Mitsuyo Yoshida (吉田実代, ''Yoshida Mitsuyo'', born 12 April 1988) 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 has held the WBO

junior-bantamweight Super flyweight, also referred to as junior bantamweight, is a weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . History The first title match in this division was in 1980, when the World Boxing Council responded to pressure from Asi ...

title since 2021. As of April 2020, she is ranked as the world's ninth best active female junior-bantamweight by

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profess ...

Professional career

Yoshida made her professional debut on 28 May 2014, scoring a four-round

majority decision A majority decision (MD) is a winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts and others sports involving striking. In a majority decision, two of the three judges agree on which ...

(MD) over Ayaka Sato at the

Korakuen Hall is a famous sports arena in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan, which has hosted many notable boxing, professional wrestling, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and Lethwei matches. History On April 16, 1962, the Korakuen Hall was officially opened with ...

Tokto The Liancourt Rocks, also known by their Korean name of Dokdo or their Japanese name of Takeshima,; ; . form a group of islets in the Sea of Japan between the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago. The Liancourt Rocks comprise two ...

, Japan. Two judges scored the bout 39–37 in favour of Yoshida while the third scored it a draw at 38–38. After winning her first four fights, she suffered the first defeat of her career against Yuki Koseki on 13 March 2016, losing via

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 ...

(UD) over four rounds with scores of 38–39, 37–39 and 36–40. Yoshida bounced back with three victories before defeating Tomomi Takano by UD over six rounds to capture the inaugural Japanese female

bantamweight Bantamweight is a weight class in combat sports. For boxing, the range is above and up to . In kickboxing, a bantamweight fighter generally weighs between . In mixed martial arts, MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from Ba ...

title, with all three judges scoring the bout 58–57. The bout took place on 6 October 2017 at the Korakuen Hall. After successfully defending the title in March 2018 against Kai Johnson, winning via six-round UD, Yoshida defeated Gretel de Paz on 20 August 2018 at the Korakuen Hall to capture the

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 ...

female bantamweight title. The fight was stopped in the fifth round after Yoshida was cut from an accidental clash of heads, causing the decision to rest on the scorecards over the five rounds that had been contested. Yoshida won via

technical decision A technical decision is a term used in boxing when a fight has to be stopped because of a headbutt. In boxing fights, referees have to pay deep attention to the action going on between the fighters, especially when the two combatants are fightin ...

(TD) with two judges scoring the bout 49–46 and the third scoring it 48–47. Following successful defences of her OPBF and Japanese titles in September 2018 and March 2019 respectively, both by UD, Yoshida challenged for her first world title against Casey Morton on 19 June at the

Makuhari Messe is a Japanese convention center outside Tokyo, located in the Mihama-ku ward of Chiba City, in the northwest corner of Chiba Prefecture. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, it is accessible by Tokyo's commuter rail system. ''Makuhari'' is the name of ...

Chiba Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

, Japan. Yoshida won the bout via UD (100–90, 100–90, 99–91) to capture the vacant WBO female junior-bantamweight title.

Professional boxing record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshida, Miyo Living people 1988 births Japanese women boxers Sportspeople from Kagoshima Prefecture Super-flyweight boxers Bantamweight boxers World Boxing Organization champions People from Kagoshima