Top Japanese fighter retires to support comatose boxer brother
A Japanese boxer is retiring to support his brother who has been in a coma since a bout in May, as the sport in the country reels from the deaths of two fighters.
Former WBC strawweight champion Yudai Shigeoka's brother Ginjiro collapsed after a fight in Osaka three months ago and underwent emergency brain surgery.
The 25-year-old remains in a coma but is no longer in a life-threatening condition, the Japan Boxing Commission says.
Ginjiro, a former IBF champion at the same weight who has a professional win-loss record of 11-2, was recently transferred to another hospital.
"I encourage him every day, telling him not to give up and to do his best, so that the flame in his heart does not go out," Yudai, 28, said in an Instagram post on Wednesday. "I believe it is my role as his older brother to enrich his life from now on."
"Plans are progressing steadily. That is why I have decided to retire. I have no regrets. The real challenge begins from here on out," added Yudai, who has a 9-2 record.
Japanese boxing is under the spotlight after super featherweight Shigetoshi Kotari and lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa, both 28, died days after injuries they sustained in separate bouts in Tokyo on August 2.
Japanese boxing officials held an emergency meeting this week and vowed to introduce new safety rules.
New measures to be implemented as soon as possible include urine tests for measuring dehydration and stricter rules on boxers' rapid weight loss, said Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, secretary-general of the JBC.
Ambulances will also be required on site, even for non-world championship bouts, something which is common practice in some other countries.
© 2025 AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Mainichi
23 minutes ago
- The Mainichi
Baseball: Rookie Sugano earns 10th win as Orioles hold off Mariners
BALTIMORE, Maryland (Kyodo) -- Tomoyuki Sugano earned his 10th win of his debut Major League Baseball season Thursday, holding the Seattle Mariners to a single run over 5-1/3 innings as the Baltimore Orioles prevailed 5-3. Sugano (10-5) scattered three hits while giving up a walk and a hit batsman in an 81-pitch effort at Oriole Park. He became the 10th Japanese pitcher to reach double figures in wins in his first year in the big leagues. "I managed to use all my pitches effectively and throw as I planned for the game," said the 35-year-old right-hander who struck out two en route to winning two starts in a row for the first time. "(Ten wins) is just a point along the way, but I'm genuinely happy. I hope to keep this up until the end of the season." The Orioles scored three runs in the fourth on a wild pitch from Logan Evans (6-5), a double steal and a Jeremiah Jackson single before adding two more in the fifth on Gunnar Henderson's RBI double and a sacrifice fly. Sugano gave up a one-out single in the sixth and was pulled after a rain delay before reliever Rico Garcia surrendered a two-run home run to Julio Rodriguez. In action elsewhere, Shinnosuke Ogasawara (1-1) picked up his first win in the majors after striking out a batter in the seventh during the Washington Nationals' 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Kodai Senga did not get a decision after allowing two runs on five hits over 5-2/3 innings in his New York Mets' 4-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves. Los Angeles Dodgers rookie Roki Sasaki, meanwhile, allowed three runs on six hits over two-plus innings in his first rehab start for Triple-A Oklahoma City, throwing 41 pitches, including his newly added two-seamer, in his first game action since May 9. "I made a slack start. I want to show more dynamism and power as a whole," said the right-hander who is recovering from a shoulder impingement. "I'm confident things are going well in terms of my health. The question is whether I can raise my level of performance."
The Mainichi
3 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Kyoto gov'ts request deletion of abusive posts targeting school
KYOTO (Kyodo) -- The Kyoto prefectural and city governments have lodged a legal request to delete three malicious online posts targeting a school with Korean roots currently competing in a Japanese high school baseball tournament, the prefectural government said Friday. The move follows a similar request made by the governments last year after Kyoto International high school faced a spate of racist and slanderous online posts when the school in the city won one of the country's most prestigious baseball championships for the first time. Discriminatory remarks at that time included references to the school's Korean-language anthem, prompting the local governments to request the Kyoto District Legal Affairs Bureau delete seven malicious posts. The school opened in 1947 as a junior high school for Korean children in Japan, but has operated as a general junior high and high school since 2004. Since the local governments stepped up monitoring from August, when this year's baseball championship is being held, they have identified more than 2,000 posts mentioning the school on X and other social media. After the school won its first-round game on Wednesday, they found posts containing content that could encourage discrimination and ostracization, the prefecture said. Based on a law aimed at eliminating hate speech, the prefectural and city governments deemed that three such posts could not be overlooked on human rights grounds and filed the request with the bureau on Thursday. They also made a request to the service providers. "We expect that online posting will intensify going forward, so we will continue to closely monitor the situation," a prefectural government official said. The national high school baseball championship, held annually at Koshien Stadium in western Japan, is one of the country's most popular sporting events.
The Mainichi
a day ago
- The Mainichi
Rugby: Jones looking to establish winning style for Japan at PNC
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan men's national rugby team head coach Eddie Jones sees the Pacific Nations Cup kicking off later this month as an opportunity to further turn ideas into practice ahead of their tour of Europe in November. "Last year we were runners-up in the competition, and this year our target is to go one better," Jones told an online press conference on Thursday. "We've established the identity of Chosoku (super-fast) rugby, but we know we have to develop that style of play into a more winning style of play, and that will be one of the targets of the PNC." World No. 14 Japan host 25th-ranked Canada in their Pool B opener on Aug. 30 before travelling to face the 16th-ranked United States on Sept. 6 for a place in the semifinals in the six-team tournament that also features Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. In November, the Brave Blossoms travel to face No. 3 Ireland, No. 12 Wales and No. 11 Georgia with a plan also in place to face top-ranked 2023 World Cup winners South Africa. Japan's training camp starting Friday will see forwards and backs going through their paces separately in Tokyo and Miyazaki as Jones emphasized the increasing importance of the kicking game and aerial contests on the international stage. "That's the area we need to be really good at, and we have to find our own Japanese way of doing it, because we don't have a history of kicking in Japanese rugby, as I mentioned before," he said. "We've got to develop our own way." While identifying wing Kippei Ishida and Haruto Kida as well as center Tomoki Osada as promising talents among his backs, Jones said he is ready to take time to find the successor of captain Michae Lietch who will miss the PNC for "personal circumstances" but is expected back in November. "If you look at the history of what Leitch has done in 2015, 2019, and he's still by far the best captain in Japan," Jones said. "(The next generation of leaders) have got huge shoes to fill, and we'll have to build up their capacity slowly."
