By Hisao Adachi

Over the weekend at the Prefectual Gymnasium in Osaka, there was a card held under the promotion of the Green Tsuda Boxing Gym in Osaka.

During that card there was a farewell ceremony in honor of former interim-WBA junior middleweight world champion Nobuhiro Ishida (27-11-1, 11KOs, 39 years of age and Green Tsuda Boxing Gym), who decided to hang up his gloves for good.

He turned pro in May of 2000 in Osaka, Japan. In 2009 he beat Marco Antonio Avendano for the interim-WBA 154-pound title. He traveled to Mexico in October of 2010 and lost a close and some felt controversial decision over Rigoberto Alvarez.

The following year, he got the biggest win of his career with the upset of 2011 when he knocked out undefeated and heavily favored James Kirkland in one round at the MGM Grand in Ls Vegas.

He then fought some of the best, losing fights Paul Williams, Dmitry Piorg and Gennady Golovkin. The loss to Golovkin was the only time Ishida was stopped inside the distance.

In 2014, Ishida made a very unexpected move when he jumped from middleweight all the way to heavyweight. He went 2-2 as a heavyweight, losing two of those fights to Kyotaro Fujimoto in a battle for the Japanese heavyweight title.