An article on the legendary Fighting Harada, featuring Tyson. 'TOKYO — To hear one of their old warriors tell it, the Japanese have paid a price for their rise, within two generations, from the ashes of World War II to their present-day economic diversity and prosperity. The price: There are no more Fighting Haradas. The source for this: Fighting Harada. He looked down upon the noisy street traffic from his second-floor gym in downtown Tokyo recently and talked about a long search. “Every day, I wait for a young Fighting Harada to walk through that door over there, and I’ve been waiting 18 years,” said Harada, through a translator. “When I began boxing, in the late 1950s, Japan was poor. The gyms were full, full of young men like me who saw opportunity in boxing. Today, our gyms are not very busy.” He waved his hand, indicating four young boxers who were working out in mid-afternoon, shadow-boxing or jumping rope. It looked pretty much like any gym in Downtown, America, except for one thing: Visitors park their shoes in a shoe rack at the front door and slip into a pair of sandals. At the window, Harada looked down again and pointed to about a half-dozen young men roaring by on big, new motorcycles. They wore expensive sunglasses and laughed a lot. Harada shook his head in moderate disgust. He made a comment about the 1950s, and how bicycles were hard to come by then. “When I started out in boxing, in the late 1950s, this was a poor country,” he said. “No one owned much of anything. Now, look around. It’s a rich, wealthy country. People can buy anything. Why be a boxer? It’s a tough, hard sport. “We all began to notice the difference after the (1964) Olympics, when we began to become more prosperous. But as we became richer, we lost a certain spirit, I think--the spirit that I had, and the men who boxed when I did.” Masahiko (Fighting) Harada. Twenty-five years ago, when he was a sinewy 112-pounder, he fought like a one-half scale model Mike Tyson. Only two Japanese fighters have ever been world champions in two weight divisions, Harada and Kuniaki Shibata. And both were born during or immediately after World War II.' Full Article https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-04-10-sp-1627-story.html (Archived version) https://webcache.googleusercontent....+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-b-d
It is the same really in America now. All the giant crowds at fights are in Great Britain or Europe. It is hard to find a boxing fan in the US who knows anything about boxing much less its' history. Boxing in the US is a cult sport.
Yeah, it's not surprising he had this perspective at the height of Japan's bubble economy. The 90s were bad for Japan, but very good for their Boxing talent.
