<figure id="attachment_459608" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459608" style="width: 1477px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7101a505"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/f87182dadd3356befe8ee8042b205f8a-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-459608" class="wp-caption-text">Undefeated amateur record 49 fights, 49 wins (33 KOs). A 4-page interview was published in the U.S. professional magazine The Ring.</figcaption></figure>
<h2> Undefeated since the summer of the 5th grade.</h2>
<p> Hideyuki Ohashi, 60, president of the Ohashi Gym, who discovered and nurtured Naoya Inoue, 32, the greatest of Japanese boxers, calls him &#8220;the greatest talent of all time.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He is a natural to become a world champion, and just as Naoya has rewritten the history of the lightweight division of Japanese boxing, Fujiki will rewrite the history of the middleweight division. I want to develop Fujiki into a fighter who can be invited to fight in Las Vegas, the home of boxing. I want him to be a treasure of Japan.</span></p>
<p> Yuga Fujiki (18) is not overawed and says in a calm tone, <span class="strongInContent">&#8220;Even as a professional, I will win one fight at a time.</span> I <span class="strongInContent">hope</span> to <span class="strongInContent">be undefeated and become a world champion as a result.</span></p>
<p> This spring, he will graduate from Koukoku High School in Osaka and begin his professional career at the Ohashi Gym. As an amateur, he won every tournament he competed in, winning all 49 of his fights (33 KOs). He has won nine high school championships, an Asian youth gold medal, a world youth gold medal, and the All Japan Boxing Championships.</p>
<p> Notably, he won the All Japan Championships. He has a record of 17 consecutive knockouts. Although his consecutive knockout record stands at 17, he won the championship against mature and physically fit top amateurs with a wealth of experience in the game. Naoya Inoue also won the All Japan Championships as a high school student.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I could have beaten a high schooler, but in All-Japan, my opponent was of a higher level, so I was determined to win,&#8221; said Fujiki.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_459609" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459609" style="width: 1477px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="447a85e4"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/bc12bb87cb417c16aedb36bd5b74296e-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-459609" class="wp-caption-text"> Press Conference on turning pro at the Yokohama Bay Sheraton Hotel</figcaption></figure>
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<p> Fujiki began boxing at the age of 7, when he was in the first grade of elementary school, under the influence of his father Naoki, 52, a former professional boxer. He and his older brother Yuri, two years older than him, learned from their father at Daisei Gymnasium, and began training at the boxing club of Kokoku High School, which produced Kazusho Ioka (36), a four-weight world champion.</p>
<p> The only defeat he ever suffered was during his kids&#8217; boxing days, &#8220;in July of the fifth grade,&#8221; he said. Seiya Nakayama, the winner, now continues to box at Komazawa University and is attracting attention as an athlete with a shot at the Olympics. His mother, Aya, 46, looks back on those days.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> When I lost, I was so disappointed that I cried for a week. I thought to myself why I lost and got my revenge in the second year of junior high school. My husband practiced daily with me, but he didn&#8217;t push me or yell at me. He gave him opportunities to love boxing more, and guided him to think and work on his own.</span></p>
<p> Naoki does not show up at fights. Even though they practiced together on a daily basis, he never showed up at fights since he was a kid and remained in the black. Fujiki says of his father, &#8220;He was the one who gave me the opportunity to play the jab, which I am good at now.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> My father taught me the jab and body strikes that I am good at now.</span></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" A few days after winning the All-Japan Championships..."></div>
<figure id="attachment_459610" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-459610" style="width: 1108px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f08b83e3"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2026/03/9862ba9d568adba98dc95ac1ac54c090-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-459610" class="wp-caption-text">Ohashi Gym President Hideyuki Ohashi (right) says, &#8220;I deserve to be world champion.</figcaption></figure>
<h2> There is almost nothing we can teach him in terms of technique.&#8221;</h2>
<p> Ohashi Gym has two trainers to nurture its hopefuls. The two trainers are Seiichi Okada, 43, a former Japanese super featherweight champion, and Yasuhiro Suzuki, 38, a representative of the welterweight division at the 2012 London Olympics. Okada says, &#8220;I started training in April of my sophomore year of high school.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In his late teens, he should be in the prime of his life, but he is dedicated to boxing. I was surprised when he came to practice a few days after winning the All Japan Championships.</span></p>
<p> In the winter of his seventeenth year, <span class="strongInContent">he</span> worked out with Inoue, whom he admired, in mass boxing, a sport in which boxing is done lightly with a glove. Fujiki recalls his time there.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Everything was in another dimension. I felt like I was being guided, and it was a strange feeling being punched.</span></p>
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<p> In September 2013, when Inoue challenged Mrozhon Ahmadaliev (31, Uzbekistan) for the world super bantamweight four-body title match, he invited former WBA &amp; IBF same-class unified champion Marlon Tapales (33, Philippines) as a sparring partner. (33, Philippines), a former WBA &amp; IBF unified champion in the same weight class, as his sparring partner. Fujiki also sparred with Tapares, who came to Japan as Inoue&#8217;s sparring partner.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In their four-round sparring session, Fujiki landed a hard body blow that nearly knocked Tapares out. He was called a &#8216;monster high school student,&#8217; and he was as strong as his name implies. In terms of technique, there is little more to teach. The only things I have to teach him are to get used to the small 8-ounce professional gloves and to teach him how to develop his stamina and how to distribute it because of the longer rounds,&#8221; said Okada, the trainer.</span></p>
<p> There is a blank page in the Japanese boxing world.</p>
<p> The middleweight welterweight division is the only division below middleweight where no Japanese fighter has ever become world champion. It is a division that attracts the best boxers in the world, and in recent years has produced superstars such as Oscar De La Hoya (53, USA), Manny Pacquiao (47, Philippines), and Floyd Mayweather (49, USA).</p>
<p> Ryota Murata (40) and Shinji Takehara (54) have been crowned world champions in the middleweight division, but no one has been crowned welterweight champion. Fujiki speaks plainly about the traditional weight class.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I haven&#8217;t fought a single professional fight yet, so I don&#8217;t really feel it yet, but first I will become world champion in the S featherweight division. After that, if I win more than one weight class, I&#8217;ll be looking at welterweight.</span></p>
<p> An open professional test will be held in April, and he is expected to make his professional debut on June 10. Before his debut, he was given a choice between the nicknames &#8220;The King&#8221; or &#8220;KING,&#8221; and Fujiki himself chose the former. After all, it seems to be his destiny to become the world champion.</p>
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 Daisuke Iwasaki

 The monster high school boxer who nearly knocked out Naoya Inoue and Tapales, the unification champion, will finally make his debut. The president of Ohashi Gym, to which Inoue belongs, his trainer, and his mother talk about the strength of the 18-year-old boxer, who has won nine amateur titles.

 The nickname of the middleweight monster is "THE KING

Former world unification champion Tapales on the verge of KO&#8230;Monster high school boxer with 9 amateur titles &#8220;will be Naoya Inoue of the middleweight division!

Former world unification champion Tapales on the verge of KO…Monster high school boxer with 9 amateur titles “will be Naoya Inoue of the middleweight division!

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