is a Japanese

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who held the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

flyweight Flyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Flyweight is a class in boxing which includes fighters weighing above 49 kg (108 lb) and up to 51 kg (112 lb). Professional boxing The flyweight division was the last of b ...

title from 2017 to 2018.

Professional career

WBO Asia Pacific Title

on Nov 23, 2016, Kimura defeated Masahiro Sakamoto to win the WBO Asia Pacific flyweight title.

WBO World Title

On July 28, 2017, Sho Kimura defeated Zou Shiming by 11th-round

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

to win the title in Shanghai Oriental Sports Center,

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

, China. Kimura entered the fight ranked number 7 by the WBO. He entered the fight as a 10-1 underdog. The fight was promoted by Zou with an entirely new training and management team.

Professional boxing record

Personal life

Sho Kimura was born in

Kumagaya is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 195,277 in 87,827 households and a population density of 1200 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Kumagaya is one of the largest ...

, Saitama, Japan. And currently resides in

Shinjuku is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative centre, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administrati ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan. Kimura has one brother and his mother died at the age of 44. At the press conference after the WBO flyweight title fight, Kimura admitted that the big driving factor was his mother. The fighter stated that he was determined to take the title to his mother's grave, as he did with the WBO Asia Pacific title when he won that last year. It's clear that this is a personal mission for him and something that really is a driving factor with his career going forward. Before winning the WBO flyweight title, Kimura had been working as a deliveryman in Tokyo and was under extreme financial pressure - a hardship experienced by many boxers in the early stages of their career. During this period, Kimura only had time for training in the evenings.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kimura, Sho 1988 births Living people Flyweight boxers World flyweight boxing champions World Boxing Organization champions Japanese male boxers Sportspeople from Saitama Prefecture 21st-century Japanese people