January 28, 2007
TOKYO, JAPAN
Which is stronger, ex-world flyweight and bantamweight champ Masahiko Fighting Harada (55-7, 22 KOs) or ex-three time junior middle titlist Koichi Wajima (31-6-1, 25 KOs)? The Japanese boxing world is facing a crisis of splitting into two groups. In Japan, there are a couple of bodies; Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) and JPBA (Japan Pro-Boxing Association). The JBC regulates the boxing world as governing organization in charge of regulation and licensing, while the JPBA is a union of all the JBC-licensed club-owners under the traditional club system. The JPBA has had a serious internal problem. The president of the JPBA has been Masahiko Harada for six terms spanning last eighteen years, now supported by majority of 274 club-owners. However, Koichi Wajima has run for the JPBA presidency to terminate Harada’s reign.
Wajima insists that TV rights and/or promotional rights should be all controlled by the JPBA and the profits through promotions should be distributed equally to the members. It seems a communistic idea that treats influential and mediocre promoters equally, and equalizes the profits of the hard-working and the dull, or the rich and the poor.
The election will be done by all the club-owners on February 23. Wajima drastically proposes that should he lose in the election, there may be no competitions between boxers belonging to respective groups in the future.
Wajima says, “Harada previously said he would not run for another term, and asked me to succeed his post. But he again stood in the election against his promise to me.” Harada furiously retaliates, “I have never made such a promise to Wajima by retiring from the presidency. He’s not fair, saying I said what I didn’t say.”
Harada is favored to score a landslide victory in the forthcoming election with estimated 230 votes, while Wajima will get only 40 ones. Harada is strongly supported by such influential promoters as Akihiko Honda (Teiken Promotions), Kiyoshi Yoshii (Osaka Teiken Promotions), Keiichiro Kanehira (Kyoei Promotions), Kazunori Miyakawa (Yokohama Hikari Promoitons), Hideyuki Ohashi (Ohashi Promotions), etc., while Wajima by less influential Yoko Gushiken (Shirai Gushiken Promotions), Kentaro Kaneko (Kaneko Promotions), Hiroyuki Miyata (Miyata Promotions), Toshio Hirano (Yokohama Sakura Promotions), et al.
Complex enough, there happens another antagonism inside the East Japan association of the JPBS covering the boxing activities in Tokyo and Yokohama. Wajima had been the president of the East Japan association, with 141 clubs inside, which is one of the five associations under the JPBA. Wajima resigned as local president in order to run for the national JPBA presidency, so the local election for the vacant title will take place on February 26, three days after the JPBA election. The East Japan presidency is greatly connected with that of the whole-Japan-based JPBA, since majority of promotions have been held in Tokyo and more than a half of all the gyms belong to the East Japan association.
Yoko Gushiken (23-1, 15 KOs), 51, ex-WBA junior fly champ having successfully defended his belt thirteen times in 1970’s, declared to run in the East Japan election to follow a footstep of his comrade Wajima. Hideyuki Ohashi (19-5, 12 KOs), 41, ex-WBA/WBC minimum titleholder, also stood for the local presidency, being strongly supported by majority of members including Honda, Kanehira, Miyakawa and Harada, etc. It is said Ohashi will obtain more than 100 votes, while Gushiken only 40.
There was held a public hearing on the manifest by Gushiken and Ohashi at the exhibition hall of the Korakuen Hall on Friday. Gushiken, notorious for being a poor talker, failed to impress the audience, some 50 club-owners of the East Japan association, as he couldn’t submit any concrete plan to reconstruct the regional boxing fraternity. Ohashi, on the contrary, impressively made a well-prepared speech by presenting his manifest upon his presidency, as follows:
1.Cultivate the junior by positively promoting more tournaments of young boys to increase professional boxers and produce stars in the future
2.Expand the age limit of professional aspirants from 30 to 35 (currently when one is 31 years of age, he shall not be allowed to take a professional boxer’s license)
3.Reduce ring tragedies by having boxers themselves to attend medical seminars (currently only managers/trainers attend the medical seminars conducted by the JBC/JPBA)
4.Incorporate the East Japan association into a juridical person
5.Have purses of boxers paid in cash (currently their purses have been partly paid in the form of tickets, which the boxers have to distribute and sell by themselves to cash)
6.Distribute the association’s savings for some 140,000,000 Yen (1.2 million dollars) to the 141 associates
7.Establish a boxing museum in Yokohama (Ohashi’s home turf)
Ohashi’s speech of the manifest was greatly welcomed by all the attendants, both pro-Ohashi and anti-Ohashi club-owners. Even his rival candidate Gushiken and his supporter Wajima praised his manifest, so Ohashi obviously won the first round over Gushiken, who, however, will actually go and see all the club-owners in the local association face-to-face to ask for their supports. Therefore, there may be a puncher’s chance for Gushiken.
Wajima may have a spiritual rivalry against Harada. Fight fans in Japan may misunderstand they belonged to different generations, as Harada was the second world champ ever produced in Japan, following the very first Yoshio Shirai, while Wajima the tenth. Harada won the world flyweight belt by finishing Pone Kingpetch in 1962, and the bantam throne by upsetting Eder Jofre in 1965. He said a farewell to the ring when as young as 26. Wajima, on the contrary, made his professional debut at the age of 27 in October 1970 (nine months after Harada retired), and won the world 154-pound crown in 1971, 1975 and 1976 to finally hang up gloves as an old soldier. However, Harada (born on April 5, 1943) and Wajima (born on April 21, 1943) are of the same age, 63. Each was a national hero of the era. Because of their difference of the weight and peak, we couldn’t imagine they might compete in the same ring, but they are now competing in the national JPBA election.
Very lately there is a move for some senior members of the JPBA to persuade Wajima and Gushiken to withdraw from running for the respective presidencies for fear of the split of the boxing world. It is still uncertain whether Wajima and Gushiken may accept their wise advices and cooperate with uniting the fraternity into one body as previously. Should they refuse such withdrawals their campaigns and elections in February thereafter will continue to be hot topics of sports paper articles until the election days.
(1-28-07)