Ryota Murata

Ryota Murata
Data
Birth Name	Ryota Murata
Weight class	medium weight
nationality	Japan Japan
birthday	January 12, 1986
place of birth	Nara
style	Left-hand boom
size	1.82 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	18th
Victories	16
Knockout victories	13
Defeats	2

Ryōta Murata medal table
Boxing
Japan Japan
Olympic Summer Games
gold	2012	medium weight
World championships
silver	2011	medium weight
Asian Championships
bronze	2005	medium weight

Ryōta Murata ( Japanese 村田諒太 , Murata Ryōta ; born January 12, 1986 in Nara , Nara Prefecture ) is a Japanese professional boxer , as well as former and current WBA middleweight champion. He was runner-up in the amateur world championship in 2011 and Olympic champion in 2012 .

Amateur career

The 1.82 m tall Murata was the Japanese middleweight champion in 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

His first internationally significant success was winning a bronze middleweight medal at the 2005 Asian Championships in Ho Chi Minh City . He also took part in the World Championships in Mianyang and Chicago in 2005 and 2007 , but was unable to achieve a medal placement after losing to Nikolajs Grišuņins and Shawn Estrada. In 2008 he took part in the Asian qualifying tournaments for the Summer Olympics in Beijing , where he lost to Elshod Rasulov and Homayoun Amiri and was eliminated.

In 2011 he won the International President's Cup in Jakarta and the Japanese National Trials . From September to October of the same year he also took part in the 16th World Championships in Baku . There he won his preliminary round matches early against Leandro Sánchez from Argentina and the two-time world champion Abbos Atoyev from Uzbekistan. In the third preliminary round, he prevailed against the Iranian Mohammad Sattarpoor with 22:11 on points and moved into the round of 16, where he defeated the German Stefan Härtel 18:15 on points. In the quarter-finals, he beat the reigning European vice-champion Darren O'Neill from Ireland 18: 9 and was thus in the semi-finals, where he also defeated the Brazilian Esquiva Falcão clearly with 24:11. In the final that followed, he met the Ukrainian Evhen Khytrov , whom he had to admit defeat by just 22:24.

He qualified for the 30th Summer Olympics in London in 2012 , where he entered the round of 16 with a bye and there defeated the Algerian Abdelmalek Rahou 21:12 on points. In the quarterfinals he won 17:13 against the Turk Adem Kılıççı and so reached the semifinals, where he was able to defeat the Uzbek Abbos Atoyev 13:12. In the final he defeated the Brazilian Esquiva Falcão 14:13 and became the first Japanese Olympic champion in boxing since Takao Sakurai in 1964.

Professional career

On August 25, 2013, he played his first professional match in Tokyo under the promoter Top Rank, Inc. , which he won by TKO in the second round against Akio Shibata (21-7). On December 6, 2013 he also defeated Dave Peterson (13-1) by TKO in the eighth round. In February 2014 he also won prematurely against Carlos Nascimento (29-3) and in May 2014 prematurely against Jesús Nerio (12-3). He won another win in September 2014 against Adrian Flores (17-2). In December 2014, he won against Jessie Nicklow (24-4). He won against Douglas Ataide (13-1) in May 2015 by TKO in the fifth round.

In November 2015 he defeated New Zealander Gunnar Jackson (22-6) by unanimous decision. In 2016 he defeated Gaston Vega (24-10) and Felipe Pedroso (13-1) both prematurely. In July 2016, he defeated George Tahdooahnippah (34-2) in the first round. In December 2016 he defeated Bruno Sandoval (19-1) prematurely.

On May 20, 2017, he boxed in Tokyo for the WBA middleweight world title, losing to Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (35-2) by split point decision . The outcome of the fight was extremely controversial and led to the suspension of two of the three judges. In the rematch on October 22, 2017 in Japan, Murata finally won by giving up his opponent at the end of the seventh round. He became only the second Japanese professional middleweight champion after Shinji Takehara , who had won the WBA title in this weight class in 1995.

He won his first title defense on April 15, 2018 by TKO in the eighth round against European champion Emanuele Blandamura (27-2). In his second title defense he lost to Robert Brant (23-1) on October 20, 2018 . He won the rematch against Brant on July 12, 2019 by TKO in the second round and was again WBA world champion.

On December 23, 2019, he defeated the Canadian Steven Butler (28-1) by TKO in the fifth round.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Two judges suspended after controversial decision

personal data
SURNAME	Murata, Ryota
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	japanese boxer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 12, 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH	Nara

[1] Two judges suspended after controversial decision