Kyotaro Fujimoto

In Japan top youngsters are pushed hard and quick, they are basically told to sink or swim and unlike Americans, Brits and Germans they aren't molly coddled to a world title with their promoter protecting them. We've all seen Kazuto Ioka (10-0, 6) and his crazy rise to both the WBC and WBA Minimumweight titles in just 10 bouts (winning the WBC belt in just his seventh) and we've also seen the likes of Nobuo Nashiro (18-5-1, 12) winning world titles within their first 10 bouts.

With this knowledge of Japanese boxing, it should be no surprise that their top Heavyweight prospect Kyotaro Fujimoto (5-0, 3) is already being pushed hard, despite having only been a professional boxer for 10 months.

When it comes to many fighters in Japan who are pushed hard, such as Ioka and top prospect Rysuke Iwasa they've come to professional boxing with a lot of amateur credentials. Kyotaro however doesn't have the amateur background of a number of his compatriots, he does however have a background in combat sports, in fact his background is in high level kick boxing as one of the top fighters in the "K1" organisation.

As a Kick Boxer Kyotaro was a fierce competitor and from 2006-2011 he compiled an impressive record of 18-5 (9) and claimed the illustrious K1 Heavyweight title along the way. Amongst his high profile victims in K1 were the likes of Jérôme Le Banner, Peter Aerts, Gökhan Saki and Mighty Mo and amazingly he was never stopped despite facing these top tier fighters.

Following 2 losses in December 2010 Kyotaro seemed to turn his attention towards professional boxing and exactly a year after his final K1 bout (a loss to Gegard Mousasi) he made his professional boxing debut out pointing experienced Australian Michael O'Donnell on 31 December 2011.

After making his debut Kyotaro was quickly tested and in just his second contest he was put in against the then South Korean Heavyweight champion Jae-Chan Kim. Kim was no match for Kyotaro's fire power and was stopped in the second round. Over the following months Kyotaro would add 2 further victories stopping both Afa Tatupu (TKO2) and Clarence Tillman (KO3) as he swiftly gained valuable experience.

More recently Kyotaro scored his biggest win, by far, as he clearly out pointed highly ranked veteran Chauncy Welliver over 10 rounds. Despite being the professional novice, Kyotaro looked like the experienced fighter here and showed excellent movement and control to keep Welliver at range whilst landing and moving away before Welliver landed anything back. Although he was buzzed late in the bout, Kyotaro scored a very impressive and solid victory here.

Although Kyotaro only has 5 professional bouts under his belt and only 23 professional rounds, he's amazingly ranked #15 by the WBC which would allow the champion, Vitali Klitschko, to face him as a voluntary title defense. Surprisingly Kyotaro's ranking is ahead of both David Price and Ruslan Chagaev.