David Ssemujju to defend Japanese title in March
Earlier today the Seien Boxing Gym announced that Japanese Welterweight champion David Ssemujju (7-1, 4) would be making his second title defense on March 23rd at the Act City Hamamatsu Exhibition Event Hall in Shizuoka, as he takes on mandatory challenger Seeser Minagawa (5-3, 2) [シーサー皆川] in a Champion Carnival bout.
The bout will headline the 37th Seien Boxing Hour and give the Japanese based Ugandan champion a great chance to build on a stellar 2024, which saw him make his Japanese debut in March, claim the Japanese title in August and record his first defense in December. Notably before beginning his professional career he had made a mark on Japan, competing at the Tokyo Olympics, and his high level amateur pedigree has certainly helped him climb through the Japanese at a very fast rate.
As for Minagawa he has already marked himself as one of the best in Japan, despite having only 8 bouts to his name and having 3 losses since his professional debut in October 2021. As an amateur he went 70-17 (36) and bounced around the weights early on as a professional, fighting between Super Middleweight and Light Welterweight. He has now settled at 147 and secured this title fight with a win in November against Kaiki Yuba. As well as that win he has also gone 10 rounds with Shoki Sakai, in a very competitive bout in December 2023, and been stopped once, at Middleweight by Katsuhiro Nakata. The pressure is on him to win, and be crowned the first ever Japanese champion from the Hiranaka Gym.
The card will also feature the debut of 19 year old Ren Harada (0-0) [原田 怜], who will be in a 6 rounder and the next bout in the career of the fun and hard hitting Narumi Yukawa (8-2, 7) [湯川成美], though neither man had their opponents for the show named at the time of writing.
The bout will headline the 37th Seien Boxing Hour and give the Japanese based Ugandan champion a great chance to build on a stellar 2024, which saw him make his Japanese debut in March, claim the Japanese title in August and record his first defense in December. Notably before beginning his professional career he had made a mark on Japan, competing at the Tokyo Olympics, and his high level amateur pedigree has certainly helped him climb through the Japanese at a very fast rate.
As for Minagawa he has already marked himself as one of the best in Japan, despite having only 8 bouts to his name and having 3 losses since his professional debut in October 2021. As an amateur he went 70-17 (36) and bounced around the weights early on as a professional, fighting between Super Middleweight and Light Welterweight. He has now settled at 147 and secured this title fight with a win in November against Kaiki Yuba. As well as that win he has also gone 10 rounds with Shoki Sakai, in a very competitive bout in December 2023, and been stopped once, at Middleweight by Katsuhiro Nakata. The pressure is on him to win, and be crowned the first ever Japanese champion from the Hiranaka Gym.
The card will also feature the debut of 19 year old Ren Harada (0-0) [原田 怜], who will be in a 6 rounder and the next bout in the career of the fun and hard hitting Narumi Yukawa (8-2, 7) [湯川成美], though neither man had their opponents for the show named at the time of writing.