Comments Thread For: Further tragedy in Japan: Hiromasa Urakawa dies from fight injuries

[BoxingUpdates]

More tragic news has broken in Japan, where it has been announced that Hiromasa Urakawa has died from the injuries he sustained in his fight with Yoji Saito in Tokyo on August 2.
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[Coverdale]

This is just awful. The JBC need to see if there are any lessons which can be learned, flaws in procedure, etc.

[Boxfan83]

You dont play boxing. Most people just see what these go go through in the ring but I have no doubt both these men were concussed in sparring before these fights. Trainers need to look out for their fighters. Boxing sparring is brutal.

[Boxfan83]

This is just awful. The JBC need to see if there are any lessons which can be learned, flaws in procedure, etc.

It is very sad. Any boxer dying in the ring is likely concussed going into the fight though. Unless the JBC or and commission does a CAT scan, its on the trainer or fighter to omit recent head injuries.

[Smash]

pretty shocking 2 dead on the same card, im going to have to assume it was the surgeon who killed both

[1Eriugenus]

It is tragic, but you can’t make boxing safe. It involves 2 people trying to hurt each other. The only way to stop it is to ban boxing. I am sure some people in Japan will be considering it. Reducing the rounds won’t make it safer, the guys will just increase their work rate in the rounds they have. In both cases the fights seem to have been very competitive, so you can’t say the referee or corner were to blame for not pulling them out. Maybe Japanese coaches should be concentrating more on defence and less on attacking, but skilful defensive boxers also die in
the ring. It is horrible and I can only think of their parents, siblings, wives or girlfriends and, god forbid, any children they have.

[famicommander]

Arrest the entire JBC at this point. This just keeps on happening.

[Malvado]

JBC needs to take better procedures. There has been a lot of casualties and they don't seem to be really addressing their involvement with the professional fighters, they just give their sympathies despite that they are the ones who are in charge of giving the green light. Also making sure the referees are doing their jobs properly.

Japanese Fighters often get hard sparring and take elite level fights quite early in their careers, at least make sure fighters take proper breaks and medical checks. Make sure they don't have a concussion before going in a professional 12 round fight. Not saying they can't take fight at the top level early if they already are displaying the skill and ability, saying they should manage their careers better by making sure they don't take too many dangerous fights consecutively. Hard sparring should be less frequent too.

Coaches are not being brave enough to throw in the towel. Or they just dismiss their fighter's condition.

Excessive weight cutting seems to be common in divisions around Flyweight, reason why some fighters move up quickly trying to get a title belt and reason why JBC give the fighters a 1-2 year ban if they missed weight. Though these same fighters are allowed to fight again if they fight at another division.

Also seen about two Japanese Featherweights having been banned and moving up in Keisuke Matsumoto and Hayato Tsutsumi, wouldn't be shocked if it also happened to Mikito Nakano, who looked pretty great, but is in his early 30s and he seems to be looking drained against Pedro Medina before rehydrating.

[Brother Mouzone]

JBC needs to take better procedures. There has been a lot of casualties and they don't seem to be really addressing their involvement with the professional fighters, they just give their sympathies despite that they are the ones who are in charge of giving the green light. Also making sure the referees are doing their jobs properly.

Japanese Fighters often get hard sparring and take elite level fights quite early in their careers, at least make sure fighters take proper breaks and medical checks. Make sure they don't have a concussion before going in a professional 12 round fight. Not saying they can't take fight at the top level early if they already are displaying the skill and ability, saying they should manage their careers better by making sure they don't take too many dangerous fights consecutively. Hard sparring should be less frequent too.

Coaches are not being brave enough to throw in the towel. Or they just dismiss their fighter's condition.

Excessive weight cutting seems to be common in divisions around Flyweight, reason why some fighters move up quickly trying to get a title belt and reason why JBC give the fighters a 1-2 year ban if they missed weight. Though these same fighters are allowed to fight again if they fight at another division.

Also seen about two Japanese Featherweights having been banned and moving up in Keisuke Matsumoto and Hayato Tsutsumi, wouldn't be shocked if it also happened to Mikito Nakano, who looked pretty great, but is in his early 30s and he seems to be looking drained against Pedro Medina before rehydrating.

Great post I think Japanese boxing is beautiful , but they definitely are not looking out for the fighters . 3 japanese fighters have died since 2024 (Urakawa,Kotari,and Anagushi) one is still in a coma(Hata) and one is still in the hospital (Shigeoka)

[drablj]

these things just break my heart. i love fighters and fights like that and sometimes they die because of that. we can't say promoters are guilty for cherrypicking (different level of ability) or referees didn't stop when it was obvious someone was hurt and losing. fights are good and competitive. so who is to blame? people like me who love that but i don't want them to die or suffer terrible injuries... i considered still following boxing when anaguchi died. i was sad for days. it really touched me. but several cases in a short time span... very sad.