Kiyoshi Hatanaka
At the moment there are a number of Japanese promoters who used to be fighters, such as Hideyuki Ohashi and Yoko Gushiken, who have both had notable successes come out of their respective gyms. Another who had transitioned from in-ring star to promotional success is former WBC Super Bantamweight champion Kiyoshi Hatanaka (22-2-1, 15) [畑中 清詞], who is generating a lot of buzz from his promotional work at the Hatanaka gym.
Hatanaka was born on March 7th 1967 and had a relatively short amateur career, stating that he wanted to box to earn money rather than go to the Olympics. Despite not being an amateur for long he did run up an impressive 26-5 (21) record in the unpaid ranks. As a result of viewing boxing as something to make money from he made his professional debut at the age of 17, and it should probably be no surprise that his career as a professional was a rather short one, despite fighting 25 times.
On his debut Hatanaka scored an opening round win over Harelya Yamauchi, it began a run of 5 straight opening round victories for the teenager in just over 8 months as he set off like a rocket. Whilst his opponents during that 5 fight run weren't great it was still impressive to see him have such a great start to professional boxing, showing power immediately, despite being such a young fighter.
Hatanaka's stoppage run would come to an end on October 8th 1985 with Takuji Hijiri managing to last 4 rounds with Hatanaka, though Hatanaka did pick up the decision win. He would be forced to go 6 rounds just a month later as he took a decision win over Akio Kawamata, who had entered the bout 6-0.
The win over Kawamata lead Hatanaka to his first major success, as he then took on Hiromitsu Tatsuki in a bout to be crowned the All Japan Super Flyweight Rookie of the Year. Tatsuki, like 5 others before him, failed to last a round with Hatanaka, who was crowned with the Rookie of the Year crown at the same finals as Naota Takahashi who won the Bantamweight crown.
As with so many fighters in Japan the Rookie of the Year title helped boost his career and prove his value as a prospect. He had impressed with his power, his stamina and his toughness. He was however lacking in terms of real notable wins. Given his Rookie status that was no surprise but something he clearly wanted to change. His team, at the Matsuda gym, seemed to feel he needed a little more seasoning before fighting for a title and he got that seasoning quickly. He would go 8 rounds for the first time just 2 months after being crowned the Rookie of the Year, as he defeated Takashi Hirata.
Hatanaka was born on March 7th 1967 and had a relatively short amateur career, stating that he wanted to box to earn money rather than go to the Olympics. Despite not being an amateur for long he did run up an impressive 26-5 (21) record in the unpaid ranks. As a result of viewing boxing as something to make money from he made his professional debut at the age of 17, and it should probably be no surprise that his career as a professional was a rather short one, despite fighting 25 times.
On his debut Hatanaka scored an opening round win over Harelya Yamauchi, it began a run of 5 straight opening round victories for the teenager in just over 8 months as he set off like a rocket. Whilst his opponents during that 5 fight run weren't great it was still impressive to see him have such a great start to professional boxing, showing power immediately, despite being such a young fighter.
Hatanaka's stoppage run would come to an end on October 8th 1985 with Takuji Hijiri managing to last 4 rounds with Hatanaka, though Hatanaka did pick up the decision win. He would be forced to go 6 rounds just a month later as he took a decision win over Akio Kawamata, who had entered the bout 6-0.
The win over Kawamata lead Hatanaka to his first major success, as he then took on Hiromitsu Tatsuki in a bout to be crowned the All Japan Super Flyweight Rookie of the Year. Tatsuki, like 5 others before him, failed to last a round with Hatanaka, who was crowned with the Rookie of the Year crown at the same finals as Naota Takahashi who won the Bantamweight crown.
As with so many fighters in Japan the Rookie of the Year title helped boost his career and prove his value as a prospect. He had impressed with his power, his stamina and his toughness. He was however lacking in terms of real notable wins. Given his Rookie status that was no surprise but something he clearly wanted to change. His team, at the Matsuda gym, seemed to feel he needed a little more seasoning before fighting for a title and he got that seasoning quickly. He would go 8 rounds for the first time just 2 months after being crowned the Rookie of the Year, as he defeated Takashi Hirata.
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Just 2 months after Hatanaka defeated Hirata over 8 rounds he went up against former Japanese Super Flyweight champion Tadashi Maruo in a 10 round bout above the Super Flyweight limit. This was really Hatanaka's first proper test, and one he narrowly scraped. For the first time he had had to come through adversity but pulled out the win and showed he could fight 10 rounds at a good pace.
It was clear following the win over Maruo that Hatanaka wanted a title fight, but was made to wait. His frustration at needing to wait saw him take out Masaki Sono in 2 rounds in October 1987 as he continued to impress and develop. In February 1987 Hatanaka would get rematch with Maruo, this time for the Japanese Super Flyweight title, which Maruo had claimed for the second time in his career. Given the close nature of their first bout it seemed like Hatanaka wanted to prove a point, and did so by stopping Maruo in the 3rd round of their bout. Hatanaka set an electric pace for the contest, getting on the front foot immediately and forced Maruo to work hard to create space. It was a great tactic and saw him break through the resistance of Maruo in round 3, with the defending champion being saved by the referee a little over 2 minutes into the contest. The bout was an emotional one for Hatanaka, with the Matsuda Gym president passing away not long before the contest, and that emotion played out in his post fight celebration and interview. Despite chasing for the title Hatanaka's reign was a short one, he would defend the belt once, defeating Teruaki Miyazato in July 1987 before vacating in August. The bout with Miyazato saw Hatanaka take a decision win though it seemed obvious that he didn't want to remain at domestic level. The bigger pay days were at world level, and he had to chase a world title to get the big pay days. Hatanaka's first bout after vacating the Japanese Super Flyweight title saw him take on Thai veteran Surasit Meeprasert, who lasted just 108 seconds. This was only the second time in 44 fights that the Thai was stopped. The destruction that Hatanaka was leaving in his wake continued to grow 4 months later, when he faced off with Filipino Constancio Dangla, who had previously fought both Sun Kil Moon and Khaokor Galaxy. Hatanaka would stop the Filipino in 3 rounds in what would turn out to be a world title prelude for the Japanese fighter. Having run up a 15-0 (10) record Hatanaka would get a shot at a world title, facing off with divisional great Gilberto Roman, then 49-4-1 (35). Roman was the WBC champion and one of the best the division has ever had. The Mexican would go on to drop Hatanaka in the first round, before having 2 points deducted through the fight for low blows. In the end Roman would easily retain his title with a wide unanimous decision, though Hatanaka certainly had some moments and wasn't an easy win for Roman, who had to work hard through out the bout. After the contest Hatanaka admitted that he had been incredibly nervous and couldn't remember much about the contest. Despite the loss it seemed clear that Hatanaka's dreams of being a world champion weren't over, instead he seemed to become more driven than ever before. On his return to the ring in 1989 Hatanaka faced off with Korean fighter Dong Chun Lee, who would later fight out of Japan as Great Kanayama. The hungry Hatanaka took a decision win over to kick off a busy year that also included stoppage wins over Noel Cornelio and Somboonyod Singsamang. The only set back during the year was a 10 round draw with Korean Chang-Kyun Oh. In 1990 Hatanaka continued his chase for a second world title fight, whilst defeating limited regional opponents. Those wins eventually lead to Hatanaka getting his second world title fight, a bout with WBC Super Bantamweight champion Pedro Decima of Argentina. Decima had won the title in November 1989, stopping Paul Banke in 4 rounds, and was taking on Hatanaka in his first defense. Against Decima things got off to a bad start for Hatanaka, who was dropped in the opening round by the Argentinian, with only about 10 seconds of the round left. Despite that knockdown Hatanaka recovered and would drop Decima 4 times in round 4. The Japanese fight would also end up scoring knockdowns in rounds 7 and 8. In round 8 the referee finally saw enough, when Decima was unable to raise his guard. He was up but out on his feet. |
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Sadly Hatanaka's reign as a world champion was a short one, losing belt 4 months later in an all action war with Daniel Zaragoza. The Japanese warrior would be cut early from a headclash, but wouldn't be discouraged as the two fighters set an extreme pace, with some huge shots being landed by both in one of the greatest fighters ever fought on Asian soil. It was gruelling, intense and bloody war that somehow went 12 rounds, that was despite Hatanaka having badly blurred vision through a portion of the fight. Sadly for Hatanaka he would lose the bout by split decision, ending his reign in what would be his final bout.
There was plans for a rematch with Zaragoza, but Hatanaka had suffered an injury to his eye during the bout that went on to force his retirement, with paralysis in his eye.
Following his retirement Hatanaka has done commentary work and now runs his own gym, the Hatanaka Gym. The gym has several notable fighters, the diamond among them is Kosei Tanaka, whilst Hatanaka's son “Prince” Kento Hatanaka is another of the gym's rising youngsters, and looks to be on a similar fast track to the top that Kiyoshi was.
As well Kosei Tanaka and Kento Hatanaka the gym also has Japanese ranked contender Yushi Tanaka and was previously the promoter of Shota Hayashi, prior to his retirement, having guided the talented Hayashi to the Japanese Featherweight title. The gym, in Nagaoya, has pushed a lot for getting the youth of the area boxing and it seems like Mr Hatanaka is very much a fighter preaches what he practised, and he really was one of the first standout fighters from the Nagaoya area and is clearly looking build on his fighting success as a promoter.
There was plans for a rematch with Zaragoza, but Hatanaka had suffered an injury to his eye during the bout that went on to force his retirement, with paralysis in his eye.
Following his retirement Hatanaka has done commentary work and now runs his own gym, the Hatanaka Gym. The gym has several notable fighters, the diamond among them is Kosei Tanaka, whilst Hatanaka's son “Prince” Kento Hatanaka is another of the gym's rising youngsters, and looks to be on a similar fast track to the top that Kiyoshi was.
As well Kosei Tanaka and Kento Hatanaka the gym also has Japanese ranked contender Yushi Tanaka and was previously the promoter of Shota Hayashi, prior to his retirement, having guided the talented Hayashi to the Japanese Featherweight title. The gym, in Nagaoya, has pushed a lot for getting the youth of the area boxing and it seems like Mr Hatanaka is very much a fighter preaches what he practised, and he really was one of the first standout fighters from the Nagaoya area and is clearly looking build on his fighting success as a promoter.
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