Interview with Ken Onuma, “I want to dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee.

A monster has appeared in the “heavyweight” division of the Japanese boxing world!

When I visited Kakkaiho Boxing Gym located near JR Otsuka Station, I heard a boom, boom, boom!　The sound of mitts being struck echoed through the street.

Kyotaro Fujimoto, 39, a former WBO Asia Pacific heavyweight champion and a front-runner in the Japanese heavyweight division, was standing in front of his mitts. The boxer with his log-like arms outstretched toward him was Ken Onuma, 21, a Nigerian father and Japanese mother who is Japan’s heavyweight hope.

Onuma has been boxing for less than two years and has no amateur experience, but he made his professional debut at the “Phoenix Tournament Asia Heavyweight Challenge Cup” with a prize money of 10 million yen, and has not lost any of his first three fights, advancing to the final on December 18 at Korakuen Hall.

Onuma is a graduate of the prestigious Teikyo High School soccer team, and is currently a third-year university student studying environmental pollution in the Department of Environmental Chemistry in the School of Advanced Engineering at Kogakuin University.

Onuma himself confides, “When I joined Teikyo, I thought I wanted to play in the high school soccer championship as a forward and make a living playing soccer after graduation.

I was just …… naive in my thinking. As expected of a prestigious school, the level was different (laughs). Moreover, I had injuries such as a torn anterior cruciate ligament in my knee, and most of my three years in high school were spent in rehabilitation. I was unable to play in a single official game, and I was filled with frustration and a sense of helplessness.

He stopped playing soccer and changed his direction to enter college. In the winter of his first year of college, while working part-time as a tutor at a cram school teaching math and science to junior high school students, he discovered boxing at the suggestion of a friend.

I started boxing with a light heart because I had healed from a knee injury,” he said. I can feel myself growing day by day. My friends are starting to prepare for job hunting, but I’m really into boxing.

Currently, he spends five days a week in physical training and three days a week sweating it out at Kakuei Gym.

The heavyweight division is the most prestigious of all boxing divisions and attracts the most commercial attention, but for a long time it has been a “barren division” for Japanese boxers of inferior physique. Onuma is fortunate in that his trainer is Fujimoto, who has experience challenging former IBF champion Daniel Dubois (28).

Fujimoto, who has experience challenging former IBF champion Daniel Dubois (28), is a trainer for Onuma, who has such athletic ability and is so honest. It is also good that she is able to move with a body weighing close to 100 kg, and yet she is scared of her opponents. There are many 2-meter-tall fighters in the world, and the top five are exceptional. But he has a good chance to become a world ranker.

He also possesses the stoicism of Shohei Otani.

Susumu Doi, 55, a physical trainer who has supported many top fighters, including former world champion Takashi Uchiyama, 46, is another who appreciates Onuma’s high potential.

Onuma’s growth curve is tremendous because of his lack of experience. His stamina is already world-class. Rui Yamura (27) is playing in the NBA, and Shohei Ohtani (31) is playing a dual role in MLB. It would not be surprising if there is a Japanese boxer who can compete with the world in the heavyweight division. He is a serious, hard-working person who leads a stoic life, going to and from home, school, and the gym, which I feel is similar to Otani.

More than power, Doi’s brilliant footwork and piercing jab are the key to his success. Doi sees in Onuma the image of Muhammad Ali, the legendary heavyweight champion. In fact, Onuma’s greatest weapons are his jab and inexhaustible stamina. Onuma says, “Mr. Doi told me to use the footage of Ali.

Doi told me to watch Ali’s videos, and I found his strength, big mouth, and everything cool. It would be great if I could be like Ali and say, ‘I’m going to be a champion. I wanted to say at the pre-tournament press conference that I wanted to show boxing like Ali, ‘dancing like a butterfly and stinging like a bee,’ but I was too nervous to say it (laughs). (Laughs.) Maybe I will say that when I win next time.

In the final, he will face Mahanhaili Nurutai (China), a giant of a fighter at 116 kg, and the key will be how he can make up the nearly 10 kg weight difference.

I’ll just use my jab and stamina to whittle down my opponent’s stamina and knock him down.

Onuma is trying to grasp with his fists the view that he could not reach in soccer.