<figure id="attachment_430565" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-430565" style="width: 649px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1f43d2b7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/07/79bf71114115f9f5d8f9db21d981d797.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-430565" class="wp-caption-text">Kaname Sakama passed away last year at the young age of 20. Why did Kaname Sakama, who was expected to become the next Naoya Inoue, have to choose to die? &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<p> The reality of &#8220;risking one&#8217;s life&#8221; was brought to light once again, sending shockwaves through the boxing world.</p>
<p> Ginjiro Shigeoka (25, Watanabe Gym), who was aiming to regain the world title in the IBF world minimumweight title match, became unconscious and was rushed to the hospital immediately after losing a decision in their world match on May 24. He was diagnosed with a right subdural hematoma, and after undergoing craniotomy surgery, he was forced to retire from active duty according to regulations.</p>
<p> On June 3, his older brother Yuudai (28, Watanabe Gym), also a former WBC world minimum weight champion, reported on his Instagram Stories about Shigeoka&#8217;s condition, saying, &lt;It looks like he will be moved from the ICU to the general ward in the near future&gt; (original text). The accident was a reminder that boxing is a sport where death is always a possibility.</p>
<p> In the boxing world, there have been many accidents in the past that have resulted in death or endangered the lives of boxers. Why do these tragic accidents continue to occur?　It is not only the danger of the sport itself, but also the bad practices that prevail in the boxing world. &#8230;&#8230;</p>
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<h3> The &#8220;closed door aspect&#8221; that remains in the boxing world</h3>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> &#8216;This could get nasty. Will there be another &#8220;tragedy&#8221; like the one a year ago? &#8230;&#8230;</span></p>
<p> On February 13 this year, one of the executives of the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC), which oversees professional boxing matches held in Japan, muttered to himself as he walked left and right through the corridors of Korakuen Hall, the venue of the match, with an intensely upset expression on his face after he finished talking on his cell phone.</p>
<p> For Ryu Takumi Endo (21, Kawasaki Shinden Boxing Gym), in his eighth professional fight, the match that day was against the sixth-ranked Japanese minimumweight, and it was an important one that would greatly affect his future career. However, Endo was struggling with his weight loss before the match, perhaps due to the pressure of facing a Japanese ranker for the first time. As a result, Endo was disqualified at the weigh-in on the day before the February 12 weigh-in due to being 2.1 kg overweight. Then came the incident that shook the boxing world, including the JBC executives mentioned at the beginning of this article.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On February 13, the day of the match, Endo disappeared on a yellow motorcycle, leaving a letter at home that resembled a suicide note. When his parents noticed his disappearance, they filed a missing persons report with the police and also asked certain influencers to provide information (editor&#8217;s note: these posts have now been deleted).</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> As the information spread, social networking sites were filled with posts such as &lt;Please don&#8217;t die, &#8230;&#8230;&gt;. The police were able to approximate Endo&#8217;s whereabouts by occasionally turning on his cell phone, and two days after his disappearance, they were able to take him into custody safely at a comic café in Yokohama City.</span></p>
<p> The JBC announced a one-year license suspension for Endo after he failed to weigh in. Meanwhile, it has become taboo to mention his disappearance in the boxing world. A source at the Kawasaki Shinden Boxing Gym said with a sigh.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The gym has strictly asked us not to send out any information about his disappearance on social networking sites or cooperate with the media in any way. In the past, the Japan Professional Boxing Association and other people sitting at the top of the boxing world have, whenever something bad has happened to them, put up a gag order like this, and have simply waited for the situation to fade away and pretend that the facts had never happened.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Also, reporters in charge of TV, newspapers, and media specializing in boxing have not been willing to cover these issues for fear of having their fight passes revoked or being banned from the venue of the fights. After all, that is the bad practice in the boxing world. That is why, no matter how long it takes, the boxing world will always be ridiculed as a mura society with a tendency to cover things up.</span></p>
<p> In fact, about a year before Endo&#8217;s disappearance, the disappearance of a popular fighter had also occurred and ended badly. And just as in the case of Endo&#8217;s disappearance, the boxing world has been silent about this fact from the time of the incident to the present.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The death of the genius known as Next Naoya Inoue."></div>
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<figure id="attachment_430566" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-430566" style="width: 1108px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a9f41e9f"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/07/a336091f2c9a01db8605dc049835166d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-430566" class="wp-caption-text">Some of Kanamu Sakama&#8217;s belongings provided by his father, Ippei. Ippei remembered his personality, saying, &#8220;He was a very responsible and straightforward child. Why did such a player make the &#8220;worst decision&#8221;?</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> A &#8220;prodigy boxer&#8221; who passed away at the age of just 20</span></h3>
<p> Kanamu Sakama, a former Japanese youth light flyweight champion, who was ranked ninth in the world (at the time) with nine unbeaten fights and eight KOs since his professional debut, was expected to be a &#8220;future world champion&#8221; when he disappeared and took his life on March 16, 2011.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Thank you very much. I can&#8217;t do anything by myself. I have to be more strict with myself to get to the top, so I will do my best. Thank you very much.</span></p>
<p> On March 16, just after midnight, Kanamu sent this message to his father Ippei&#8217;s (46) LINE, and then disappeared. Ippei said, &#8220;Kanamu disappeared on the morning of the 16th.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Kanamu had made an appointment at a hair salon for 9:00 a.m. on the 16th. But when Kanamu did not show up by 10:00 a.m., the staff at the salon contacted my wife. We immediately searched the apartment where he lived alone, the gym, and the sauna he frequented, but Kanamu was nowhere to be found.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I called and called her on LINE to ask her to return my calls, but I never heard from her. After 11:00 a.m. that day, we went to the Ayase police station and filed a missing persons report, and after that we continued to search frantically on our own. Then, shortly before 8:00 p.m., when the sun had completely set, we received a call from the police saying, &#8216;We found your son&#8217;s car in the parking lot at the top of Mt.</span></p>
<p> Ippei recalls the situation at that time.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I arrived at the parking lot at the top of Mt. Sawtzan after 9:00 p.m., but I did not have a spare key, so I went home to get it and opened the door of the car, which was left there alone, in the morning on the 17th. Then I saw how Kanamu, I think he was really tight &#8230;&#8230;.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> That guy liked Coke. There were five or six plastic bottles of Coke lying around in the car, about two-thirds full. He would only sip the freshest part of the bottle that had just been opened. Normally, I am not such a misbehaving child. She also ate McDonald&#8217;s in the car, and I wondered if the Coke and McDonald&#8217;s she couldn&#8217;t have had during her weight loss was her final treat to herself. He never showed any weakness and was a firm man who cared for his younger siblings, but he was still a 20-year-old young man. &#8230;&#8230;</span></p>
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<p> According to the police medical report in Ippei&#8217;s possession, Kanamu was presumed dead at &#8220;March 16, 2024, 7:00 p.m.&#8221; when he &#8220;apparently jumped from the observation deck on Mt.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Kanamu took off the black baseball cap and down jacket he was wearing, left his cell phone by his side, and jumped about 70 meters from the Jigoku-nozoki (Hell&#8217;s Peephole) on Mt. It was after 10:00 a.m. on the morning of the 17th when Kanamu&#8217;s body was found after a frantic search operation by the police. According to the police forensics, there were no fingerprints on the fence that prevented him from falling.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Kanamu had been so cornered. Even now, I sometimes find myself rereading my LINE communication with Kanamu. As a father, I am sorry for not being able to recognize my son&#8217;s SOS, for not being able to save his life, for entrusting him to such a heartless boxing gym, and above all, for misjudging him as a parent (&#8230;&#8230;). The regret and remorse I feel will never go away.</span></p>
<p> Why did Kanamu, who had been touted as a potential star of the next generation following Naoya Inoue (32), the unified world super bantamweight champion and the &#8220;face&#8221; of Japanese professional boxing, have to choose death for himself?</p>
<p> Ippei continues to harbor deep suspicions about the athlete management of World Sports Boxing Gym (World Sports), to which Kanamu belonged.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Doubts Remain about the Gym&#39;s Handling of the Case"></div>
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<figure id="attachment_430580" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-430580" style="width: 941px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f00e6a37"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/07/122107db4f465bf70b7bc1b2854b141c-1.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-430580" class="wp-caption-text">Kaname&#8217;s younger brother, Rakugo, is also pursuing a career in boxing. He says he is training hard every day to &#8220;become stronger so that people will remember my brother.</figcaption></figure>
<h3><span class="strongInContent"> I can&#8217;t help but think that he put entertainment first.</span></h3>
<p> Ippei continues.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The most important job for a boxing gym that focuses on training professional fighters is to protect their safety and health and help them perform at their best. However, Mr. X, the president of World Sport, clearly lacked that concern.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> Kanamu had participated in Inoue&#8217;s preliminary bout against John Paul Gavnilas at the Ariake Arena on December 26, 2011, about four months before his death, and although he won by TKO in the 5th round, he had sustained considerable damage to his body, including an injury to his right fist in the fierce exchange of blows. Ippei said. Ippei said, &#8220;On the 27th, the day after the fight, I was in the ring.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> On the 27th, the day after the fight, I went to Itabashi General Hospital to have my right fist examined, and I was told that it would need to be immobilized for at least three weeks. Of course, Mr. X was aware of Kanamu&#8217;s injury, but in spite of this, at the beginning of January, he requested Kanamu to participate in a match in March, even though his doctor had not yet given him permission to have his right fist unfixed.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> The match scheduled for March 18 was a voluntary event of the gym, and from the perspective of his future career as an athlete, it was not high enough priority to force him to participate. So, I cancelled the March match and concentrated on healing the injury to my right fist first, and hoped that I could step up to the world stage without being rushed.</span></p>
<p> Later, on January 17, 2012, his doctor gave him permission to remove the immobilization of his right fist, but &#8220;he was far from being in good shape,&#8221; Ippei said. However, World Sports told him to resume sparring with Kanamu, who had wounds all over his body. Moreover, Kanamu&#8217;s injuries were not limited to his right fist.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Around 10 days before the match, Kanamu was making a gesture as if he was protecting his left leg, so I was concerned. In fact, the sole of his left foot had swollen so much that he could not even walk, let alone do road work. Kanamu showed Mr. X the swelling of his foot. However, the decision was not made to cancel the match. On the contrary, on March 13, Mr. X made an appointment at the hospital without consulting or informing me, instructed Kanamu to get an injection for pain relief, and even forced Kanamu to get the injection the next day in order to force him to compete,&#8221; said Ippei.</span></p>
<p> (Ippei) &#8220;While his condition was not perfect, Kanamu was also struggling with weight loss. Ippei recalls the situation at the time.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Ippei recalls, &#8220;Weight loss is originally done by drinking lots of water to improve metabolism and then running to narrow down the weight. However, Kanamu was in no condition to run, so he drank no water and ate no food, and the only way to lose weight was to fast.</span></p>
<p> Dr. Takuya Futaesaku, a sports doctor who has examined martial arts athletes and is the representative of the Sports Safety Promotion Organization, points out the following.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> First, Kanamu injured his right fist in a match on December 26. If he had not fully recovered from these injuries, it would have been a short interval between fights. In addition, the doctor&#8217;s GO-signature is essential for a match. He had won 9 straight fights (8 KOs) since his debut, and his next fight would be his 10th, so there must have been some accumulated damage. As he is a popular fighter with the ability to draw a crowd, the gym may have decided to give priority to entertainment.</span></p>
<p> Dr. Nijusaku also explains the serious damage to the human body caused by excessive weight loss.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Excessive weight loss, which is similar to fasting, causes deficiencies in all nutrients, including carbohydrates, fats, proteins, water, and electrolytes. This gradually leads to a decrease in muscle mass, a weakening of the immune system, and the inability of the human body to function normally. This is like putting a person in the ring who has just been rescued from a disaster.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> What is even scarier is that excessive weight loss can cause the brain to malfunction. Even just competing in this sport, brain damage can accumulate. If the effects of weight loss on the brain and psychological pressure are added to this, the decline in cognitive function will make it difficult to make calm decisions, and mental instability will result. It is undeniable that Kanamu&#8217;s situation at the time may have left his brain in a state where it could think of no other option but to suddenly take his own life.</span></p>
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<p class="styles_title__6XXra"> Read <a href="https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/article/430577">[Part 2] The death of the genius who was called &#8220;the next Naoya Inoue&#8221;&#8230;his father&#8217;s grief-stricken cry: &#8220;I hope his gym will reveal the truth&#8221;.</a></p>
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 A boxing prodigy, who was called "the next Naoya Inoue," died at the young age of 20. His father expresses his regret and questions the way his gym handled his death. What is the "great darkness" that lies in the boxing world as seen by his father? ......

A young boxer who was called &#8220;the next Naoya Inoue&#8221; has died&#8230; The truth of his death that continues to be hidden and the dark side of the boxing world

A young boxer who was called “the next Naoya Inoue” has died… The truth of his death that continues to be hidden and the dark side of the boxing world

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