Katsunari Takayama (41), Ishida, former minimum weight champion of four professional boxing organizations in the world on December 18th in General Santos City, Philippines. It was announced on the 28th that he will participate in the 12th round of the championship match. This will be his first match in 1 year and 3 months since September 2023, and he will play against Carl Le (24) from Australia.
At a press conference at his gym in Neyagawa City, Osaka Prefecture, he expressed his feelings, saying, “I’m excited to be able to challenge for the IBO title.” He explained his reason for taking on the JBC non-official title by saying, “I want to see new scenery.” In March 2013, he obtained a Class 1 high school teacher’s license (civic), and emphasized, “I want to prepare for fighting that will serve as a teaching material for children in the future,” and “(by boxing). “After I’ve done what I need to do, if there’s a school that will hire me, I’d like to go to it,” he said.
After the press conference, he had one round of public sparring with the gym’s trainees. According to officials, the matches that were intended to be scheduled in May and August 2024 were postponed, resulting in a gap in time between the matches.
After Takayama failed in his world challenge in May 2021 (losing by TKO in the 9th round), he took a two-year hiatus as he concentrated on his teacher training course. In both his return match in June 2013 and his second match in September 2023, he defeated the Filipino player by 3-0 decision, but it was a tough battle. This time, trainer Hirohiro Nakade (64), who has been his mentor until now, has not been able to watch practice due to various reasons, so the match will be played with his team broken up.
Takayama has a record of 44 fights and 34 wins (12 KOs), 9 losses and 1 by no contest, while Lu has 7 wins and 7 wins (3 KOs).[Tetsuji Kisumi]