Kiyoshi Tanabe | |
Birth Date: | 10 October 1940 |
Birth Place: | Aomori City, Japan |
Height: | 159 cm |
Weight: | Flyweight |
Style: | Orthodox |
Total: | 22 |
Wins: | 21 |
Ko: | 5 |
Losses: | 0 |
Draws: | 1 |
Show-Medals: | yes |
Kiyoshi Tanabe (田辺 清, born October 10, 1940) is a retired Japanese boxer who won a bronze medal at the 1960 Olympics.[1]
As an amateur Tanabe won a bronze medal at the 1960 Olympics, becoming the first Japanese boxer to win an Olympic medal. His amateur record was 115-5 (30RSC). He made his professional debut in 1963, and won the Japanese flyweight title in 1965, which he defended twice before vacating. In February 1967, he fought WBA & WBC flyweight champion Horacio Accavallo in a non-title match, and won by 6th-round TKO.
Tanabe was scheduled to get his first world title shot in July 1967, and expectations heightened around the talented fighter. However, it was discovered that he had suffered a detached retina in his right eye, which forced him into retirement. He had surgery on his right eye, but lost his vision two years later.