Kai Ishizawa


Kai Ishizawa is a Japanese professional boxer. He is a one-time world title challenger, having fought for the WBO mini flyweight title in 2022.
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Personal life

Ishizawa played soccer and practiced karate in elementary school and took up boxing in the first grade of junior high school. He was the captain of the boxing club in Buso Junior High School.
Ishizawa graduated from the Nippon Sport Science University.

Professional career

Ishizawa made his professional debut on June 3, 2017, with a second-round knockout of fellow debutante Phongsaphon Panyakum. Ishizawa followed this up with stoppage victories of Yoshimitsu Kushibe on August 4, 2017, Narathip Sungsut on January 30, 2018, and Tatsuro Nakashima on August 4, 2018. These four victories earned him the chance to fight Daiki Tomita for the inaugural Japanese Youth minimumweight championship. He was later forced to withdraw due to an injury.
After recovering from his injury, Ishizawa was scheduled to fight the undefeated Yuga Inoue for the inaugural Japanese minimumweight championship on November 10, 2018. He won the fight by a sixth-round technical knockout.
Ishizawa was scheduled to fight the Indonesian national mini-flyweight champion Silem Serang on June 1, 2019. He won the fight by a fourth-round technical knockout, stopping Serang with eight seconds left in the round. Ishizawa was next scheduled to face Masataka Taniguchi, in a Japanese minimumweight title eliminator match, on September 21, 2019. Taniguchi won the fight by unanimous decision, with scores of 77–74, 77-74 and 78–74.
Ishizawa rebounded from his first professional loss with a sixth-round technical knockout of Masashi Tada on October 13, 2020. Ishizawa was next scheduled to fight Yuni Takada for the Japanese Youth minimumweight title on April 21, 2021. He won the fight by majority decision, with scores of 78–74, 76-76 and 79–73.
Ishizawa was scheduled to face Naoya Haruguchi on October 8, 2021, in a Japanese minimumweight title eliminator match. He won the fight by a fourth-round technical knockout.
Ishizawa was scheduled to face the undefeated Katsuki Mori for the Japanese minumweight title in the main event of "Phoenix Battle 83" at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan on January 11, 2022. He won the fight by an eight-round technical knockout. Ishizawa dropped Mori to the canvas with a flurry of punches, which prompted his corner to throw in the towel. Ishizawa called out the reigning WBO mini-flyweight champion Masataka Taniguchi during his post-fight interview.
Ishizawa is booked to challenge the reigning WBO mini-flyweight champion Masataka Taniguchi on 22 April 2022, in the main event of a Hikari TV broadcast PBX card, which will take place at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The bout is a rematch of their September 21, 2019 meeting, which Taniguchi won by unanimous decision. Ishizawa vacated the Japanese minimumweight title on 3 March. Ishizawa failed to make weight for the title bout, as he weighed in 2.5 kg over the championship limit in his first attempt and 2.3 kg over the limit in his second attempt. Ishizawa was allowed to compete after making 49.9 kg on the day of the fight, although he was ineligible to win the title. He lost the fight by an eleventh-round technical knockout, and was down on all three of the judges scorecards at the time of the stoppage.
On July 19, 2022, it was announced that JBC had handed Ishizawa a six-month ban for missing weight against Taniguchi. The suspension was backed dated to April 22 and was accompanied by a strict caution by his gym and gym manager. Ishizawa was booked to face Jaysever Abcede on June 12, 2023, after serving out his ban from professional competition. He won the fight by a fifth-round knockout.

Professional boxing record

No.ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes
15Loss11–4Regie SuganobTKO8, 2:3830 Apr 2024Holy Name University Gymnasium, Tagbilaran City, PhilippinesFor WBO Global light flyweight title
14Loss11–3Vince Paras812 Oct 2023Ariake Arena, Tokyo, Japan
13Win11–2Jaysever AbcedeKO5, 2:3712 Jun 2023Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
12Loss10–2Masataka TaniguchiTKO11, 2:2922 Apr 2022Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, JapanWBO minimumweight title only at stake for Taniguchi as Ishizawa fails to make weight
11Win10–1Katsuki MoriKO8, 2:5011 Jan 2022Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, JapanWon Japanese minimumweight title
10Win9–1Naoya HaruguchiTKO4, 1:218 Oct 2021Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
9Win8–1Yuni Takada821 Apr 2021Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, JapanRetained Japanese Youth minimumweight title
8Win7–1Masashi TadaTKO6, 1:4113 Oct 2020Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
7Loss6–1Masataka Taniguchi821 Sep 2019Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
6Win6–0Silem SerangTKO4, 2:521 Jun 2019Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
5Win5–0Yuga InoueTKO6, 0:4610 Nov 2018Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, JapanWon inaugural Japanese Youth minimumweight title
4Win4–0Tatsuro NakashimaTKO5, 1:358 Apr 2018City Gym, Tomigusuku, Okinawa, Japan
3Win3–0Narathip SungsutKO1, 2:3630 Jan 2018Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
2Win2–0Yoshimitsu Kushibe2, 0:444 Aug 2017Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
1Win1–0Phongsaphon Panyakum2, 1:033 Jun 2017Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan