Biography and Career
Takayama weighed about 60 kg at the age of twelve. He started playing rugby and athletics, but did not last long. It was in summer in the second grade of junior high school that his friend brought him to a boxing gym. When he got started on the punching bag, despite he said he is going to be a world champion, he could not do more than three push-ups in a row. Even after his own workout, he had been watching senior boxers' sparring sessions and trainees' training without getting bored at the entrance of the gym. Takayama made his professional debut in October 2000 and won the All-Japan Rookie King Tournament in December 2001.
On April 4, 2005 Takayama defeated Isaac Bustos for the WBC world title, by a unanimous decision. This victory gave Takayama the distinction of being the 50th Japanese fighter to win a world title. However, he lost a next bout against Eagle Kyowa by a unanimous decision, on August 6, 2005.
On November 7, 2006 he defeated Carlos Melo for the WBA interim title when he was originally supposed to face Yutaka Niida for the WBA title in September. However, due to a costal cartilage fracture Niida sustained from sparring, the fight would be delayed to April 7, 2007 ending in a split decision loss. After the fight, his then manager rejected the decision and uttered that it was a match fixing and that he would make civil litigation. However, he visited the JBC (Japan Boxing Commission) two days later and apologized for his rant saying that he had just wanted to pat his boxer on the back. Furthermore, most of the purse for that fight had not been paid. Although Takayama and Nakade announced that they would transfer to any other gym, the matters on the match fee and transfer fee were not resolved over months.
Takayama got another world title shot on July 14, 2009. This time, it was for the WBA minimumweight title which is held by Roman Gonzalez. Unsuccessfully, Takayama lost on all judges. He retired as a JBC-licenced boxer to fight for the WBO and IBF's titles in late 2009. At that time the JBC had approved no fight for the WBO and IBF's titles, but has allowed them only conditionally since February 28, 2011. That is because the West Japan Boxing Associations to which Takayama and Ken'ichi Yamaguchi belonged strongly urged reform of the system after they issued retirement notices.
Takayama won an IBF minimumweight title eliminator via a sixth round technical knockout at the Carnival City in Brakpan, Gauteng, South Africa in September 2010, and challenged Nkosinathi Joyi for that title at the Carnival City after being postponed twice on January 29, 2011, but the fight ended in a no-contest due to a cut on Takayama's head after an accidental head-butt in the third round. He had a broken right hand since just before the fight.
Takayama rematched Joyi at the Orient Theatre in East London, Eastern Cape after postponed four times on March 30, 2012. It was the SABC-televised second boxing event after one year interruption. According to Japanese sources, Takayama reportedly dominated the whole fight except that he went down resulting from a slip in the fifth round, and stated with increased confidence through the twelve rounds that "I fought as was planned and did my best" after a unanimous decision loss with scores of 111–116 twice and 110–117. A boxing writer for South Africa's SuperSport wrote that "Many ringsiders were of the opinion that the decision could have gone in favour of the challenger" on Fightnews.com which was presented the WBA’s Website of the Year in 2010, and there were several articles showing that Joyi had struggled against Takayama. However the IBF's Lindsey Tucker has denied their views on BoxingScene.com.
Read more about this topic: Katsunari Takayama
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