Yamaguchi Falcão Florentino (born 24 January 1988) is a Brazilian boxer, currently a professional and a former holder of the

World Boxing Council The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...

Latino Middleweight Title.Yamaguchi Falcão
. Boxrec.com. Retrieved on 2014-05-03. In his amateur years, he won silver at the 2011 Panamerican Games and a bronze at the 2012 Olympics at light heavyweight.

Early life

Falcão was born in

São Mateus, Espírito Santo São Mateus is a municipality located in the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo. Its population was estimated at 132,642 in 2020, and its area is 2,346 km². São Mateus is located at 36 meters above sea level. It is the second oldest and s ...

, and he is the older brother of professional boxer Esquiva Falcão.

Amateur career

At the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships he beat two opponents at middleweight then lost 3:8 to eventual winner

Abbos Atoev Abbos Abdurazzoqovich Atoyev (born 7 June 1986) is an Uzbek amateur boxer, best known for winning gold in the light heavyweight competition at the 2007 World Championships and at middleweight in 2009. He also won a bronze medal at the 2012 Summ ...

(UZB). At the

2010 South American Games The IX South American Games (Spanish: ''Juegos Sudamericanos''; Portuguese: ''Jogos Sul-Americanos'') was a multi-sport event held between 19 and 30 March 2010 in Medellín, Colombia. The Games were organized by the South American Sports Org ...

he lost to Alex Theran but got a bronze anyway. Afterwards he moved up in weight. At the

2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships The 2011 AIBA World Boxing Championships was held at the Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex in Baku, Azerbaijan from September 22 to October 10, 2011. The competition ran under the supervision of the world's governing body for amateur ...

he beat Amine Azzouzi and Carlos Gongora, then lost to Elshod Rasulov. In Guadalajara at the PanAms he beat two opponents then lost to Cuban favorite

Julio César la Cruz Julio César De La Cruz Peraza (born 11 August 1989) is a Cuban professional boxer. As an amateur he won gold medals at the 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics, and the 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2021 AIBA World Boxing Championships. Amateur career ...

. At the Olympic qualifier he beat three opponents including

Osmar Bravo Osmar Bravo Amador (born 1 November 1984 in Nueva Guinea) is an amateur boxer from Nicaragua that qualified for the 2012 Olympics at light heavyweight (81 kg). Osmar was a semi-finalist at light heavyweight at the 2012 American Boxing Olympi ...

who also qualified then lost the final to American southpaw

Marcus Browne Marcus Browne (born November 10, 1990) is an American professional boxer who fights at light heavyweight. As of December 2020, he was ranked the world's sixth best active light heavyweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, eighth by ...

. All three made the Olympics. At the 2012 Olympics he controversially edged out

Sumit Sangwan Sumit Sangwan (born 1 January 1993) is an Indian amateur boxer. At the 2012 London Olympics, he participated in the light heavyweight category. Under controversial circumstances, he lost his bout to Yamaguchi Falcão Florentino. He is suppor ...

15:14, then

Meng Fanlong Meng Fanlong (born 5 February 1988) is a Chinese professional boxer who held the IBF Inter-Continental light-heavyweight title between 2017 and 2019. Amateur career As an amateur, he represented China at the 2012 London Olympics, competing i ...

17:17, on countback before besting Cuban world champion

18:15. He was defeated at semi-finals by the Russian favorite

Egor Mekhontsev Egor Leonidovich Mekhontsev (Егор Леонидович Мехонцев, transliteration ''Egor Leonidovich Mechoncev''; born 14 November 1984), is a Russian professional boxer, who among other achievements, won gold at 2012 London Olympics ...

23:11 and received the bronze medal. Unlike what his name suggests, he is not of

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

descent.

Professional career

On October 2, it was revealed that Falcão became a professional, signing with

Golden Boy Promotions Golden Boy Promotions, Inc. is an American boxing promotional firm based in Los Angeles, California. The company was established in 2002 by eight-time world champion (in six divisions) Oscar De La Hoya, borrowing his nickname "Golden Boy." Histo ...

. In his debut, he was disqualified alongside Martín Fidel Ríos after the second round. Both fighters traded a few punches after the round ended followed by Ríos spitting on Falcão. The call was seen as excessive by both fighters, whom wanted to keep fighting. However, Falcão won all of his subsequent 11 fights. In the tenth, against Jorge Daniel Caraballo, Falcão got the

Latino Middleweight title. He is currently ranked 21st in the overall WBC Middleweight ranking.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

AIBA profileGolden Boy profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Falcao, Yamaguchi 1988 births Living people Light-heavyweight boxers Boxers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Boxers at the 2011 Pan American Games Olympic boxers of Brazil Olympic bronze medalists for Brazil Olympic medalists in boxing Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Espírito Santo Brazilian male boxers Pan American Games silver medalists for Brazil Pan American Games medalists in boxing South American Games bronze medalists for Brazil South American Games medalists in boxing Competitors at the 2010 South American Games Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games