On July 13, the East Japan Boxing Committee decided to appeal to the Japanese Boxing Commission to suspend Takeshi Yamada's boxing license. Yamada is the striking trainer of MMA fighters Tatsuya Kawajiri, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Hiroyuki Takaya and Kenji Osawa, and has also trained Yoshihiro Akiyama in the past.
Under the Japanese Boxing Commission's rules, trainers who have boxing licenses can't work in other sports.
East Japan Boxing Committee also plan to appeal to penalize Jyoji Morikawa, the owner of JB Sports Gym, which Yamada belongs to. Morikawa is the author of the famous boxing manga Hajime No Ippo.
Personally, I think the East Japan Boxing Committee don't like Takeshi Yamada's appearances on TV. He is known as the trainer of Yoshihiro Akiyama, and after the Sakuraba fight, Yamada claimed Akiyama was innocent, which turned out to be false. That incident impacted the boxing community, who didn't want to be attacked by fans and the media for an event outside of boxing.
The head of the East Japan Boxing Committee is former WBA and WBC minimumweight champion Hideyuki Ohashi. He taught PRIDE veteran Hiromitsu Kanehara to box at the Ohashi Sports Gym, so I don't think he has a bad impression of MMA. But, Yamada is using a boxing gym to teach MMA fighters and appearing in the MMA media, at the expense of the boxers in his gym.
Hajime No Ippo aka Fighting Spirit
Hideyuki Ohashi
Japanese fighters strike back ground
Special Thanks to Jordan Breen for English support.
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