You would have said that who is the best Japanese boxer without a world title who are at the end of their career or inactive? Personally my ranking : 1- Satoshi Shimizu (without his lung disease he would have been 100% world champion). 2-Masayoshi Nakatani 3- Shingo Wake 4- Kai Chiba & Keita Kurihara 5- Ryoji Fukunaga 6- Ryo Akaho 7- Akihiro Kondo 8- Sho Ishida 9- Junichiro Sugita 10- Hiroyuki Ebihara No need to make a top 10 like me, just name the names of Japanese boxers who unfortunately were not world champions. Despite strong hype and big victories at some point.
Interesting thread. Ebihara won a world title. Perhaps Nobuhrio Ishida is in contention for replacing him in 10th spot on your list.
Oh sorry I was sure it failed every time, thanks for the answer. I don't think we can make Nobuhiro Ishida, because he won the WBA Super Welter Interim title and defend it one time. But yeah Nobuhiro is a big name too.
Hiroyuki Enoki comes to mind. He had a good run, beating Nedal Hussein and fighting to a draw with Takahiro Ao, future world title holder. For him the problem was that while Ao - coming off that draw - got a title shot against aging Larios, Enoki had to fight prime Chris John, much more difficult task. In general, in lower weight classes there's always a lot of Japanese fighters who are around world level, but whether They win a title or not depends on who They have to fight for it, sometimes timing.
Yeah they're the three. Tanabe was probably the best and most talented overall but the biggest what if. Looked amazing against Accavallo, shades of Harada and Ohba in him. Murata was briefly very good/excellent and unlucky not to usurp either of Chandler or Pintor. Awkward looking and arm punchy but very strong and effective with excellent feet. A little bit like a less accomplished bantamweight Fullmer. Seki on a similar level to Murata, possibly a shade better. A very unlucky fighter who deserved a better break or two.
