Charlie Ota (born Charles Bellamy; 24 August 1981) is an American professional boxer, who held the OPBF

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 ...

title between 2010 and 2013.

Career

Ota is a former U.S. Navy serviceman. Towards the end of his tour in Yokosuka, he joined a boxing gym in Hachiouji as a way to stay in shape. He participated in a Japanese national amateur tournament, where he did well. Ota decided to stay in Japan and pursue a career in boxing. In March 2010, Ota defeated Akio Shibata to claim the OPBF

title, as well as the Japanese national title. Ota went on to successfully defend his OPBF title eight times. Ota sought to step up and face

Nobuhiro Ishida is a Japanese former professional boxer. He is a former WBA interim super welterweight champion who is best known for knocking out James Kirkland in a middleweight bout at the MGM Grand Las Vegas in April 2011. Ishida has so far been promoted ...

or former OPBF champion Yuki Nonaka as he pursued a world title shot but was unable to finalize a deal with either of them. In March 2012, Ota debuted in his hometown of New York at the

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

, on the undercard of a Sergio Martínez fight. Ota defeated Gundrick King with a round 7 TKO. In January 2014, Ota vacated his OPBF title in order to pursue a world title. It was later announced the Ota would be fighting highly touted prospect Jermell Charlo in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

. Ota managed to drop Charlo in round 3 but was outclassed through most of the fight, losing a

unanimous decision A unanimous decision (UD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and other sports involving striking and submission in which all three judges agree on which fighter ...

(111-115, 109–118, 109–118). In December 2014, Ota faced Yuki Nonaka, seeking to reclaim the Japanese light middleweight title. The fight was extremely close, but the judges seemed to prefer Nonaka's sharper work over Ota's aggression, as Nonaka won a

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split dec ...

(97-93, 96–95, 95–96).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ota, Charlie 1981 births Living people Boxers from New York City American male boxers Light-middleweight boxers United States Navy sailors