Fighting Harada, The Thread.

I dont know **** about those weight classes, especially in this period tbh, but how do you see a fantasy match up between Khaosai Galaxy and Harada?

 

Great post George, on one of my favourite fighters too. Little trivia for you - the nickname 'Fighting' is treated as a 'missing' nickname in the JBC, and no active fighter is allowed to use it out of respect to Harada.

Regarding your commentary on the 'Three Crows' specifically (for those not familiar, these were Masahiko Harada, Hiroyuki Ebihara and Katsutoshi Aoki, the three top prospects at the time, who all competed in / around the same divisions and were all touted for the world). I do believe Harada was being modest, however there is some truth to what he says, at least in my opinion.
Aoki was known, at least from what I've read, as a major talent with a big punch and major arrogance. However, he was a massive, massive drinker, allegedly abused sleeping pills, hated training - he was known to pour water on his head during roadwork, and would even skip sparring sessions - and had a troubled background since his early teens in a juvenile prison. As a consequence, he had several losses and uninspiring wins to lesser talented but hard training boxers. Still, he became the Oriental Champion and was basically a 'kill or be killed' Boxer in his style approach, as you can see on film. Eventually he attempted suicide, was charged with multiple crimes and was in trouble with the law often, before suffering with alcoholism in his later years.
Here's a translated quote on him from Japanese wiki, 'To dispel fear, he sometimes drank alcohol until dawn on the day of the match and went up to the ring with the smell of alcohol . Even in the match against Harada, he testified that he was drinking until the morning of the match and still thought he could win.'

Ebihara was also a freak with the guts and training to back it up. Harada himself stated that Ebihara was a genius, and many influential figures, such as Eddie Townsend, commented on his high natural ability, sense of rhythm and mental toughness. He was known for his power and 'razor punching' and iirc he has the second highest amount of KOs ever by a Japanese fighter, with a lot over quality opponents. Harada physically seemed to deal with Ebihara early, which is weird as Ebihara was 3 years older, so you could argue Harada was more physcially developed early rather than 'purely talented'. In their fight, Harada troubled him style wise and downed him twice with mad rushes, but apparently Ebihara came on towards the end with counters. Ebihara also frequently injured his hands, with lasting impact, and was also known for blowing in some bouts but pacing himself very well. In the end, Ebihara also became an alcoholic and eventually died of liver problems. His daughter died in a car accident years before.

Harada, in my opinion, was the hardest training and had the most spirit of any of them towards his fighting. He was super talented as well, of course. Boxing was his life whilst he was active. Like Chris said, 110%. It also helped he was the best schooled of the three, with Harada's training / gym lineage going directly back to the 'father of Japanese Boxing' Yujiro Watanabe (born 1889) through the leader of his gym, Takeshi Sasazaki, who had 115 bouts. Harada had a good foundation for his debut, better than Ebihara (whose gym was literally a converted stable in the beginning). I believe Chris said Harada was also trained by a family member from his Q&A to Harada. Harada seemed to define the ideal Japanese mentality of that time - massive spirit, immense stamina and unrelenting patience in discipline. In fact, the more I hear of Harada's training, the more I think he is one the hardest trainers ever. Simply freakish alongside incredible skill developments. Harada was known to struggle with his weight, with some sources saying his weight would go as high as 65kg (which I think is large exaggeration). Still, he was known for having to go on strict diets etc due to a sweet tooth.

All in all, Harada is undeniably Japan's best fighter, both legacy wise and H2H. However, I do not think he is their most 'talented' to come along, with Watanabe and Tatsuyoshi filling that role for me.

 

It might depend where those flyweight fights happened. As McGrain says, the sample size for Harada at the weight is minute and he himself admitted he was intimidated in a foreign environment. The crowd really helped in Japan and he was majestic in that first fight with Kingpetch, but Canto at his peak may have had a little too much know-how to be beaten like that. Perez also in his prime may have caught Harada rushing in in ways Pone didn’t in that fight. I can see a prime Chocolatito edging him too as his output is phenomenal and the best of Chocolatito at the weight is more refined than the best of Harada at the weight. It’s possible if all these top flyweights flight head other twice, perhaps those three I mentioned suffer the least amount of losses as I am sure Harada can beat anyone but may lose a few. He definitely peaked at bantam where he learned to pace himself better (he was tired in Kingpetch II) and learned how to recover from being stung. His boxing got better but at flyweight he was stronger than most.

I’m not the biggest fan of mythicals so I can see where George is coming from with his h2h talk but the sample size is small and I do agree he was robbed in Thailand but his limitations (at that weight) were evident in the second half of the match. I also see McGrains point of very little action vs. ranked foes at the weight. That’s why im far more comfortable ranking him at bantam and hypothesizing how he’d do against other greats.

 

Panama Al lived an interesting life which ultimately became tragic while still in his relative youth. The first Latino world champion, they tried everything to stop him. To be Latino, black AND gay in that time!! Had a lengthy relationship with Jean Cocteau too. Just a crazy story overall. As a fighter he was great. Considering he often was undertrained and then later entered the ring very sick so often and to never be KO’d in that many fights is a miracle. Nightmare style head-to-head too. A very, very tall bantam who could fight you inside and take a shot. That’s tough.

 

Here is some Harada in brilliant quality.

HD clip of Harada vs Rudkin (best quality I've ever seen of Harada, actually - @AlFrancis have you seen this?):

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"Japan's Strongest Champion Fighting Harada" - again, in very high quality (long video):

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Extended highlight of the 'Crazy Windmill' Fighting Harada, also in HD:

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Fighting Harada - interview and coaching children:

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Also, for those wondering why there are HQ clips and extended highlights, but not full fights, it's because they seem to get removed, and the channel deleted, if uploaded. I don't know what the reason is. If you see one, however, you should download it quickly.

 

Weird, ain't it? Possibly the TV stations that own the original footage. Japan is funny about stuff like that. There's no copyright infringement detected by youtube, so it must be reported manually. They don't seem to care about the LQ versions, though. Maybe the HQ versions are on a DVD to buy, or only for specific uses. I was gonna upload my own rips till I realised all the channels I'd gotten them off had been deleted, the videos removed. Fighting Harada would be more likely to get my channel removed than copyrighted music or movies

 

Great stuff that, seen the first one with the different camera angle on the AP archive in the past but haven't seen the others. It would be great if there was a full version with that other camera. Love to know what the Champ was saying about me dad on the long video.

 

Don't want to tempt fate but I posted the full version in Japanese 9 years ago without any problems so far. It's a shame there aren't more views for it. I posted the English highlight version 11 years with no problem but it's bad quality. I do have the original 16mm of that so maybe I'll look into getting it cleaned up.
On the other hand I posted the Rudkin Rose fight in it's entirety 11 years ago but that was taken down after a copyright infringement query by the Australian tv station. I got two or 3 strikes for that because it was in 15min sections and a threat to close my account. Luckily someone else uploaded it a couple of years later and it's still there far as I know

 

Here's another good one

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