Ryuya Yamanaka: Boxing Career and Notable Fights
Ryuya Yamanaka is a Japanese minimumweight who held the WBO world title from 2017 to 2018. He won the championship by defeating Tatsuya Fukuhara, then made a successful defense before losing the belt to Vic Saludar.
The WBA profile lists Yamanaka at 19 wins and four losses, with six knockouts. His title bouts put him among the notable Japanese fighters of the division during the late 2010s.
Winning and defending the WBO championship
Yamanaka defeated Fukuhara over twelve rounds on August 27, 2017. He followed that breakthrough with his first defense against Mexico’s Moises Calleros in Kobe on March 18, 2018. The WBO’s report records a stoppage after the eighth round, when Calleros did not continue from his corner. That successful defense gave Yamanaka a second consecutive victory in a world championship contest.
His next challenger was the Philippines’ Vic Saludar. Their July 2018 meeting in Kobe ended with Saludar winning a unanimous decision and taking the minimumweight title. The sequence of a title win, one successful defense and a subsequent defeat defines Yamanaka’s WBO world championship reign.
Later appearances at light flyweight
Yamanaka’s record also includes bouts after the end of that reign. The WBA profile lists contests against Daisuke Sudo and Jonathan Taconing in 2022, followed by Kosuke Ando in May 2023. He then faced Jayson Vayson for the WBO Asia Pacific light-flyweight championship in December 2023, the matchup featured in the accompanying video. Those appearances belong to a later stage of his career, above the minimumweight division where he first became a world champion.
Further career results
Yamanaka represented Shinsei Gym, the club associated with his boxing idol Hozumi Hasegawa. His younger brother Daiki also became a professional minimumweight. The WBO’s account of the Calleros defense described Yamanaka’s fast left hand as a key weapon and recorded him ahead on all three scorecards when the challenger retired. His family and gym connections accompanied a brief world-title reign built on victories over Fukuhara and Calleros.
Sources
- WBO: Yamanaka’s defense against Calleros
- WBA: Ryuya Yamanaka profile
- BoxRec: Ryuya Yamanaka title record
- BoxRec: Tatsuya Fukuhara record
