World ranked Super Featherweight Masanori Rikiishi joins Ohashi Gym!
It’s fair to say that 2024 has been a transformative year for the Ohashi Gym, who have not only guided Undisputed Super Bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (27-0, 24) [井上尚弥] to headlining at the Tokyo Dome, but also signed some of the brightest young talent in Japan, setting them up for a brilliant future, and managed to have 3 concurrent world champions, in the form of Inoue, his Takuma Inoue (20-1, 5) [井上拓真] and WBO Bantamweight Yoshiki Takei (9-0, 8) [武居由樹].
Today they continued to move from strength to strength with the surprise signing of world ranked Super Featherweight Masanori Rikiishi (15-1, 10) [佐藤政法], which came out of left field despite it being known that Rikiishi had left a promotional deal with Koki Kameda’s 3150 Fight.
Rikiishi, who is ranked #3 by the WBC and IBF and #7 with the WBO and scored a sensational win back in March when he stopped Michael Magnesi in Italy, held a press conference with Hideyuki Ohashi today to announce that he had officially transferred from LUSH Midori Gym in Nagoya for the Ohashi Gym, in Yokohama. Prior to this he had been a Midori Gym fighter, working alongside Koki Kameda’s 3150 Promotional stable.
At the press conference it was revealed that Rikiishi had spoken to Midori Gym's president Toshiro Matsuo, who had advised him to follow his own path, this led to him choosing the Ohashi Gym. He explained the reason for the move was "I believe that a world championship is a difficult weight class and you only get one chance. I thought that moving to Ohashi Gym was the best choice. I will become world champion to repay the favor to Chairman Matsuo and Chairman Ohashi."
Interestingly it was revealed that Rikiishi wouldn’t be moving to Yokohama full time and that it was clear he and the folk at the Midori gym hadn’t fallen out. Instead the plan is that when a match is decided, he will travel to Yokohama and train at Ohashi Gym. Whilst there he will be trained by Seiichi Okada, as the main trainer, as well as Yasuhiro Suzuki and Akira Yaegashi. He will return to Nagoya during the off season and continue training at Midori Gym as before, showing an understanding not only of his respect for Mr Matsuo, but also his life in Nagoya.
Rikiishi admitted that he wasn’t in charge of match making, but seemed to hope to have a warm up fight before a potential world title fight, explaining "I'm not in a position to comment on match-making, but the last match wasn't good, so ideally I'd like to have one more match in between and then a world championship. If it's decided, I'll do it right away." This seemed to be echoed by Mr Ohashi who said "It would be best if I could have one match in October and then a world championship this year or next year."
It’s worth noting that Ohashi has a strong working relationship with Top Rank, with several Ohashi Gym fighters appearing on Top Rank cards and some having had, or still having co-promotional deals. It could well be that Rikiishi knows this relationship opens notable doors for him, including not just bouts in the US but also bouts against Top Rank fighters, including current WBO world champion Emanuel Navarrete.
Today they continued to move from strength to strength with the surprise signing of world ranked Super Featherweight Masanori Rikiishi (15-1, 10) [佐藤政法], which came out of left field despite it being known that Rikiishi had left a promotional deal with Koki Kameda’s 3150 Fight.
Rikiishi, who is ranked #3 by the WBC and IBF and #7 with the WBO and scored a sensational win back in March when he stopped Michael Magnesi in Italy, held a press conference with Hideyuki Ohashi today to announce that he had officially transferred from LUSH Midori Gym in Nagoya for the Ohashi Gym, in Yokohama. Prior to this he had been a Midori Gym fighter, working alongside Koki Kameda’s 3150 Promotional stable.
At the press conference it was revealed that Rikiishi had spoken to Midori Gym's president Toshiro Matsuo, who had advised him to follow his own path, this led to him choosing the Ohashi Gym. He explained the reason for the move was "I believe that a world championship is a difficult weight class and you only get one chance. I thought that moving to Ohashi Gym was the best choice. I will become world champion to repay the favor to Chairman Matsuo and Chairman Ohashi."
Interestingly it was revealed that Rikiishi wouldn’t be moving to Yokohama full time and that it was clear he and the folk at the Midori gym hadn’t fallen out. Instead the plan is that when a match is decided, he will travel to Yokohama and train at Ohashi Gym. Whilst there he will be trained by Seiichi Okada, as the main trainer, as well as Yasuhiro Suzuki and Akira Yaegashi. He will return to Nagoya during the off season and continue training at Midori Gym as before, showing an understanding not only of his respect for Mr Matsuo, but also his life in Nagoya.
Rikiishi admitted that he wasn’t in charge of match making, but seemed to hope to have a warm up fight before a potential world title fight, explaining "I'm not in a position to comment on match-making, but the last match wasn't good, so ideally I'd like to have one more match in between and then a world championship. If it's decided, I'll do it right away." This seemed to be echoed by Mr Ohashi who said "It would be best if I could have one match in October and then a world championship this year or next year."
It’s worth noting that Ohashi has a strong working relationship with Top Rank, with several Ohashi Gym fighters appearing on Top Rank cards and some having had, or still having co-promotional deals. It could well be that Rikiishi knows this relationship opens notable doors for him, including not just bouts in the US but also bouts against Top Rank fighters, including current WBO world champion Emanuel Navarrete.