Teiken Promotions and Top Rank, have begun negotiations for the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) middleweight world title between interim WBA middleweight champion Hassan N’Dam and undefeated #2 world-rated contender Ryota Murata. “While ...
N’Dam (35-2, 21 KOs), a native of Cameroon who fights out of Pantin,Seine-Saint-Denis, France, and a two-time world title challenger, regained the interim WBA middleweight crown for a second time on December 17, scoring a devastating first-round knockout of undefeated defending champion Alfonso Blanco in what many consider the Knockout of the Year for 2016.
Murata (12-0, 9 KOs), from Tokyo, Japan, won all four of his 2016 bouts by knockout in fights that took place in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Las Vegas and Tokyo. The six-foot fighter captured the Olympic gold medal in the middleweight division at the 2012 Olympics held in London. It was the first gold medal won by a Japanese boxer since Takao Sakurai in 1964, and also is the first-ever boxing medal in a weight class other than bantamweight or flyweight. Murata also became the 100th gold medalist in Japanese Olympic history.