is a Japanese former

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 fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

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 Boxin ...

flyweight Flyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Flyweight is a class in boxing which includes fighters weighing up to and including 51 kg (112 lb) for a title fight. Professional boxing The flyweight division was the last of boxin ...

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 Zou Shiming (; born 18 May 1981) is a Chinese former boxer and two-time Olympic champion. In amateur boxing, he is China's most successful boxer of all time. In the light-flyweight division, he won three consecutive Olympic medals (bronze in 200 ...

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, ...

to win the title in

Shanghai Oriental Sports Center The Shanghai Oriental Sports Center (), also known as the Shanghai Aquatic Sports Center, is a sports venue next to the Expo Park in Shanghai's Pudong New Area. It started construction on 30 December 2008, and was completed in late 2010. The to ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. 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 cit ...

, Saitama,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. And currently resides in

Shinjuku , officially called Shinjuku City, is a special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the northern half of the busiest railway station in the world ( Shinjuku Station) as well as the Tokyo Metropol ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. 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 Martial artists from Saitama Prefecture 21st-century Japanese sportsmen Sportspeople from Kumagaya