By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda
Perennial 140-pound world contender, ex-OPBF, WBO AP and national super light and welter champ Keita Obara, 37, lately hung up gloves for good and celebrated his retirement on Tuesday at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Standing 5’11” and hitting very hard, the upright stylist, whose overall mark was 26-5-1, 23 KOs, once attempted to conquer the world belt, but in vain. Obara went to Miami, FL to exchange gloves with Walter Castillo in the IBF eliminator to decide the #1 only to fight to a highly controversial draw (115-113 for Obara, 114-114 twice) in 2015.
Since Castillo declined to participate in a direct rematch with Obara, the Japanese was given an opportunity to make a mandatory challenge to Eduard Troyanovsky only to sink in the second session in Moscow.
Should you be a YouTube watcher, you may well see Obara’s first encounter with Filipino Alvin Lagumbay to defend his WBO AP 147-pound belt in 2018. It’s a perfect double knockdown with Lagumbay barely raising himself while Obara staying flat unconscious on the deck.
Four months later, Obara regained his WBO AP welter belt by avenging his bitter defeat to Alvin by a third-round TKO win in 2018.
His last showing was seen in April of the previous year, when Obara had a crack at the younger fast-rising WBO AP welter champ Jin Sasaki, dropped him in the first but was badly demolished in round three.
For Obara, it was the very first defeat, a very bitter one, that he tasted to Japanese compatriots in his thirteen-year career, which made up his mind to hang up gloves.
Obara was a year junior at Toyo university to Olympic gold medalist and WBA world middleweight champ Ryota Murata.
The audience applauded Obara’s exciting career of winning by knockouts but losing also by KOs. He wishes to establish his boxing gym. Good luck.
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Best of luck to Obara. I hope that he has accumulated enough to easily transition into another endeavor/s. He seems to have his faculties in order so retirement should be joyful. Start it off by making another baby.
4 out of 5 losses vicious knockouts
The archetypal puncher. Brittle as honeycomb when clocked with odd reactions to said punches if he didn’t go down an stay down
Here is hoping CTE does not visit