Katsunari Takayama (高山 勝成, Takayama Katsunari, born May 12, 1983) is a *anese professional boxer. He is a five-time mini-flyweight world champion, having held the WBC *le in 2005, the IBF *le twice between 2013 and 2015, and the WBO *le twice between 2014 and 2017. He retired as a professional in 2017, as WBO world champion, to focus on participation in the 2020 Olympics, but returned in 2020 after failing to qualify.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Professional boxing career
  • 2.1 *an
    • 2.1.1 WBC *le
    • 2.1.2 Interim WBA *le
  • 2.2 Away from *an
    • 2.2.1 IBF *le
  • 2.3 Return to *an
• 3 Professional boxing record
• 4 See also
• 5 References
  • 5.1 Video references
• 6 Bibliography
• 7 External links

Early life

Takayama weighed about 60:kg at the age of twelve. He started playing rugby and athletics, but did not last long. It was in summer in the second grade of junior high school that his friend brought him to a boxing gym. When he got started on the punching bag, despite he said he is going to be a world champion, he could not do more than three push-ups in a row. Even after his own workout, he had been watching senior boxers' sparring sessions and trainees' training.

Professional boxing career

Takayama made his professional debut in October 2000 and won the All-*an Rookie King Tournament in December 2001.

*an

WBC *le

On April 4, 2005 Takayama defeated Isaac Bustos for the WBC world *le, by a unanimous decision. This victory gave Takayama the distinction of being the 50th *anese fighter to win a world *le. However, he lost a next bout against Eagle Kyowa by a unanimous decision, on August 6, 2005.

Interim WBA *le

On November 7, 2006 he defeated Carlos Melo for the WBA interim *le when he was originally supposed to face Yutaka Niida for the WBA *le in September. However, due to a costal cartilage fracture Niida sustained from sparring, the fight would be delayed to April 7, 2007 ending in a split decision loss. After the fight, his then manager rejected the decision and uttered that it was a match fixing and that he would make civil litigation. However, he visited the JBC (*an Boxing Commission) two days later and apologized for his rant saying that he had just wanted to pat his boxer on the back. Furthermore, most of the purse for that fight had not been paid. Although Takayama and Nakade announced that they would transfer to any other gym, the matters on the match fee and transfer fee were not resolved over months.

Takayama got another world *le shot on July 14, 2009. This time, it was for the WBA minimumweight *le which is held by Roman Gonzalez. Unsuccessfully, Takayama lost on all judges. He retired as a JBC-licensed boxer to fight for the WBO and IBF's *les in late 2009. At that time the JBC had approved no fight for the WBO and IBF's *les, but conditionally allowed them from February 28, 2011. That is because the West *an Boxing *ociation to which Takayama and Ken'ichi Yamaguchi belonged strongly urged reform of the system after they issued retirement notices.

Away from *an

Takayama then trained at his fellow boxer Ken'ichi Yamaguchi's Osaka Tenjin Boxing Gym in *an and ALA Boxing Gym in the Philippines, and was promoted by ALA Promotions since April 2010.

He won an IBF minimumweight *le eliminator via a sixth round technical knockout at the Carnival City in Brakpan, Gauteng, South Africa in September 2010. He challenged Nkosinathi Joyi for that *le at the Carnival City on January 29, 2011 after being postponed twice, but the fight ended in a no-contest due to a cut on Takayama's head after an accidental head-butt in the third round. He had a broken right hand since just before the fight.

Takayama rematched Joyi at the Orient Theatre in East London, Eastern Cape after postponed four times on March 30, 2012. It was the SABC-televised second boxing event after one year interruption. According to *anese sources, Takayama reportedly dominated the whole fight except that he went down resulting from a slip in the fifth round, and stated with increased confidence through the twelve rounds that "I fought as was planned and did my best" after a unanimous decision loss with scores of 111–116 twice and 110–117. A boxing writer for South Africa's SuperSport wrote that "Many ringsiders were of the opinion that the decision could have gone in favour of the challenger" on Fightnews.com which was presented the WBA’s Website of the Year in 2010. In addition, there were several articles showing that Joyi had struggled against Takayama. However the IBF's Lindsey Tucker has denied their views on BoxingScene.com.

He fought against Filipino Mateo Handig for the vacant IBF Pan Pacific mini flyweight *le and the mandatory challenger status to the IBF mini flyweight *le in La Trinidad, Benguet, Philippines on October 13, 2012. But he lost the fight via a split decision after being deducted a point in the fourth round for pushing. Two Filipino judges scored the fight 114–113 for Handig, while the other Thai judge scored it 115–112 for Takayama. The IBF ordered a rematch due to the inadequacy of the mandatory drug testing before and after the fight. After Handig's injury, Takayama earned the right to challenge for the world *le.

IBF *le

Takayama defeated Mario Rodríguez via a unanimous decision with the scores of 119–109, 117–111 and 115–113 to be crowned the IBF mini flyweight world champion at the Estadio Francisco Carranza Limón in Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico on March 30, 2013. He was the first foreign boxer for ALA Promotions, and became the third ever world champion for them. "I'm gonna float like a butterfly and sting like a bee," Takayama had told at the pre-fight conference. He tried to imitate the Ali shuffle during the fight.

Return to *an

The JBC joined the WBO and the IBF on April 1, 2013. After more than four years' absence from the ring in *an, Takayama's boxer's license was issued again by the JBC on July 12, 2013. He registered with Nakazato Boxing Gym to defend his *le against Vergilio Silvano via a unanimous decision at the Bodymaker Colosseum in Osaka on December 3, 2013.

While Takayama has gone through five gyms, his *anese trainer for his entire career is Hiroaki Nakade who has so far served as the second/trainer in the world *le bouts of all the four major sanctioning bodies i.e. the WBA, WBC, IBF (for Takayama fights) and WBO (for Orlando Salido vs. Yamaguchi).

Professional boxing record

See also

• List of WBC world champions
• List of IBF world champions
• List of Mini-flyweight boxing champions
• List of *anese boxing world champions
• Boxing in *an

References

Video references

Bibliography

• Asazawa, Ei; Shibuya, Jun (September 10, 2007). 移籍騒動の高山、問題収束せぬまま10月に再起", "新井田豊、因縁の再戦に完勝. Boxing Magazine (in *anese). No.:October 2007 issue. Tokyo, *an: Baseball Magazine Sha Co., Ltd. pp.:21, 61.
• Boxing Beat editorial department (February 15, 2012). MACC Publications Inc (ed.). インタビュー 高山勝成. Ironman. Boxing Beat (in *anese). Tokyo, *an: Fitness Sports Co., Ltd. (special issue): 78.

External links

• Boxing record for Katsunari Takayama from BoxRec (registration required)
• ワールド・チャレンジ・ボクシング・高山勝成公式サイト (in *anese)