<h3>Naoya Inoue&#8217;s brother, who was expected to become the &#8220;post-Naoya Inoue,&#8221; committed suicide two days before the match.</h3>
<figure id="attachment_430968" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-430968" style="width: 2082px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="920534a8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/07/7a2f138d57da35c716eb329576433000.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-430968" class="wp-caption-text"> According to regulations, his debut bout will be held after January 24, when he turns 17 years old. I&#8217;m going to polish up my fundamentals and aim for the world.</figcaption></figure>
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 Kanamu&#8217;s timing and timing of his punches are so similar to Kanamu&#8217;s that I wondered if they could be so similar.
 Ippei&#8217;s father, Ippei, 46, squinted at him in the ring after a round of mitts with Sakama Rakuto (16, minimum weight), who passed his professional test on April 10.
 Rakuto&#8217;s older brother Kanamu, who made his pro debut in May 2009, had risen to 9th in the world rankings with an unblemished record of 9 fights and 9 wins (8 KOs), and had been touted as the &#8220;post-Naoya Inoue&#8221; of the future.
 However, he disappeared on March 16, 2012, two days before his &#8230;&#8230; match. He jumped off a precipitous cliff on Mt. He committed suicide after suffering repeated injuries and severe weight loss at the young age of 20. Rakugo said, &#8220;On the evening of the 17th, I was in Futtsu (Chiba).
 On the evening of the 17th, I finally met my brother at the Futtsu Police Station mortuary, and I felt he said to me, &#8216;Rakugo, I&#8217;ll leave the rest to you. But I didn&#8217;t immediately know what he had entrusted me with. Did he mean that I should study hard, get into a good university, get a job at a good company, and not worry about my father and mother?　I asked myself these questions for a while.
 When the 49th day had passed, Rakugo picked up a pair of boxing gloves that he had left by the altar and bowed to Ippei, asking him to hit him with a boxing mitt.
 I&#8217;m five years older than my brother, but on my birthday he would always drop me a line to say &#8216;Happy Birthday&#8217; and buy me a present. He also used to take me to karaoke. &#8216;Raku, how&#8217;s school going? It was just a casual conversation, but he really cared about me.
 I wanted to experience with all of my senses the scenery and experiences of my brother, who was such a family man, kind and strong. At that point, I had already decided what I wanted to do, but I knew that my father and mother would worry about me again and that they would oppose me, so I couldn&#8217;t immediately say, &#8216;I want to box.
 About a month after she started to hit the mitts, Rakugo made up her mind and told Ippei, &#8220;I want to box.
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" After about a month of boxing, Rakugo decided to tell Ippei, I want to do boxing."></div>
<h3>I still vividly remember the look on my father&#8217;s face when he asked me if I was serious.</h3>
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<figure id="attachment_430969" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-430969" style="width: 2500px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="145f9f84"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/07/6ea7df49bc5c7b97e3b130c3ad67caca.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-430969" class="wp-caption-text"> After passing the professional test, he offered incense at Kaname&#8217;s altar and reported, &#8220;I&#8217;m at the starting line.</figcaption></figure>
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 I still vividly remember the look on my father&#8217;s face when he asked me if I was serious.
 Ippei&#8217;s heart was indeed shaken.
 Ippei&#8217;s heart was indeed shaken. &#8220;The gym I belonged to, the Japan Professional Boxing Association, and the Japan Boxing Commission have neither announced nor verified Kanamu&#8217;s suicide. I have nothing but distrust for this world. That is why my wife and I were against Rakugo taking up boxing. However, I could tell that Rakugo&#8217;s determination was not half-hearted.
 Ippei tried to get him to give up by subjecting him to high-intensity training.
 Ippei said, &#8220;Since I failed at boxing in elementary school, the only exercise I had done was taking hip-hop dancing lessons once a week. I had never done cardiopulmonary training such as stair dashing or rowing an aerobike as hard as I could for 10 sets. It was so hard that I vomited. But my brother had done more rigorous training. I was like, &#8220;My brother is awesome! I was fired up to do it.
 It was Ippei who raised the white flag.
 After Kanamu passed away, my wife and I were both plunged into an abyss, and we spent every day not feeling like living. But working with Raku Kano in this way has given me a positive outlook, and I feel that the hands of the clock, which had stopped, are moving forward little by little.
 As the younger brother of a boxer who died an unnatural death, he may be viewed with a certain amount of prejudice. However, he is positive, saying, &#8220;I hope I can turn that pressure into energy.
 I want to prove that I am as strong as my brother,&#8221; he said. I want to prove that my brother is as strong as he is.&#8221;
 Once again, the bell rang for the fight between father and son.
 From the July 11, 2025 issue of FRIDAY
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 Hiroyuki Komatsu

 Sakama Rakuto (16, minimum weight) passed the pro test on April 10. Rakuto had an older brother who was called "post-Naoya Inoue," but...

For the sake of his brother who died two days before the match&#8230; &#8220;Sakama Rakugo,&#8221; a high school pro boxer who passed the pro test at first shot, is determined to be a professional boxer.

For the sake of his brother who died two days before the match… “Sakama Rakugo,” a high school pro boxer who passed the pro test at first shot, is determined to be a professional boxer.

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