{"id":42610,"date":"2020-12-10T13:01:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T19:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/requiem-al-excampeon-royal-kobayashi\/"},"modified":"2020-12-10T13:03:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T19:03:33","slug":"requiem-to-former-wbc-122lb-champ-royal-kobayashi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/requiem-to-former-wbc-122lb-champ-royal-kobayashi\/","title":{"rendered":"Requiem to former WBC-122Lb. champ Royal Kobayashi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Requiem to former WBC-122Lb. champ Royal Kobayashi<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Joe Koizumi<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s papers in Japan reported a sad and sorrowful passing of former WBC super-bantamweight champion Royal Kobayashi, who reportedly had lost his life on November 17.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our deep grief comes from the fact that we have not been informed of his death for no less than three weeks following his passing.\u00a0 Once a very popular ring hero in his prime, Kobayashi didn\u2019t stay in our fraternity as a boxing person any longer but worked as a security guard in his native Kumamoto, a southern \u00a0place very far from Tokyo.\u00a0<\/span>He was 71.<\/b><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His real name was Kazuo Kobayashi, and when he turned professional, he began to fight under the nom-de-guerre Royal Kobayashi named by his manager Yoshinori Takahashi, former world 140-pound challenger who failed to win the belt from Eddie Perkins via lopsided thirteenth round stoppage here in 1964.\u00a0 It was also said \u201cRoyal\u201d originated from royal jelly so that he would be as sweet and strong as that.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kazuo graduated from Takushoku university, and entered the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF).\u00a0 Having compiled an excellent amateur mark of 34-3, 29 stoppages, he participated in the Olympic Games in Munich in 1972.\u00a0 Kobayashi proceeded to the quarterfinal by defeating Pat Ryan (New Zealand) and knocking out Pasqualin Morbidelli (Italy).\u00a0 It was Andras Botos of Hungary that decisioned Kobayashi, who returned Japan without an expected medal and with a broken heart.<\/span><\/p>\n

Highly anticipated for exploits, the mustached Olympian Royal made a sensational pro debut by defeating Japan-ranked Baron Kumazawa in eight unanimous rounds in February 1973.\u00a0 From his second bout Kazuo registered eleven consecutive knockouts, including a stoppage of ex-world challenger Jose \u201cHuitlacoche\u201d Medel in the Mexican legend\u2019s last fight in 1974.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having scored an unblemished ledger of 18-0, 16 KOs, Royal had an ambitious crack at the WBA featherweight belt against \u201cExplosive Thin Man\u201d Alexis Arguello only to be dispatched with vicious body shots in the fifth round in 1975.\u00a0 Royal, tasting his first defeat, reviewed his loss, saying, \u201cIt was like I got stuck with an ice pick to the belly.\u201d\u00a0 In his comeback, Kobayashi banged out Ushiwakamaru Harada (the younger brother of Fighting Harada) on points that year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kobayashi then moved down to the 122-pound division, and dethroned WBC ruler Panamanian Rigoberto Riasco by an eighth round knockout in Tokyo in October 1976.\u00a0 Kazuo, however, pitifully forfeited his belt in his initial defense, where he lost a majority decision (148-146, 148-144, 146-146) to Dong-Kyun Yum in the challenger\u2019s home turf in Seoul, Korea, in November.\u00a0 His 47-day reign is the very shortest ever scored among Japanese world titleholders.\u00a0 Also, Kobayashi is the first university graduate of all world champions produced out of Japan.<\/span><\/p>\n

The world 122-pound belt then busily changed hands, and it was a Puerto Rican prodigy named Wilfredo Gomez that came off the canvas and dethroned the new champ Yum by a twelfth round knockout in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in May 1977.\u00a0 His second defense took place in Kitakyushu, Japan, where Gomez annihilated Kobayashi in three breathtaking rounds in January 1978.\u00a0 The Japanese left hooker was badly beaten by Bazooka Gomez\u2019s more powerful left hook.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three months thereafter, Royal captured the OPBF featherweight belt by halting Korean Bok-Soo Hwang in the tenth session, and went to engage in his third attempt to win the world belt.\u00a0 This time, his target was the WBA 126-pound titleholder Eusebio Pedroza, who mercilessly battered him into submission after the thirteenth round at the Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, in January 1979.\u00a0 Pedroza was simply too fast and elusive for Royal to catch up with.<\/span><\/p>\n

On seven occasions did Kobayashi successfully retain his OPBF 126-pound belt to his credit, but finally yielded it to Jung-Han Hwang by an upset first round knockout in Seoul, Korea, in October 1981.\u00a0 It was the 32-year-old warrior\u2019s last appearance in the paid ranks.<\/span><\/p>\n

He served as trainer in Sendai Gym, Shinto Gym and Yokohama Hikari Gym (where he cultivated OPBF champ Ichitaro Ishii and two-time world challenger Ryo Akaho), and quit coaching to leave the boxing world.\u00a0 His bad terms with his manager Takahashi (who passed away in 2018) was so notorious, but it should not be described at this moment of his sad passing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if not so skillful, he was really a KO artist chiefly thanks to his trademark left hook.\u00a0 His overall record was 35-8, 27 KOs.\u00a0 May his soul rest in peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

(12-10-2020)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Requiem to former WBC-122Lb. champ Royal Kobayashi By Joe Koizumi Today\u2019s papers in Japan reported a sad and sorrowful passing of former WBC super-bantamweight champion Royal [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":42608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main-news","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wbcboxing.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}