is a Japanese

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who held

OPBF The Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) is a professional boxing organization that sanctions title fights in the Asian and Pacific region. History Oriental boxing started in the Philippines in 1946 after the Spanish-American War. While ...

and Japanese national titles at

light middleweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the IBF or super welterweight in the WBA an ...

and

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have be ...

, with his middleweight reign stretching between 2013 and 2016. Shibata started his career with a lackluster 9-5-1 but in November 2009, he beat Yuki Nonaka to become OPBF and Japanese champion at light middleweight. He lost the crown on his next fight to Charlie Ota. Ota would also beat him in a rematch, both times by stoppage. Shibata went on to become OPBF and Japanese champion at middleweight. He lost to Olympic medalist

Ryōta Murata is a Japanese professional boxer. He held the WBA (Super) middleweight title between January 2021 and April 2022, he also held the WBA (Regular) title twice between 2017 and January 2021. As an amateur boxing, amateur, he won a silver medal at ...

in a non-title fight, but he made four successful defenses of his titles between 2013 and 2016. Shibata retired following a stoppage loss to Hikaru Nishida.

References

Middleweight boxers People from Yokohama 1981 births Living people Japanese male boxers {{Japan-boxing-bio-stub