Greatest Japanese fighter of all time

[1SILVA]

Who do you consider the best boxer ever to come out of Japan? I am partial to Yoko Gushiken, a great body puncher who had tremendous stamina

[JAB5239]

Who do you consider the best boxer ever to come out of Japan? I am partial to Yoko Gushiken, a great body puncher who had tremendous stamina

Fighting Harada. Don't know anything about Gushiken but will chech him out.

Harada's wins over Jofre and Medal are huge though.

[1SILVA]

Fighting Harada. Don't know anything about Gushiken but will chech him out.

Harada's wins over Jofre and Medal are huge though.

On the video trading block forum, komai has a 1978 fight of Gushiken. Harada is in the IBHOF, so he is probably the best from japan. Watch Gushiken, you will enjoy his fighting style. A very underrated fighter.

[JAB5239]

On the video trading block forum, komai has a 1978 fight of Gushiken. Harada is in the IBHOF, so he is probably the best from japan. Watch Gushiken, you will enjoy his fighting style. A very underrated fighter.

I will check him out. Thank you.

[mhager91490]

Fighting Harada without a doubt, he won his first title against the highly skilled Thailander Pone Kingpetch at nineteen I think it was, his run at Bantam was one of the best and he even had success as high as featherweight. I will post his first fight with Pone Kingpetch on Youtube soon.

[Silencers]

I'd go with Harada as well.

[The Monk]

Yep, Fighting Harada for me as well.

Gushiken had a great run at light-fly, 13 defences I think, but he didn't really beat any stand-out names and didn't attempt to unify the titles.

[Spartacus Sully]

I hear Ippo Makunochi's pretty good but i dont know if i would call him the greatest

[BennyST]

Fighting Harada for me too. Amazing fighter. Jiro Watanabe is also great.

There are quite a few very fine fighters though. I always liked 'Guts' Ishimatsu. Very fun to watch and a fine champion too. Had a terrible start to his career turning pro very young, which is why his record doesn't really fit with how great he was. Was a wild brawler who turned into a stunning boxer over the course of his career and lost most of his fights while still in his teens but those losses were to some great (and a few not so great) fighters in Ismael Laguna, Lionel Rose, Rene Barrientos. Made a rather amazing turnaround after changing trainers and went on a nearly unbeaten run from 71 to 76 including a great lightweight title run with wins over lightweight champs Rodolfo Gonzalez x 2, Arturo Pineda x2, and HOFer Ken Buchanan, with his only loss in that period to Roberto Duran in 72 for a WBA title shot before finally losing his title to Esteban De Jesus at the end of 76 or 77 and retiring shortly after that.

Check out his fights against the great lightweight champ Rodolfo Gonzalez. Good stuff.

Hiroshi Kobayashi was also a great champion, with a very good boxing style and a highly probably HOF'er. This period for Japan's fighter was by far the best. They had a pile of really amazing fighters and champions that ruled the divisions they were in for quite some time.

Kobayashi: He was the undisputed SFW champ for four years and made seven defenses of his WBA title, giving up the WBC half way through his run. He beat a lot of great fighters among them Yoshiaki Numata (also one of Japans very best champions. Numata beat Flash Elorde for the undisputed SFW titles, as well as Rene Barrientos, Lionel Rose, etc before losing it to Kobayashi but Numata would go on to regain the WBC title after Kobayashi relinquished it), Jaime Valladares 56-3, Antonio Amaya 34-3 x 2, Carlos Ruben Canete 74-4, Ricardo Arredondo 54-4, Rene Barrientos 24-4, Katsutoshi Aoki 46-6, Kang II Suh 32-8 (many people don't know this fighter but he was a great contender during this time who's only title fight came against Elorde which he lost by decision, but he beat some great fighters too including the undefeated Mando Ramos, Numata, Kobayashi, Arthur Persley 77-7 etc etc), Mitsunori Seki 42-6 (who fought everyone from Sugar Ramos to Pone Kingpetch to Vincente Saldivar). All of these guys were the top fighters and/or champions. Great fighter! Got slaughtered sadly when he moved up to try and beat a young Roberto Duran though.

Some other really fine fighters are Royal Kobayashi, Yoko Gushiken, Hozumi Hasagawa, Joichiro Tatsuyoshi (was a weird mix of a Japanese Aaron Pryor and Arturo Gatti. Fun to watch!), Toshiaki Nishioka, Hideyuki Ohashi, Katsuo Tokashiki (these last two guys were in some of the best fights ever at light-flyweight with Jung Koo Chang, especially the Tokashiki fight!!!!. Must see fights!). All of the above were or are great champs at some point with many titles to their names. There are many more though.

All up the best would probably be Harada, Watanabe, Gushiken, and Kobayashi.

[1SILVA]

Fighting Harada for me too. Amazing fighter. Jiro Watanabe is also great.

There are quite a few very fine fighters though. I always liked 'Guts' Ishimatsu. Very fun to watch and a fine champion too. Had a terrible start to his career turning pro very young, which is why his record doesn't really fit with how great he was. Was a wild brawler who turned into a stunning boxer over the course of his career and lost most of his fights while still in his teens but those losses were to some great (and a few not so great) fighters in Ismael Laguna, Lionel Rose, Rene Barrientos. Made a rather amazing turnaround after changing trainers and went on a nearly unbeaten run from 71 to 76 including a great lightweight title run with wins over lightweight champs Rodolfo Gonzalez x 2, Arturo Pineda x2, and HOFer Ken Buchanan, with his only loss in that period to Roberto Duran in 72 for a WBA title shot before finally losing his title to Esteban De Jesus at the end of 76 or 77 and retiring shortly after that.

Check out his fights against the great lightweight champ Rodolfo Gonzalez. Good stuff.

Hiroshi Kobayashi was also a great champion, with a very good boxing style and a highly probably HOF'er. This period for Japan's fighter was by far the best. They had a pile of really amazing fighters and champions that ruled the divisions they were in for quite some time.

Kobayashi: He was the undisputed SFW champ for four years and made seven defenses of his WBA title, giving up the WBC half way through his run. He beat a lot of great fighters among them Yoshiaki Numata (also one of Japans very best champions. Numata beat Flash Elorde for the undisputed SFW titles, as well as Rene Barrientos, Lionel Rose, etc before losing it to Kobayashi but Numata would go on to regain the WBC title after Kobayashi relinquished it), Jaime Valladares 56-3, Antonio Amaya 34-3 x 2, Carlos Ruben Canete 74-4, Ricardo Arredondo 54-4, Rene Barrientos 24-4, Katsutoshi Aoki 46-6, Kang II Suh 32-8 (many people don't know this fighter but he was a great contender during this time who's only title fight came against Elorde which he lost by decision, but he beat some great fighters too including the undefeated Mando Ramos, Numata, Kobayashi, Arthur Persley 77-7 etc etc), Mitsunori Seki 42-6 (who fought everyone from Sugar Ramos to Pone Kingpetch to Vincente Saldivar). All of these guys were the top fighters and/or champions. Great fighter! Got slaughtered sadly when he moved up to try and beat a young Roberto Duran though.

Some other really fine fighters are Royal Kobayashi, Yoko Gushiken, Hozumi Hasagawa, Joichiro Tatsuyoshi (was a weird mix of a Japanese Aaron Pryor and Arturo Gatti. Fun to watch!), Toshiaki Nishioka, Hideyuki Ohashi, Katsuo Tokashiki (these last two guys were in some of the best fights ever at light-flyweight with Jung Koo Chang, especially the Tokashiki fight!!!!. Must see fights!). All of the above were or are great champs at some point with many titles to their names. There are many more though.

All up the best would probably be Harada, Watanabe, Gushiken, and Kobayashi.

Great post. Thanks for the insight. The problem is that their is not a lot of available footage of these tremendous fighters. Every great Japanese Wrestler of the last 30 years there is footage available, but not so with the boxers.