By Joe Koizumi

Twenty former world champions out of Japan participated in a charity event to ask for people’s donation to support the victims of the disastrous earthquake on the new year’s day on the world title tripleheader at Ryogoku Sumo Arena on February 24. The earthquake horribly occurred with more than two hundred pitifully passing away at the northern Noto peninsula, where destroyed houses and buildings are still under reconstruction. The world champions association, now presided by ex-WBC super light champion Tsuyoshi Hamada following WBC lightweight ruler Guts Ishimatsu, launched this campaign for boxing fans’ donations for the sake of the victims and evacuees in temporary housings in Ishikawa prefecture. The ex-champs had many doners take pictures with them on behalf of their donations in the arena prior to the tripleheader.

The champions in the pictures were as follows:

Sitting at the front row from left: Nanako Fujioka, Takashi Uchiyama, Celes Kobayashi, Masayuki Ito, Yu Kimura, Daisuke Naito, Takefumi Sakata.

Standing at the second row from left: Naomi Togashi, Shoji Oguma, Shigeo Nakajima, Kiyoshi Hatanaka, Tsuyoshi Hamada, Takahiro Aoh, Yoko Gushiken, Koki Eto, Ryol-Li Lee, Takafumi Shimoda, Ryosuke Iwasa.

Leaving this campaign to serve as commentators were Hozumi Hasegawa, Shinsuke Yamanaka and Ryota Murata.

Good job, champs!