Masahiko Harada (born April 5, 1943), better known as Fighting Harada, is a Japanese former professional boxer. He is a world champion in two weight classes, having held the NYSAC, WBA, and The Ring undisputed flyweight titles from 1962 to 1963 and the WBA, WBC, and The Ring undisputed bantamweight titles from 1965 and 1968. He is currently the president of the Japanese boxing association.
Harada was arguably one of Japan's most popular boxers; his fame reached international status, and Puerto Rico's Wilfredo Gómez declared that Harada was his idol as a child. Harada was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2002, he was ranked as the 32nd greatest boxer of the past 80 years by Ring magazine.
Biography Harada began fighting as a professional on February 21, 1960, knocking out Isami Masui in round four, in Tokyo. He won his first twenty four bouts. Among the notables he beat during that span were Ken Morita, who later became a respected boxing official and who was beaten by Harada on June 26 in the first round, and future world champion Hiroyuki Ebihara, who was undefeated in nine fights before meeting Harada and who was beaten by Harada on December 24, by a decision in six rounds.
On June 15, 1962, he suffered his first defeat, being beaten on points by Edmundo Esparza over ten rounds in Tokyo.
After one more win, Harada received his first world title try: on October 10 of that year, he became the Lineal and WBA world flyweight champion by knocking out Pone Kingpetch in the eleventh round, in Tokyo.
A rematch followed, and Harada lost the title in his first defense, being outpointed by Kingpetch over fifteen rounds on January 12, 1963, in Bangkok, Thailand. This was Harada's first fight outside Japan.
Harada posted four more wins in a row before losing by knockout in six to Jose Medel on September 26.
After that loss, Harada posted another winning streak, which reached seven before he was given another world title shot. Among the boxers he beat was top contenders Ray Asis, Oscar Reyes, and Katsutoshi Aoki.
On May 18, 1965, Harada extended his winning streak to eight, when he defeated Lineal, WBA and WBC bantamweight champion Eder Jofre in Nagoya, by a contested fifteen-round decision, to win his second world title. Jofre was undefeated in fifty fights coming into this bout, and considered by many of his fans to be invincible.
On November 30, he defeated perennial British contender Alan Rudkin by a fifteen-round decision to retain the title. On June 1, 1966, he and Jofre had a rematch in Tokyo, and Harada defeated Jofre in another match, by a fifteen-round decision. Losing for the second time to Harada prompted Jofre to retire; he would make a successful comeback three years later. Harada was the only boxer to beat Jofre.
After two more, non-title wins, Harada had a chance to avenge his defeat against Jose Medel. On January 3, 1967, Harada retained his world bantamweight title with a fifteen-round decision over Medel in Nagoya.
On July 4 he retained the title against Colombian Bernardo Caraballo, a fighter who was well liked in his country. Harada outpointed him over fifteen rounds.
On February 27, 1968, Lionel Rose became the first Indigenous Australian to become a world boxing champion, when he outpointed Harada over fifteen rounds in Tokyo. Having lost his world bantamweight crown, Harada then set his sights on regaining it.
He won four of his next five fights. Among those he defeated were American Dwight Hawkins and his countryman Nobuo Chiba. His lone loss during that span came at the hands of American Alton Colter by a ten-round, split decision. Then, he received another world title shot.
On July 28, 1969, after the WBA and WBC had split the world bantamweight title, Harada fought Australia's Johnny Famechon for the WBC world featherweight belt. The fight was held in Sydney, and the referee and only judge was the legendary former world featherweight champion Willie Pep. Pep scored the fight a tie (draw), but Famechon's fans rallied over the call by booing Pep, who then announced he had miscalculated his scorecard and actually had Famechon ahead, making Harada a loser by a fifteen-round decision. This fight was, nevertheless, controversial because of the nature of its ending, and the WBC clamoured for a rematch.
After a knockout win in eight rounds over Pat Gonzalez, the rematch came. Harada's management wanted the fight to be held in Tokyo, and so, on January 6, 1970, Harada and Famechon met once again, this time at Tokyo's Metropolitan Gym. Harada dropped the champion in round ten, but Famechon recovered, knocking Harada off the ring in round fourteen and retaining the title by knockout in that round. This was Harada's last fight as a professional.
Harada led a rather quiet life after retirement. In 1996, he was elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York. Coincidentally, Wilfredo Gómez was inducted in the same ceremony. After Gómez expressed that Harada was his idol, Harada responded, using an interpreter, that Gómez had, in turn, become one of his favorite fighters as well. Eder Jofre, one of the boxers Harada beat to win world titles, is also enshrined at the IBHOF.
Masahiko Harada became president of the Japanese Boxing Commission in 2002.
On January 28, 2004, as he was driving home from his office, Harada experienced a headache and he was found to have a brain hemorrhage which required hospitalisation. By 2005 he was recovering steadily.
On November 7, 2019, he presented the Muhammad Ali Trophy to Naoya Inoue after his victory over Nonito Donaire to win the 2018–19 World Boxing Super Series – bantamweight division tournament.
Professional boxing record
ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes63 Loss56–7 Johnny FamechonKO14 (15), 1970-01-06 62 Win56–6 Pat GonzalesKO8 (10), 1969-10-01 61 Loss55–6 Johnny FamechonPTS151969-07-28 60 Win55–5 Vil TumulakUD101969-06-04 59 Loss54–5 Alton ColterSD101969-04-02 58 Win54–4 Roy AmolongKO2 (10), 1968-12-04 57 Win53–4 Nobuo ChibaKO7 (10), 1968-09-04 56 Win52–4 Dwight HawkinsUD101968-06-05 55 Loss51–4 Lionel RoseUD151968-02-27 54 Win51–3 Soo Bok KwonKO8 (12), 1967-11-28 53 Win50–3 Hajime TarouraKO2 (12), 1967-09-25 52 Win49–3 Bernardo CaraballoUD151967-07-04 51 Win48–3 Tiny PalacioUD121967-04-04 50 Win47–3 José MedelUD151967-01-03 49 Win46–3 Antonio HerreraUD121966-10-25 48 Win45–3 Dio EspinosaUD101966-08-01 47 Win44–3 Éder JofreUD151966-05-31 46 Win43–3 Soo Kang SuhPTS121966-02-15 45 Win42–3 Alan RudkinUD151965-11-30 44 Win41–3 Katsuo SaitoPTS121965-07-28 43 Win40–3 Éder JofreSD151965-05-18 42 Win39–3 Toru NakamuraKO21965-03-0441 Win38–3 Dommy FroilanKO6 (10), 1965-01-04 40 Win37–3 Katsutoshi AokiKO3 (10), 1964-10-29 39 Win36–3 Oscar ReyesPTS101964-09-17 38 Win35–3 Ray AsisUD101964-07-06 37 Win34–3 Somsak LaemfaphaKO2 (10), 1964-02-14 36 Win33–3 Avelino EstradaKO5 (10), 1964-01-02 35 Win32–3 Emile de LeonPTS101963-11-25 34 Loss31–3 José MedelTKO6 (10), 1963-09-26 33 Win31–2 Dommy BalajadaUD101963-08-07 32 Win30–2 Thira LodjarengabeRTD6 (10), 1963-06-19 31 Win29–2 Jose CejudaKO1 (10), 1963-05-04 30 Win28–2 Tetsuro KawaiUD101963-03-21 29 Loss27–2 Pone KingpetchMD151963-01-12 28 Win27–1 Pone KingpetchKO11 (15), 1962-10-10 27 Win26–1 Little RufeUD101962-07-23 26 Loss25–1 Edmundo EsparzaSD101962-06-14 25 Win25–0 Baby EspinosaPTS101962-05-03 24 Win24–0 Tadao KawamuraUD101962-03-18 23 Win23–0 Kozo NagataUD101962-01-12 22 Win22–0 Ryoji ShiratoriKO6 (8), 1961-12-10 21 Win21–0 Akio MakiUD101961-10-09 20 Win20–0 Sombang BanbungKO3 (10), 1961-09-09 19 Win19–0 Akio MakiRTD8 (10), 1961-07-31 18 Win18–0 Shigeru ItoUD101961-06-19 17 Win17–0 Ray PerezUD101961-05-01 16 Win16–0 Yasuo FujitaUD61961-03-05 15 Win15–0 Riichi TanakaUD61961-01-28 14 Win14–0 Tsuyoshi NakamuraUD61961-01-05 13 Win13–0 Hiroyuki EbiharaPTS61960-12-24 12 Win12–0 Yoshinori HikitaKO3 (4), 1960-12-11 11 Win11–0 Hachiro AraiUD41960-11-07 10 Win10–0 Sadayoshi YoshidaKO4 (4), 1960-10-28 9 Win9–0 Yukio SuzukiUD41960-09-01 8 Win8–0 Masaru KodangiRTD3 (4), 1960-07-18 7 Win7–0 Kazuo MoritaKO1 (4), 1960-06-24 6 Win6–0 Masatake OguraTKO3 (4), 1960-06-10 5 Win5–0 Ken MoritaUD41960-04-13 4 Win4–0 Yuichi NoguchiUD41960-04-04 3 Win3–0 Goro IwamotoKO3 (4), 1960-03-27 2 Win2–0 Mitsuo MotohashiSD41960-03-02 1 Win1–0 Isami MasuiTKO4 (4), 1960-02-21
Titles in boxing Major world titles NYSAC flyweight champion (112 lbs) WBA flyweight champion (112 lbs) WBA bantamweight champion (118 lbs) WBC bantamweight champion (118 lbs)
The Ring magazine titles The Ring flyweight champion (112 lbs) The Ring bantamweight champion (118 lbs)
Undisputed titles Undisputed flyweight champion Undisputed bantamweight champion
See also List of flyweight boxing champions List of bantamweight boxing champions List of Japanese boxing world champions Boxing in Japan
References
External links
Fighting Harada Boxing Gym Masahiko "Fighting" Harada – CBZ Profile boxrec.com