Takahiro Aō

Takahiro Aō
Data
Birth Name	Takahiro Aō
Weight class	Super featherweight
nationality	Japan
birthday	April 6, 1984
place of birth	Ichihara
style	Southpaw
size	1.69 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	33
Victories	28
Knockout victories	12
Defeats	3
draw	1
No value	1

Takahiro Aō ( Japanese 粟 生 隆 寛 , Aō Takahiro ; born April 6, 1984 in Ichihara , Japan) is a Japanese professional boxer, former WBC world champion in featherweight and former WBC world champion in super featherweight.

Takahiro Aō fought so far exclusively in Japan and remained unbeaten in his first 17 professional fights. On March 3, 2007 he was by unanimous points victory against Koji Umetsu, Japanese featherweight champion and defended the title against Keisuke Akiba and Noriyuki Ueno. His attempt to secure the Oriental-Pacific Championship on April 5, 2008, ended in a draw against the undefeated title holder Hiroyuki Enoki, which Enoki retained his title.

On October 16, 2008 he boxed for the WBC world title in featherweight, but was subject to the title holder Óscar Larios divided on points. The direct rematch on March 12, 2009, however, he won superiorly and unanimously on points and was thus the new world champion. But already in his first title defense he lost his world championship belt by losing points to the Dominican Elio Rojas .

He then rose to super featherweight and beat the two top boxers Feider Viloria and Whyber Garcia. On November 26, 2010 he defeated the reigning WBC world champion in this weight class, the German Vitali Tajbert, and thus won his second world title. Tajbert was already on the ground in lap 3 and finally lost after 12 laps clearly on points. Then Aō defended his title on April 8, 2011 by knockout in the 4th round against the Mexican Humberto Gutiérrez.

In November 2011 and April 2012 he also defended his title on points against the unbeaten former junior world champion Devis Boschiero (29-0) and against Terdsak Kokietgym (46-3). In October 2012 he lost the title by losing points to the Mexican Gamaliel Díaz (36-9).

After four consecutive wins, including against Marco Antonio Lopez (23-3) and Juan Carlos Salgado (26-3), he boxed for the WBO lightweight world title in May 2015. He lost it prematurely in the second round against Raymundo Beltrán (29-7), but Beltrán had exceeded the weight limit and was convicted of doping after the fight, which is why the fight remained valueless.

predecessor	Office	successor
Óscar Larios	Featherweight Boxing Champion ( WBC ) March 12, 2009 - July 14, 2009	Elio Rojas

predecessor	Office	successor
Vitali Tajbert	Super featherweight boxing champion ( WBC ) November 26, 2010 - October 27, 2012	Gamaliel Díaz

Web links

• BoxRec (English)