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

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 ...

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, t ...

title since 2017. As an amateur, he won the bronze medal in the men's

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 MMA, bantamweight is . The name for the class is derived from bantam chickens. B ...

division at the 2012 Olympics.

Personal career

He is currently an employee of a children's clothing maker, Miki House. He was Second lieutenant in the

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

in 2012, and was affiliated with his alma mater,

Komazawa University , abbreviated as 駒大 ''Komadai'', is one of the oldest universities in Japan. Its history starts in 1592, when a seminary was established to be a center of learning for the young monks of the Sōtō sect, one of the two main Zen Buddhist tra ...

in 2008.

Amateur boxing career

Shimizu started boxing at a gym in

Kurashiki is a historic city located in western Okayama Prefecture, Japan, sitting on the Takahashi River, on the coast of the Inland Sea. As of March 31, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 483,576 and a population density of 1,400 persons per ...

, Okayama in the third grade of junior high school.

2008 Summer Olympics

He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics at

(– 57 kg) but lost his first bout 9–12 to

Yakup Kılıç Yakup Kılıç (born July 13, 1986) is a Turkish boxer in the featherweight (57 kg) discipline. He is member of Istanbul Fenerbahçe Boxing Club. Career Kılıç participated at the 2005 Mediterranean Games in Almería, Spain and won bronz ...

. He was not happy about the judgement, and turned down the offers to sign professional contracts in order to win a medal at the Olympics. He secured the bronze medal in the featherweight division in the 2009 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in

Zhuhai Zhuhai (, ; Yale: ''Jyūhói''), also known as Chuhai is a prefecture-level city located on the west bank of Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, on the southeastern edge of Pear ...

, China, and won the

National Sports Festival of Japan The is the national premier sports event of Japan. It consists of three stages. The skating and ice hockey stage takes place in January, the skiing stage takes place in February, and the main Autumn tournament takes place in September and Octob ...

in the

lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight ...

division to become a three-division champion of that title in the same year. In January 2010, he had surgery on the shoulder injury that has plagued him for years, and won the regional round of the National Sports Festival all by RSC in the lightweight division. Only one week after that, he moved down in weight class to the

division because the featherweight division has been removed in the

AIBA The International Boxing Association (IBA), previously known as the Association Internationale de Boxe Amateur (AIBA), is an independent sport organization that sanctions amateur (Olympic-style) boxing matches and awards world and subordinate cha ...

events for the 2012 Summer Olympics since September 2010, and participated in the Asian Games, but lost in the quarterfinals.

2012 Summer Olympics

Shimizu qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in the bantamweight division. He beat

Isaac Dogboe Isaac Zion Dogboe ( ; born 26 September 1994) is a Ghanaian-British professional boxer who held the WBO junior-featherweight title in 2018. Background Dogboe was born in Accra, Ghana, but moved to London, England. Amateur career Dogboe won t ...

10–9, then was initially declared the loser in his second fight by Magomed Abdulhamidov of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

due to controversial judging and refereeing. At the beginning of the third round, he was trailing Abdulhamidov by 7 points; however, in the last 2 minutes of that round, Abdulhamidov began to tire. Shimizu repeatedly knocked his opponent down, 6 times in total. AIBA officially overturned the ruling after an appeal by the Japanese Coach stating that Abdulhamidov should have been given at least 3 warnings and therefore disqualified. Shimizu defeated Algeria's Mohamed Ouadahi 17–15 in the quarter-finals but lost to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

's Luke Campbell 20–11 in the semi-finals which won him the bronze medal. It was Japan's first men's boxing medal since 1968. Shimizu made a significant contribution to Japan's 2012 Olympic boxing team as an icebreaker. However, the medal was lost in spring 2013. He decided to join APB (AIBA Pro Boxing) for the right to fight for the gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics. So, he retired from the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, and entered Miki House in April 2014.

Professional boxing career

Early career

Shimizu decided to turn professional after failing to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics. He began training at the Ohashi Boxing Gym, and acquired his professional boxing license on July 29, 2016. Shimizu made his professional debut against In Kyoo Lee on September 4, 2016, on the undercard of the WBO super-flyweight title bout between

Naoya Inoue is a Japanese professional boxer. He is a three-division world champion and currently the undisputed bantamweight world champion, having held the WBA (Super), IBF, '' Ring'' magazine titles since 2019, the WBC title since June 2022, and the ...

and Petchbarngborn Kokietgym. He won the fight by a fifth-round knockout, flooring Lee with a left hook to the body, which prompted his corner-men to throw in the towel. Prior to the knockout, Lee was knocked down in both the second and fourth rounds. Shimizu faced the 6–3 Carlo Demecillo in his second professional appearance, which took place on the undercard of the December 30, 2016, WBO super-flyweight title bout between Naoya Inoue and Kohei Kono. He won the fight by a third-round knockout, stopping Demecillo with a right hook to the jaw. Shimizu was next scheduled to face Takuya Yamamoto on May 21, 2017. He won the fight by a first-round technical knockout.

OPBF featherweight champion

Shimizu was booked to challenge the reigning

featherweight champion Sa Myung Noh on October 2, 2017. The title fight was scheduled as the main event of the "61st Phoenix Battle", which took place at the Korakuen Hall in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. He captured the belt with a fifth-round knockout of Noh. Shimizu pressured Noh from the outset of the fight and knocked him down it the fourth. Although he was unable to finish him in that round, he managed to do so at the 1:54 minute mark of the very next round. Shimizu made his first title defense against Eduardo Mancito on December 30, 2017, on the undercard of the

and Yoan Boyeaux WBO super-flyweight title bout. He knocked Mancito down with a right hook in the first round and dropped him twice more in the seventh round, before finally finishing the Filipino challenger with a right hook at the 2:08 minute mark of the seventh round. Shimizu made his second title defense against Kyung Min Kwon on March 26, 2018, in his return to the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan, where he first won the belt. He first knocked Kwon down with a left straight in the sixth round, before forcing the referee to wave the fight off with a flurry of punches in the eight round. Shimizu made his third title defense against the 16–3–1 Shingo Kawamura on August 17, 2018. He won the fight by a fourth-round knockout. Shimizu first staggered Kawamura with a left straight, before knockoing him out with a strike to the body. Shimizu made his third title defense against the undefeated Takuya Uehara on December 3, 2018, in the main event of "66th Phoenix Battle". He won the fight by a third-round technical knockout. Shimizu was booked to challenge the reigning WBO Asia Pacific

super-featherweight Super featherweight, also known as junior lightweight, is a boxing weight classes, weight division in professional boxing, contested between and . The super featherweight division was established by the New York Walker Law in 1920, although firs ...

champion Joe Noynay on July 12, 2019, on the Rob Brant vs Ryota Murata II undercard, at the Edion Arena in

Osaka, Japan is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2.7 ...

. Despite coming into the fight as a favorite, Shimizu suffered an upset stoppage loss. Shimizu was knocked down twice in the first round and failed to recover in the remaining five rounds, as he lost the fight by a sixth-round technical knockout. Shimizu made his fifth OPBF featherweight title defense against Kyohei Tonomoto on July 16, 2020, after a year-long absence from the sport. He won the fight by a seventh-round technical knockout. Shimizu was booked to face the WBO Asia Pacific featherweight champion Musashi Mori in his sixth title defense on May 21, 2021. He won the fight by unanimous decision. Two of the judges scored the fight 118–110 in his favor, while the third judge scored the fight 116–112 for Shimizu. Shimizu vacated the WBO Asia Pacific title on November 26, 2021, six months after he had won it.

Professional boxing record

References

Video references

External links

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AIBA INTERNATIONAL BOXING ASSOCIATION biographiesSatoshi Shimizu's boxing stats by the AIBA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shimizu, Satoshi 1986 births Olympic boxers of Japan Living people Japan Ground Self-Defense Force personnel Featherweight boxers Boxers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Asian Games medalists in boxing Boxers at the 2010 Asian Games Boxers at the 2014 Asian Games Sportspeople from Okayama Komazawa University alumni Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Olympic medalists in boxing Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Japanese male boxers Asian Games bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2014 Asian Games 21st-century Japanese people