Yasuaki Kadota

Yasuaki Kadota, better known in boxing as Shinichi Kadota, was a Japanese southpaw who competed principally at lightweight and challenged for the world light welterweight championship. Born on 26 March 1949 in Ehime Prefecture, he finished his professional career with 38 victories, ten defeats and one draw, including 25 wins by knockout. His main championship achievement was winning the Oriental lightweight title, while victories over Guts Ishimatsu and former world champion Chango Carmona established his credentials against substantial opposition.

Kadota boxed at Nitta High School before being recruited by Hitoshi Misako and moving to Tokyo to join the Misako gym. He made his professional debut on 30 April 1967, knocking out Tokumi Takenouchi in the opening round. His first six contests produced six victories, but Kazuh iro Sawaguchi defeated him in the East Japan featherweight novice tournament final that December. Sawaguchi won their second meeting before Kadota took a points decision in their third contest in January 1969. These early matches gave him experience against familiar domestic opposition before his career expanded overseas.

During 1969, Kadota appeared five times at the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. His opponents included Ronnie Harris and Pajarito Moreno, and he also stopped Juan Collado. American appearances became an important part of his development, supplementing his Japanese programme with Mexican and American opposition. In June 1970 he lost on points to the accomplished Filipino Rene Barrientos, but four months later won the Oriental lightweight championship by knocking out South Korea’s Young Chul Cho in the third round. He made three successful defences, all by knockout, against Rudy Gonzalez, Cho in a return contest, and Rudy Barro.

An eighth-round knockout of Ishimatsu Suzuki, subsequently known as Guts Ishimatsu, in August 1971 was among Kadota’s strongest results. Their return meeting at Korakuen Hall on 16 January 1972 brought a different outcome. Suzuki applied effective pressure early, then counterpunched more cautiously against the champion’s southpaw attacks. Kadota had a particularly strong eighth round, landing combinations that threatened to turn the contest, but Suzuki recovered and won a unanimous decision over twelve rounds to take the Oriental title. The rivalry demonstrated both Kadota’s punching threat and the difficulties he encountered against an opponent who adjusted his tactics.

Kadota continued fighting abroad after losing the championship. He defeated Collado at the Forum in Inglewood in July 1972, then lost a decision to Javier Ayala at the Olympic Auditorium. A sequence of appearances in Honolulu followed, including two victories over Bernard Magno and a seventh-round knockout of Carmona on 31 July 1973. Back in Japan, he stopped former world title challenger Jimmy Robertson in four rounds that November. His world championship opportunity came against Antonio Cervantes at the Nihon University Auditorium in Tokyo on 26 October 1974. The Colombian retained his WBA light welterweight title by knockout at 1 minute 42 seconds of the eighth round. Kadota was knocked down eight times and suffered his first defeat inside the distance.

He boxed six more times after the Cervantes defeat, recording three stoppage victories, two knockout losses and a draw. Hector Thompson stopped him in five rounds in Brisbane in August 1975, and his final recorded contest ended in a fourth-round knockout defeat against Sigfrido Rodriguez on 19 November 1976. Kadota’s career therefore concluded after fewer than ten years as a professional. His record included a regional championship reign, repeated overseas appearances and victories over men who had held or would later hold world titles.