Shirai Yoshio

Yoshio Shirai
Data
Birth Name	Yoshio Shirai
Weight class	Flyweight
nationality	Japanese
birthday	November 23, 1923
place of birth	Tokyo
Date of death	December 26, 2003
style	Left outsourcing
Combat Statistics
Struggles	58
Victories	46
Knockout victories	18th
Defeats	8th
draw	4th

Shirai Yoshio ( Japanese 白 井 義 男 ; born November 23, 1923 in Tokyo ; † December 26, 2003 ) was a Japanese boxer . He was world champion of professional flyweight boxers .

Career

Yoshio Shirai started boxing as a teenager at a school in Tokyo. In 1943, at the age of 20, he became a professional boxer. After eight fights, he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1944 and took part in World War II. He was wounded several times. After the war he resumed his boxing career, but had major problems due to the war injuries and was already thinking of resigning for good. However, he came into contact with the American Dr. Alvin Robert Cahn, who became its manager, trainer and psychological supervisor and with whom he worked closely throughout his subsequent career. Under the guidance of Dr. Cahn, he also changed his aggressive but risky boxing style, which was practiced by almost all Japanese boxers at the time, into a more technical and more defensive fighting style. Yoshio Shirai in 1952 became the first Japanese world champion in the professional boxers flyweight and remained so until 1954. After retiring, he worked as a boxing commentator and critic and founded in 1995 with Yoko Gushiken the boxing school Shirai-Gushiken Sports Gym in Tokyo, he together with this headed.

Career as a professional boxer

Yoshio Shirai fought his first fight as a professional boxer on November 26, 1943 in Tokyo. He defeated his compatriot Jumpo Umiyama in flyweight by knockout in the 1st round. By March 28, 1944, he fought another seven fights, in which he was victorious. Then he was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Navy and had to give up his boxing career for the time being. During the war, he suffered several wounds that almost ended the continuation of his boxer career after the end of the war. From June 27, 1946 he was back in the ring, but without making any real progress. He then won the American Dr. Alvin Rober Cahn as the new manager, trainer and supervisor.

On July 30, 1948, he achieved his first victory after starting to work with Dr. Cahn. On that day he defeated his compatriot Nobuyuki Ishimori by knockout in the 2nd round. After that it went steadily uphill. On January 28, 1949 he was with a knockout victory in the 5th round over Yoichiro Hanada Japanese flyweight champion. He defended this title on June 25, 1949 with a points victory over Noboru Kushida. On December 15, 1949 he was also Japanese bantamweight champion with a points victory over Hiroshi Horiguchi . After several successful title defenses, Yoshio Shirai lost the Japanese bantamweight championship title on March 17, 1951 by a disqualification defeat in the 8th round at Hidemasa Nagashima.

Yoshio Shirai (right) and Dado Marino in their competition for the flyweight championship in May 1952.

Despite this annoying defeat for him, he fought on May 21, 1951 in Tokyo against the American of Hawaiian origin Dado Marino , the reigning world champion of the NBA in flyweight. However, this fight took place in the bantamweight division and was controversially won by Dado Marino on points. From that day on, Yoshio Shirai, who had previously only fought against Japanese boxers, also had an excellent name in the international boxing business. First, however, he won back the Japanese bantamweight championship title on September 20, 1951 with a points victory over Hidemasa Nagashima and defended his Japanese flyweight championship title on October 25, 1951 in Tokyo with a knockout victory in the 6th round over Takahisa Horiguchi.

On December 4, 1951, Dado Marino and Yoshio Shirai boxed again in Honolulu in a non-title fight. Shirai managed a victory by technical knockout in the 7th round over Marino, whom he had sent to the ground six times in the course of this fight.

Yoshio Shirai (left) and Leo Espinosa in May 1954

On May 19, 1952, Yoshio Shirai and Dado Marino fought at the Karakuen baseball stadium in Tokyo in front of 40,000 spectators for the NBA flyweight world title, which Yoshio Shirai won unanimously on points. On November 15, 1952, Yoshio Shirai successfully defended the flyweight world title in Tokyo with a unanimous victory over Dado Marina for the first time.

Three more successful title defenses followed. On May 18, 1953, Yoshio Shirai defeated Tanny Campo from the Philippines on points in Tokyo ; on October 27, 1953 he beat the British Terry Allen (boxer) in Tokyo on points and on May 24, 1954 he beat in Tokyo the Philippines Leo Espinosa on points. Against Espinosa Shirai had lost on September 19, 1953 in a non-title fight by abandoning in the 7th round.

On July 24, 1954, Yoshio Shirai and Pascual Perez from Argentina met in Buenos Aires. This fight, which was not about the title, ended in a draw after 10 rounds. On November 26, 1954, Yoshio Shirai then defended his world title in Tokyo against Pascual Pérez and lost after 15 rounds on points and thus the title. On May 30, 1955 there was a rematch between Shirai and Perez in Tokyo, in which it was again for the world title. Perez won this fight by knockout in the 5th round and thus ended the career of Yoshio Shirai.

Explanations

• Left hand = leading hand is the left, striking hand, the right hand
• NBA = National Boxing Association, the leading boxing association in professional boxing at the time. It was later divided into the WBC (World Boxing Council) and the WBA (World Boxing Association)

literature

• Box-Sport magazine

Web links

• Shirai Yoshio in the BoxRec database
• Fight between Yoshio Shirai and Dado Marino on May 19, 1952 for the world title

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 具 志堅 用 高 . (No longer available online.) In: Ōta Production. Archived from the original on August 11, 2018 ; Retrieved January 6, 2016 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Shirai is the family name, Yoshio the first name.