{"id":55774,"date":"2025-08-09T16:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/55774\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T16:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T16:37:08","slug":"japanese-boxer-shigetoshi-kotari-dies-after-fight-injuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/55774\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese boxer Shigetoshi Kotari dies after fight injuries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Japanese super-featherweight <a href=\"https:\/\/businessday.ng\/sports\/article\/nigerian-boxer-gabriel-olanrewaju-dies-during-fight-in-ghana\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">boxer<\/a> Shigetoshi Kotari has died aged 28 from injuries sustained in his bout with Yamato Hata on August 2.<\/p>\n<p>Kotari collapsed after the fight in Tokyo and was rushed to the hospital, where he underwent emergency brain surgery for a subdural haematoma, a condition in which blood collects between the skull and brain.<\/p>\n<p>The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) said Kotari was one of two fighters to require brain surgery following the event, with Hiromasa Urakawa also undergoing a craniotomy after his featherweight clash with Yoji Saito. Urakawa\u2019s condition has not been updated.<\/p>\n<p>Sanctioning bodies, including the World Boxing Organisation (WBO) and\u00a0World\u00a0Boxing Council (WBC)\u00a0paid\u00a0tribute to Kotari, who had a professional record of eight wins, two losses\u00a0and\u00a0two draws.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeeply sorry for this loss, a ring accident which makes all of us go back to continue research to find ways to make boxing safer,\u201d\u00a0said WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman.\u00a0\u201cOur deepest sympathy and condolences to his family and the boxing community in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the tragedy, the JBC announced all Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) title fights will be reduced from 12 rounds to 10. Kotaris\u2019 fight with Hata ended in a draw for the OPBF super-featherweight title, while Urakawa was knocked out by Saito.<\/p>\n<p>Kotari is the second high-profile boxer to die in 2025, following the death of Irishman John Cooney in February from an intracranial haemorrhage after a fight in Belfast.<\/p>\n<p>                                 <a href=\"https:\/\/businessday.ng\/author\/anthony-nlebem\/\" title=\"Posts by Anthony Nlebem\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Anthony Nlebem<\/a> <\/p>\n<p> Head of Sports at BusinessDay Media, a seasoned Digital Content Producer, and FIFA\/CAF Accredited Journalist with over a decade of sports reporting.Has a deep understanding of the Nigerian and global sports landscape and skills in delivering comprehensive and insightful sports content. <\/p>\n<p>                          <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3FIk3Rx\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/SAZ-Banner-728x90-1.png\" height=\"250\" width=\"300\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"object-fit: contain;\"\/> <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese super-featherweight boxer Shigetoshi Kotari has died aged 28 from injuries sustained in his bout with Yamato Hata&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-55774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}