Takao Sakurai

nihongo|Takao Sakurai|桜井 孝雄|Sakurai Takao (born September 25, 1941 in Chiba, Japan) is a former professional boxer who won the gold medal at the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Amateur career

Sakurai began boxing in high school, keeping his training secret to his parents. He entered Chuo University, and captured the Olympic boxing gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics in his senior year. In the finals, he knocked down his opponent 3 times in 2 rounds, capturing the win by RSC, and becoming the only Japanese boxer ever to win Olympic gold. His record in the amateurs was 138-13.

Olympic Results

*Defeated Brian Packer (Great Britain) 4-1
*Defeated Cassis Aryee (Ghana) 5-0
*Defeated Nicolae Puiu (Romania) 5-0
*Defeated Washington Rodríguez (Uruguay) 5-0
*Defeated Chung Shin-Cho (South Korea) RSC

Professional career

Sakurai's feat in the Olympics heightened hopes for his professional career, and he made his professional debut in March, 1965. He won 21 straight fights, but was unable to make a full transition from his cautious, amateur boxing style to a more aggressive, professional style. He would win only 4 fights by knockout out of his 32 professional fights.

Sakurai challenged Lionel Rose for the world bantamweight title on July 2, 1968. He got a knockdown in the 2nd round, but ended up losing by decision in 15 rounds. He suffered the first knockout loss of his career against Ruben Olivares in May, 1969 in a non-title match. Later that year, he won the OPBF bantamweight title, which he defended twice before announcing his retirement in 1970. His professional record was 30-2-0 (4KOs), and he was the top-ranked world bantamweight contender when he retired.

Post Retirement

He founded his own sports club and boxing gym in Tokyo, and currently works as a trainer there. His eldest son has also had a successful amateur boxing career, winning a national tournament in the featherweight division.

External links

*
* [http://www.onetwo-sports.com Takao Sakurai's sports club (Japanese)]