Horikawa's retirement confirmed, Sano and Gura to fight for Youth title
Back in February we saw Kyosuke Takami (6-0, 5) [高見享介] make a statement as he stopped tough veteran Kenichi Horikawa (41-20-1, 14) [堀川謙一]. After the bout Horikawa announced his retirement, though there was plenty of people doubting whether that was going to be the last time we’d seen him in action, as he had retired numerous times of the years only to continue his in ring career. Today, almost 2 months after that loss, Horikawa did officially confirm that he had retired, and the JBC revealed that they had received his retirement notice on March 31st, ending his career. He had been asked for an interview by the good folks at Boxmob, but declined, explaining that he didn’t want to talk about it at the moment.
Given his long, and genuinely excellent career, we would like to wish Horikawa all the best in the future. He really has had a special career on the Japanese scene. He debuted in 2000 and went on to fight a genuine who’s who of who at both domestic and regional level. During his 62 fight career he shared the ring with Akira Yaegashi, Florante Condes, Edgar Sosa, Yu Kimura, Kenshiro Teraji, and Masataka Taniguchi. He also won the Japanese Light Flyweight title, twice, the WBO Asia Pacific Light Flyweight title, twice, and had most of his major success in the back end of his career. In fact all 4 of his title wins came when he’d had his 35th birthday, which is genuinely ancient for a fighter at the lower weights.
Also announced earlier today from Japan was a bout for the WBC Youth Super Flyweight title, as Ayumu Sano (8-0-1, 4) [佐野遥渉] will face Yeroge Gura (8-0-1, 3) on June 23rd at the Twin Messe in Shizuoka for the vacant title. The bout, which will headline LUSH BOMU vol.4, is a really interesting one on paper, as both fighters have near identical records, and both are unbeaten fighters aged 21 and both are almost ranked the same on Boxrec, with Sano being #79 and Gura being #82 on their system at the time of writing. Coming into this Samo has won his last 8, after a draw on debut, and shown power early with all 4 of his stoppages coming in the first 2 rounds. Gura on the other hand was held to a draw 3 fights ago, by Arnold Garde, but has won two since then. Notably this will be his first bout outside of his homeland.
Given his long, and genuinely excellent career, we would like to wish Horikawa all the best in the future. He really has had a special career on the Japanese scene. He debuted in 2000 and went on to fight a genuine who’s who of who at both domestic and regional level. During his 62 fight career he shared the ring with Akira Yaegashi, Florante Condes, Edgar Sosa, Yu Kimura, Kenshiro Teraji, and Masataka Taniguchi. He also won the Japanese Light Flyweight title, twice, the WBO Asia Pacific Light Flyweight title, twice, and had most of his major success in the back end of his career. In fact all 4 of his title wins came when he’d had his 35th birthday, which is genuinely ancient for a fighter at the lower weights.
Also announced earlier today from Japan was a bout for the WBC Youth Super Flyweight title, as Ayumu Sano (8-0-1, 4) [佐野遥渉] will face Yeroge Gura (8-0-1, 3) on June 23rd at the Twin Messe in Shizuoka for the vacant title. The bout, which will headline LUSH BOMU vol.4, is a really interesting one on paper, as both fighters have near identical records, and both are unbeaten fighters aged 21 and both are almost ranked the same on Boxrec, with Sano being #79 and Gura being #82 on their system at the time of writing. Coming into this Samo has won his last 8, after a draw on debut, and shown power early with all 4 of his stoppages coming in the first 2 rounds. Gura on the other hand was held to a draw 3 fights ago, by Arnold Garde, but has won two since then. Notably this will be his first bout outside of his homeland.