Ryota Murata, the first Japanese boxer to win both an Olympic and professional world championship, said Wednesday that he has effectively retired.
The 37-year-old middleweight lost his WBA super world title to IBF champion Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan via a ninth-round technical knockout in their title unification bout last April.
“Inside my head I’m thinking, ‘that was my last,’” Murata said of the defeat. “I just haven’t been able to announce it (until now), but that’s how I’m thinking personally.”
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