Ryota Murata
Courtesy of Chris Farina and Top Rank
In Japanese boxing right there are numerous big name fighters. We have world champions like Shinsuke Yamanaka, Takashi Uchiyama and Kazuto Ioka, we have major youngster like Naoya Inoue and Sho Ishida and we have, arguably, the best female boxer on the planet with Naoko Fujioka.
Despite all those fighters, and every other active Japanese fighter, one name seems to draw more attention than any of them. Ryota Murata (11-0, 8) [村田 諒太].
Whilst Murata is only in the embryonic stages of his career the attention he gets from both fans and media is second to none. This guy for all intents and purposes is already a boxing star and it seems he will only become more and more popular as time goes on and as he competes in more bouts.
What makes Murata so special is really hard to define. One might say his movie star looks, someone else would say his charisma and natural charm, though the most common answer from boxing fans will be his amateur pedigree and the fact he's "bigger" for a Japanese fighter. Lets be honest, Japanese Middleweights aren't that common and as a result Western fans have an interest in him partly because he could competing with fighters they recognise. This isn't the case for fighters like Inoue, Ioka or Sho Ishida.
Born in Nara City in 1986 Murata would pick up boxing in junior high school and, for the early part of his development, be taught by Hiroaki Takami who competed in the 1984 Olympics as a Bantamweight. Although it was early days Murata did seem to enjoy the sport and two years later he moved on to training at the Shinko Gym before moving onto a high school gym and later boxing for his university. Whilst he did have success there was some issues with his style and he suffered several losses via disqualification.
Unfortunately those losses saw Murata deciding to turn his back on boxing. He had fallen out of love with the sport and had seemingly had enough.
Thankfully, for us as fans and for Murata as a fighter, a journey to Thailand relight his fire and love for the sport and returned with a vengeance to prove himself.
A rejuvenated Murata built on both the skills he had and the fire he had found and over the following few years went from being a force on the Japanese domestic stage to being a force on the Asian scene and then the world scene.
Despite all those fighters, and every other active Japanese fighter, one name seems to draw more attention than any of them. Ryota Murata (11-0, 8) [村田 諒太].
Whilst Murata is only in the embryonic stages of his career the attention he gets from both fans and media is second to none. This guy for all intents and purposes is already a boxing star and it seems he will only become more and more popular as time goes on and as he competes in more bouts.
What makes Murata so special is really hard to define. One might say his movie star looks, someone else would say his charisma and natural charm, though the most common answer from boxing fans will be his amateur pedigree and the fact he's "bigger" for a Japanese fighter. Lets be honest, Japanese Middleweights aren't that common and as a result Western fans have an interest in him partly because he could competing with fighters they recognise. This isn't the case for fighters like Inoue, Ioka or Sho Ishida.
Born in Nara City in 1986 Murata would pick up boxing in junior high school and, for the early part of his development, be taught by Hiroaki Takami who competed in the 1984 Olympics as a Bantamweight. Although it was early days Murata did seem to enjoy the sport and two years later he moved on to training at the Shinko Gym before moving onto a high school gym and later boxing for his university. Whilst he did have success there was some issues with his style and he suffered several losses via disqualification.
Unfortunately those losses saw Murata deciding to turn his back on boxing. He had fallen out of love with the sport and had seemingly had enough.
Thankfully, for us as fans and for Murata as a fighter, a journey to Thailand relight his fire and love for the sport and returned with a vengeance to prove himself.
A rejuvenated Murata built on both the skills he had and the fire he had found and over the following few years went from being a force on the Japanese domestic stage to being a force on the Asian scene and then the world scene.
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For many Murata's break out from elite Japanese fighter, who had actually claimed 5 national titles, to one of the elite amateurs came in 2011 when he won a silver medal in the World Amateur Championships in Baku. Amazingly though he had been on and off the international stage since the mid 00's.
Whilst it's often though that Murata "came out of nowhere" in the 2011 World Amateur championships that was actually his third World Championships. He took part in his first one back in 2005 when he was stopped by Nikolajs Grisunins. He then returned in 2007 winning his first bout, defeating Donatas Bondorovas, before losing to Shawn Estrada. Unfortunately for Murata it seemed clear that, whilst talented, he lacked physical maturity and experience to compete with the elite at that point. Of course to get that level of experience you need to keep fighting and that's what he did in an attempt to make his way to the 2008 Olympics, unfortunately he failed to qualify for the games. Soon after he failed in his Olympic bid he had a second "retirement" after a scandal at Toyo university where he was then working. Murata's second "retirement", like his first, was short lived and in 2010 he returned to the ring and swiftly showed himself to be an improved and more mature fighter. He was not only starting a family outside of the ring but he was starting a real career inside it. In 2011 Murata had his break through year. First he claimed a gold medal at the President's Cup in Jakarta, stopping all 4 of his opponents, before moving on to claim a silver medal at the World Championships. Had it not been for the exceptional Evhen Khytrov in the final then Murata would almost certainly have beaten anyone else in the field. His improve from 2007 to 2011 had been remarkable and now we were looking at a fully grown man proving himself rather than a youngster. Having claimed silver in the World Championships Murata was one of the favourites for an Olympic gold medal. It seemed that it was likely to be Murata, Khytrov or Uzbekistan's Abbos Atoev. Thankfully for Murata an awful decision in the first round saw Khytrov beaten by local fighter Anthony Ogogo and from then on Murata seemed nailed on for the gold. Having reached the Olympic final with victories over Abdelmalek Rahou, Adem Kılıççı and a very hard fought decision over Atoev, Murata had already created history, He had already become the first Japanese boxer to claim an Olympic medal whilst fighting above Bantamweight. He had also become the first Japanese fighter to win medals at both the World Championships and Olympics. In the Olympic final Murata was given a seriously tough test from Esquiva Falcao of Brazil, with Murata doing just enough in the last round to take the decision, much to the frustration of the Brazilian officials. This victory had seen Murata become the first Japanese boxer to claim an Olympic gold since Takao Sakurai back in 1964. Following his amateur success there was a lot of speculation about Murata's next move. Like any intelligent fighter he refused to be rushed and took his time to decide what he wanted to do next. Finally he decided to turn professional and signed up with the Misako Gym whilst being co-promoted by both Teiken, in Japan, and Top Rank, internationally. It was a deal that seemed to suit every party with Teiken responsible for the match making, Top Rank responsible for part of Murata's training and for getting him US exposure. The move to turn professional saw Murata leaving behind an excellent amateur record of 119 wins against 19 losses with 89 stoppage victories. It was obvious that he had power and it showed on his professional debut as he stopped OPBF Middleweight champion Akio Shibata in just 2 rounds. It was an impressive debut from a man who seemed already suited to the pro game. Of course there was issues he had to correct but it already looked like their was a talented, though unrefined and slightly nervous, fighter there. In his second professional bout Murata returned to action and stopped tough American Dave Peterson in 8 rounds. Whilst some had been unhappy about the choice of opponent it had to be remembered that it was Murata's second professional contest and as with his debut he had scored a stoppage. Following the victory over Peterson it was announced that Murata would be fighting his third professional contest on a Macau card alongside fellow gold medal winners Zou Shiming and Egor Mekhontsev. Although Murata's opponent wasn't originally announced he was later confirmed to fight Brazil's Carlos Nascimento a former world title challenger. That bout saw the most mature performance of Murata's career so far as he continued his stoppage streak and forced the referee to save Nascimento who was taking a prolonged series of shots on the ropes. Murata moved to 4-0 when he dominated Mexico's Jesus Angel Nerio en route to a 6th round TKO. Nerio had been a proven tough guy prior to the fight though had no answer to Murata's power, skill or aggression and the Japanese fighter just beat him into submission in a very impressive performance. Sadly for Murata his follow up bout would be less impressive as he dominated Adrian Luna Flores though left people questioning his gas tank as he looked spent by the final bell. The Luna Flores fight was, on paper, a very good result though the notable thing is that we have now seen what Murata needs to work on, stamina. In his 6th professional bout Murata was again taken the distance as American fighter Jessie Nicklow gave the Japanese fighter something to think about. On paper this was a mismatch, and the result, a shut out, suggested the same however Murata's performance suggests there is an attempt to change him from a fighter to a boxer and it could take a while for those changes to really work. In performance it looked like he was disjointed and not quite used to needing to move the way he did, hopefully that will be sorted out in the near future, or he'll revert to his old fighting style. Murata kicked off 2015 by getting back to what he's good at, applying pressure and using his strength. Those traits saw him defeat the then WBO world ranked Douglas Damiao Ataide with an excellent stoppage. The bout wasn't that impressive from Murata who seemed happy to go through the motions early on but when he decided to let his hands go he really let them go in brutal fashion. Toe end 2015 he made his US debut and defeated the tough Gunnar Jackson with a clear, yet unspectacular, decision win. The bout was supposed to build Murata's reputation in the US though even the fighter himself seemed unimpressed by his performance which lacked much in terms of variation though did secure him a win on US TV. Murata began 2016 with a bout in Shanghai against Gaston Alejandro Vega, the Japanese fighter scored the expected victory with a second round KO to impress a Chinese audience before ending in Hong Kong 4 months later, when he scored a 4th round TKO win against the over-matched Felipe Santos Pedroso. In his third bout of 2016 Murata left a lasting impression on US fans who saw him come over for the under-card of the highly anticipated bout between Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol. On that card Murata scored an opening round victory over the experienced George Tahdooanippah and is now planning to fit in another bout before the year is over, with the next one being scheduled for November. The video below, courtesy of Lys Alexandrov, show Murata's stopping Carlos Nascimento. |
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