JBC indefinitely suspends oft-overweight Muranaka

By Joe Koizumi

Former Japanese flyweight champ and ex-world challenger Suguru Muranaka, 33, was indefinitely suspended by the Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) for having failed to appear in the official weigh-in for the vacant Japanese national bantamweight championship on June 21.

Muranaka (26-3-1, 8 KOs), a crowd-pleasing boxer-puncher, had sometimes committed such a weigh-in failure, and the JBC this time declared a severe punishment on his boxing activity from now on.Like Muranaka, former WBC flyweight ruler Daigo Higa (15-1, 15 KOs) was also suspended indefinitely since he failed to make weight prior to his title defense against Christopher Rosales, Nicaragua, on April 15, when he tasted his bitter defeat for the first time. The JBC’s suspension notice on April 25 said Higa should campaign in the heavier category than the 112-pound division, and also fined 20 percent of his purse. Higa was the very first Japanese in history that couldn’t make weight at any world title contest here.

Also suspended was former WBC bantamweight champ Luis Nery who failed to make weight prior to his rematch with ex-titlist Shinsuke Yamanaka on March 1. The JBC on March 9 severely punished the Mexican Nery by banning him from fighting in Japan since he tipped the beam five pounds at his first trip to the scale and scaled in three pounds over the limit at the final. Then the JBC gave strict warnings to the promoter as well as the manager of Nery for their lack of supervision.

We will carefully watch and respect the JBC’s decision on dealing with the suspensions on these violators of the rules and regulations.