Koichi Wajima: The legendary weirdo

This article is part of our “long article” requests through Patreon! A huge thank you to Alteroc (@crwate01) for this excellent topic suggestion. 

In an effort to learn more about combat sports, Alteroc laid out an article format that covers three athletes from a specific sport: 

1. An all-time great

2. A specialist

3. Someone “weird”

This article covers #3 for boxing: unified light middleweight champion Koichi Wajima.

I mulled over who to choose for the ‘weird’ boxer, as truly there are many that might be deemed as stylistic weirdos and they’re also the fighters I tend to gravitate towards.

Saensak Muangsurin, the bizarre former Muay Thai champ, is one of my all-time favourites, but I’ve already covered him before.

Weird deaf-mute Muhammad Ali wannabe Thanomchit Sukhothai was another contender, but there was simply too little footage of him.

Someone like ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed was an early contender: but a dissection of the Wincobank style is nothing new, as bizarre as that system + power made Hamed as a stylist.

So, I looked to another firm favourite of mine: a guy that was basically self-taught, devoid of athleticism, didn’t start boxing until his mid-twenties, yet was the man at 154lbs and won eight world title fights.

So watch along with me as Wajima fights the same opponent twice: marvel at the bizarre decisions he makes in the ring and see if you come to the same conclusion as me, that despite doing so many things wrong, it worked for him.

And as fans, it works for us: action, violence, sometimes mild amusement. All of this and more can be extrapolated from watching Wajima’s fights.