Masao Oba - "Eternal Champion"

When we talk about the greatest talents who have failed to reach their potential the fighters come in two main groups. Those who wasted their talent by failing to train properly and work hard with the gift they had, and those who were sadly taken well before their time. One of those from that second category is Japan's Masao Oba [大場 政夫], who was just 23 year old at the time of his death, which came whilst he was the reigning WBA Flyweight champion and looking like a man on the verge of a fantastic areer, in fact he had already had a brilliant career with a 2 year world title reign featuring 5 defenses.

With Oba's death coming whilst he was still a reigning world champion the Japanese have dubbed him the "Eternal champion" and here is a short documentary on Oba's career which lasted little more than 6 years but featured 38 bouts including wins over Berkrerk Chartvanchai, Betulio Gonzalez, Susumu Hanagata and Chartchai Chionoi, to compile a 35-2-1 (16) record.

For fan who speak Japanese, or those interested in seeing a little bit of Oba the video below is great, sadly though for those unable to speak Japanese the documentary does lose a lot of it's intrigue and interest.