World Boxing Council confirmed Kotari\u2019s death<\/a> was directly linked to injuries sustained during the bout.<\/p>\nJust one day later, Hiromasa Urakawa, also 28, died after suffering the same type of brain injury during a knockout loss to Yoji Saito.<\/p>\n
The lightweight fighter was knocked out in the eighth and final round and underwent a craniotomy in a bid to save his life.<\/p>\n
Tributes paid to boxing ‘warrior’<\/p>\n
The World Boxing Organization (WBO) paid tribute to\u00a0Kotari on social media.<\/p>\n
“The boxing world mourns the tragic passing of Japanese fighter Shigetoshi Kotari, who succumbed to injuries sustained during his August 2nd title fight,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
“A warrior in the ring. A fighter in spirit. Gone too soon.”<\/p>\n
Kotari\u2019s gym also released a heartfelt statement on its website:<\/p>\n
“He gave everything \u2014 fighting through surgery and treatment at a Tokyo hospital after suffering an acute subdural hematoma. He never stopped battling.”<\/p>\n
Following Urakawa’s death, the WBO issued a separate message extending its “deepest condolences to the families, friends, and the Japanese boxing community, during this incredibly difficult time.”<\/p>\n
How has Japan’s boxing regulator responded?<\/p>\n
Tsuyoshi Yasukochi, secretary-general of the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC), told local media on\u00a0Saturday that it was likely “the first time in Japan two fighters underwent skull-opening surgery for injuries stemming from the same event.”<\/p>\n
In response, the JBC announced that all Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation\u00a0title bouts will now be shortened from 12 rounds to 10.<\/p>\n
Urakawa\u2019s death marks the third boxing fatality worldwide from in-ring injuries this year.<\/p>\n
Last year, Irish boxer John Cooney died a week after being hospitalized following his Celtic super-featherweight title defeat to Nathan Howells in Belfast.<\/p>\n
He had suffered a severe brain injury during the bout.<\/p>\n
Calls for tighter oversight of boxing\u00a0\u2014 both in Japan and internationally\u00a0\u2014 have been gaining momentum following the fatalities.<\/p>\n
Advocates are demanding\u00a0shorter fight durations, mandatory post-fight medical scans, and stricter enforcement of concussion protocols.<\/p>\n
What is a concussion, and how do you treat it?<\/p>\n
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\nEdited by: Karl Sexton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Japanese boxers have died within days of each other after sustaining brain injuries in separate bouts on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-59029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}