will do well.
By the way, do you know who did Ioka lost to in Olympics trials/eliminations?

I have no idea who ioka lost to.

[Sportofkings]

Murata will get Japan a medal anyways, guaranteed!

[sugar555]

encase you did not know murata is going to be fighting in the round 16 middle weight divison eliminater, guess there was a good side of being #2 in the world.

[sugar555]

Also, Shimizu just went through first round, althouh in my opinion it was a robbery. Either way, not his fault, good luck to him.

it wasn't exactly a robbery but I can understand why you would say it was a robbery.

[sugar555]

japan has another matchup today
Yasuhiro Suzuki vs Mehdi Khalsi welterweight
at 3:15 pm on pt

[Japanese Boxing]

Another Japanese Boxing fan!

Thanks for the updates by the way. I don't know **** about Amateur boxing in Japan. I know of Murata, I hope he can take home the gold.

[Japanese Boxing]

Suzuki won. Good sstuff.