{"id":99916,"date":"2025-08-27T03:53:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T03:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/99916\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T03:53:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T03:53:08","slug":"japan-deaths-shigetoshi-kotari-hiromasa-urakawa-spark-fears-for-sports-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/99916\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan deaths Shigetoshi Kotari, Hiromasa Urakawa spark fears for sport’s existence"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of Japan’s boxing<\/a> commission says the sport could cease to exist in the country if radical changes aren’t implemented, following the deaths of two fighters.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, super featherweight Shigetoshi Kotari and lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa, both 28, died following brain surgery<\/a> after fighting on the same card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.<\/p>\n

The deaths sparked an investigation by authorities, with a raft of changes to be implemented in September to prevent further tragedies.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘All that has changed’: Roosters players turn on Smith<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Sloane laments Rankine’s ‘missed opportunity’ over apology<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Slater tips ‘freakish’ cross-code star for rare feat<\/a><\/p>\n

They include sterner rules on rapid weight loss before fights and urine tests to assess dehydration.<\/p>\n

According to the World Boxing Association, dehydration caused by cutting weight quickly can make the brain more prone to bleeding.<\/p>\n

“If we don’t improve things, this sport won’t be able to continue. If the people involved in the sport can’t improve things, we will have to quit,” Japan Boxing Commission secretary-general Tsuyoshi Yasukochi told AFP.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Shigetoshi Kotari.\u00a0Instagram<\/p>\n

“I understand that we are at a crucial moment where a sport that has been around for 100 years could potentially disappear.<\/p>\n

“I think everyone is working every day with that mindset.”<\/p>\n

Boxing in Japan has had to deal with its fair share of tragedy in the ring recently.<\/p>\n

Last week, an amateur boxer had reportedly still not regained consciousness two weeks after undergoing emergency brain surgery after a sparring session.<\/p>\n

In May, boxer Ginjiro Shigeoka collapsed after a fight in Osaka and underwent brain surgery. He remains in a coma but is no longer in a life-threatening condition.<\/p>\n

The deaths of Kotari and Urakawa followed the tragic passing of another Japanese fighter, Kazuki Anaguchi, who died following a bout in Tokyo in 2023.<\/p>\n

“When a person dies it’s something that has a big impact,” Yasukochi added, stating the sport was at a “crossroads”.<\/p>\n

“If you don’t feel that, then you’re not qualified to be involved in boxing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Some people might say that this is a sport where such accidents can happen, but we can’t afford to think that way.<\/p>\n

“These things keep happening and we can’t brush them off as coincidences. We need to investigate the causes and manage the aftermath.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Japan’s boxing commission says the sport could cease to exist in the country if radical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-99916","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\/99916","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=99916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}