Keitaro Hoshino: Two-Time WBA Minimumweight Champion
Japanese boxer Keitaro Hoshino became WBA minimumweight champion in December 2000 with a unanimous decision over Joma Gamboa. He lost his first defense to Chana Porpaoin in April 2001, then regained the vacant title with another decision win over Gamboa in January 2002. Hoshino was a two-time world champion. World Boxing Association · Japan Pro Boxing Association.
Two separate championship reigns
Hoshino boxed professionally from 1988 to 2003. Before reaching world level, he won the Japanese minimumweight championship and defended it against opponents including Hiroshi Nakajima in September 1998. His domestic title experience preceded his first WBA championship victory in his hometown of Yokohama.
The two wins over Gamboa established distinct reigns. The first began on December 6, 2000, and ended with the Porpaoin defeat on April 16, 2001. The second began on January 29, 2002, after the championship had become vacant.
The final title contests and retirement
Noel Arambulet ended Hoshino’s second reign by majority decision in Yokohama on July 29, 2002. Hoshino challenged him again in Osaka that December but lost another majority decision. A subsequent WBC title attempt against José Antonio Aguirre also ended in defeat in 2003.
After retiring, Hoshino founded a boxing gym in Kakamigahara and continued working in the sport until 2018, according to the WBA’s retrospective. His record is therefore remembered for both his two championship victories and his later work in boxing. The separate dates clarify why he is described as a two-time champion rather than the holder of one uninterrupted reign.
Further career results
Hoshino first took up boxing while attending Buso High School in Yokohama, before turning professional in 1988. His later gym work took him to Gifu Prefecture after retirement. He was found dead in Naha, Okinawa, on October 9, 2021, aged fifty-two; the exact time of death was not established in the contemporary report. The Japanese boxing press and the WBA both reported his death, looking back on the two Gamboa victories that had made him a world champion.
Sources
Additional sources: https://boxingnews.jp/english/86150/
- WBA: Keitaro Hoshino
- Japan Pro Boxing Association: Hoshino profile
- BoxRec: WBA minimumweight title fights
