Tragedy in Tokyo Japan as Lightweight Shigetoshi Kotari Dies of Brain Injury at 28 Less Than a Week After OPBF Title Bout
By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Boxing Correspondent
Tokyo Japan (August 9th, 2025)– In boxing’s latest tragedy fatality, one week after losing consciousness after fighting to a 12 round draw for the Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation regional lightweight title at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo Japan, with OPBF champion Yamato Kata, 17-2-1 with 16 knockouts, Tokyo, Japan, in the main event, on August 2, 2025, Japanese super featherweight lightweight contender Shigetoshi Kotari has died in the hospital of his brain injuries at age 28. Kata was also hospitalized after the bout and his medical situation remains undisclosed.
Kotari, 8-2-2 with five knockouts, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan, fell unconscious with a brain bleed after the bout was over. All 12 of Kotari’s professional bouts took place at Korakuen Hall. This was the only bout in which a major issue occurred during or after the bout, though Kotari was stopped in the sixth round by 9-2 Tokyo lightweight Hiromasa Urakawa in April 2024. Ironically, Urakawa was knocked out in the eighth round by 9-4-2 Japanese lightweight Yoji Saito in a preliminary bout to the main event on the same Kurakuen Hall card in a bout preceding the Shigetoshi Kotari tragedy.
The Japan Boxing Commission wrote in a press release Kotari had received a craniotomy, a brain surgery that removes part of the skull to relieve pressure on or treat a brain injury at the hospital after the bout. Unfortunately, Kotari did not recover, and passed away.
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