Japanese boxer Urakawa also passes after Kotari dies

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

JBC#4 lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa (10-4, 7 KOs) also passed after a brain surgery at 10:31pm on Saturday (August 9) just a week after he sustained a TKO defeat at Korakuen Hall. Shigemasa Kotari, who fought on the same show last Saturday, had died a day before. Urakawa engaged in a JBC eliminator to decide the next mandatory challenger against the JBC national 135-pound champion.

The game upright stylist Hiromasa was winning on points on all scorecards before the fatal eighth and final session, when Yuji Saito displayed a last surge, connected with desperate combinations and dropped Urakawa on the deck with a thud. The referee promptly called a halt to have the all-out fighting loser carried out of the ring on a stretcher. He was rushed to hospital with an urgent brain surgery and then stayed in a coma for a week.

Urakawa, 28, previously failed to be victorious in a couple of JBC lightweight eliminators to challenge the national champ, losing to Hironori Mishiro in November 2023 and to Yudai Murakami in October last year. Each was a grueling battle.

Hiromasa was survived by his wife and three daughters. He supposedly wished to show the national championship belt even once to his family, so he showed his very best effort in every JBC eliminator three times. May his brave soul rest in peace.

https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/828214

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