December 16, 2008
TOKYO, JAPAN
WBC#15 ex-Japanese national bantam champ Masayuki Mitani (23-3, 10 KOs) publicly announced his retirement from ring warfare because of detached retina on Monday. Mitani, a lanky jabber called Japanese Carlos Zarate, once acquired the national belt but forfeited it to Kohei Ohba this year. The upright stylist then defeated world-rated compatriot Nobuto Ikehara to be rated by the WBC and WBA once again.
This reporter feels sorry to have failed to mention other Japanese boxers who recently said a farewell to ring action this year. Ex-WBC 105-pound champ Eagle Den Junlaphan (18-2, 6 KOs), a Japan-based Thailander, made up his mind to hang up gloves for good also because of eye ailment after losing the belt to current WBC ruler Oleydong Sithsanerchai at his native Bangkok in November of the previous year. Eagle hadn’t fought a bout since.
Also did retire Yutaka Niida (23-2-3, 9 KOs), former WBA 105-pound champ having made seven defenses to his credit, after he yielded his throne to Nicaraguan sensation Roman Gonzalez this September. Niida and Eagle were highly anticipated to fight in a unification bout while they were the WBA and WBC champs respectively at the same period, but it unfortunately didn’t materialize despite our expectations.
Teruo Misawa (18-5-4, 7 KOs) also officially left the ring after he failed to win the WBC interim 105-pound belt, losing to Juan Palacios of Nicaragua via seventh round TKO in China this November.
We know that, in the world, there are plenty of self-made ratings by various magazines and/or websites, but please be advised that the aforementioned Japanese boxers will not fight again to be duly eliminated out of the ratings.
(12-16-08)