Ryōta Murata

His is Japan's first boxing gold medal since Takao Sakurai won in the bantamweight class in 1964, and also is the first-ever boxing medal in a weight class other than bantamweight or flyweight.

The Brazilian Olympic Committee asked the International Boxing Association (AIBA) for a review of the final, but the AIBA turned down the request.

Murata finished his amateur career with a record of 119–18 (89 RSC).

After winning the quarter-finals, Murata and Florentino were both assured of the first men's boxing medal for their countries since the 1968 Summer Olympics.

It was a tough, close bout.

Murata is the hundredth gold medalist for Japan in their Olympic history.

His then trainer was Hiroaki Takami, who competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Two years later, he started attending Shinko Boxing Gym in Osaka from his home in Nara City.

He was trained under the former Japanese super lightweight champion Hiromu Kuwata at that gym for one year.

He proceeded to Minami-Kyoto High School and was coached there by Maekawa Takemoto, who served as the coach of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Murata went on to capture five national titles.

After winning the All-Japan Amateur Boxing Championships in the first grade of university in 2004, he captured the bronze medal in the 2005 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, and the silver medal in the 2005 King’s Cup in Bangkok.

However, he was defeated in the preliminary round by Nikolajs Grisunins at the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships, and again in the preliminary round by Bakhtiyar Artayev in the 2006 Asian Games.

After that, Murata went on an undefeated streak in his country, winning the All-Japan Amateur Boxing Championships also in 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011.

In the 2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships he won against Donatas Bondorovas in the first round, but lost to Shawn Estrada in the second round.

At the 2008 1st Asian Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Bangkok, Thailand, he won over Narmandakh Shinebayar in the quarterfinal but lost to Elshod Rasulov in the semifinal.

In the 2nd AIBA Asian 2008 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan, he was eliminated in the quarterfinal by Homayoun Amiri and ended in the seventh place.

Murata retired as a boxer after failing to qualify for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

After graduating from the university, he started coaching at the boxing club while working as an employee of his alma mater.

A year and a half later, he resumed his boxing career.

Takemoto died in 2010, at the age of 50.

However, after his admission to Toyo University, he suffered a number of DQ losses in the university league.

At that time, he trained at the Physical Training School of the Self Defense Forces, on the recommendation of Takemoto.

In 2010, he secured the bronze medal by winning over Udai Al-Hindawi in the quarterfinal of the China Open Tournament in Guiyang, China, but lost to Husan Baymatov in the semifinal.

In the 2010 Kazakhstan President's Cup in Astana, he won over Levan Guledani in the preliminary round but lost to Danabek Suzhanov in the quarterfinal.

As an amateur, he won a silver medal at the 2011 World Championships, and gold the following year at the 2012 Olympics.

Murata started boxing in the first grade of junior high school.

In July 2011, he won the gold medal at the 21st President's Cup in Jakarta.

At the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships, Murata won over his preliminary contest over Leandro Sanchez (24–11).

In a big upset, Murata stopped two-time world champion Abbos Atoev in the first round.

He subsequently defeated Mohammad Sattarpour (22–11, in the second round) and Stefan Härtel (18–15, in the third round).

By beating Härtel, Murata secured qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

In the quarter-final, he beat Darren O'Neill (18-9).

Finally he defeated Esquiva Falcão (24–11) to qualify for the final.

Murata's run came to an end against Evhen Khytrov, losing a close match (22–24) and taking home the silver medal.

In the 2012 Summer Olympics, second-seeded Murata defeated Algeria's Abdelmalek Rahou 21–12 in the round of 16 at the ExCeL London on 2 August 2012.

He subsequently beat Turkey's Adem Kılıççı 17–13 in the quarter-finals on 6 August, and also outpointed Uzbekistan's Abbos Atoev 13–12 in the semi-finals on 10 August.

In the final on 11 August, he beat the Esquiva Falcão with a score of 14–13 and took the gold medal.

Ryōta Murata (村田 諒太) is a Japanese former professional boxer who competed from 2013 to 2022.

He held the WBA (Regular) middleweight title twice between 2017 and 2021, and the WBA (Super) middleweight title from 2021 to 2022.