The story of the reversal of the “cheap” boxer Yuichi Ideta to become the “Japanese Champion
Why the boxer, who is now in his 40s, remained active despite 1 win, 15 losses, and 1 minute
There is a theory called the “black swan. While the conventional wisdom was that “white swans are white,” a black swan was discovered in Australia in 1697, causing an uproar. Since then, the black swan has been used as an example of how the unexpected can happen.
Professional boxer Yuichi Ideta, 40, is a true black swan. He was the All-Japan welterweight rookie champion in 2006 and won 12 straight fights after his debut, but after losing a fight in August ’11, he lost 11 straight fights after his next fight was drawn. In the nearly 10 years from February ’10 to December ’20, he has lost 1-15-1, a significant losing streak.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been eliminated, but in November ’22, he became the Japanese super welterweight champion, and on October 8, 2010, he made his third defense against Hisashi Kato (39) by TKO in the fifth round.
Because of the damage done to the brain and body in this special sport, it is rare for a fighter to continue fighting into middle age. It is even rarer for a fighter with 16 black stars to win the Japanese title. Here is a look back at Ideta’s life as a boxer, from his own words and from the testimonies of those involved.
If I were in his position as a coach, I would have advised him to retire.
He laughs as he says this. As for why he continued to be active even though he kept losing, he says, “Even though I kept losing, I practiced day in and day out.
Even though I kept losing, I felt that I could get stronger in my daily practice, and I could see that I was getting stronger and stronger than yesterday. Even in the games I lost, I could see things I should have done differently in those situations that would have helped me win, so I was able to overcome my problems one by one. Even during the losing streak, I didn’t think about retiring.
One of the reasons he did not lose heart even in the losing streak was the presence of his wife, Ayako, 37. Even when he came home after losing a match, he treated her the same way he always had.
Even when I came home after losing a match, she would say things like, ‘You are stronger than you were in the last match,’ or ‘You were better than you were in the last match,’ which made me think that I could still do my best and that I could try a little harder.”
A week after the match, with his face still swollen, Ideta came to the gym and silently practiced. Six days a week, after finishing his day job, he visited the gym and practiced by himself. Takashi Misako, the president of his gym, looks back on those days and laughs.
If he had just fought fights, made money, and continued to be a professional boxer out of pride, I would have let him quit. But he was calm, dedicated to training, and never cut corners. I would have made him quit if he had been unskilled in fights or in daily practice, but I was troubled by the fact that he worked like a martial arts fighter (laughs).
