By Héctor Villarreal
Panamanian trainer and former world ranked fighter, Juan Mosquera moved to Osaka, Japan to join Tomoki Kameda´s team.
Mosquera arrived in Osaka on Wednesday, where he will be in charge of training the members of the TMK Gym, included owner Tomoki (42-5, 23 KOs) ranked #9 by IBF at featherweight and #13 by WBC, Japanese heavyweight Mitsuro Tajima (12-2, 10 KOs) and undefeated South African super lightweight John Paul Masamba (3-0, 2 KOs), between others.
“After a friend recommended me, I got a phone call from Mr. Kameda a week ago and just three days later, I was boarding a fly to Japan because I see this as a great opportunity for success”, said Mosquera. “Koki started his pro career in Mexico, where he made 18 of his 47 fights, so he speaks Spanish fluently, which made everything easier” added the coach.
The Panamanian boxing style has been always recognized around the world. Alfonso “Panama Al” Brown was the first Latin American to win a world boxing title. In the early 1970s Ramon “Curro” Dosman was hired to train Nicaraguan Alexis Argüello, and Saul “Plomito” Espinosa traveled to Puerto Rico to prepare Wilfredo Gómez. Both of them became members of the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
In the 1980s Bernardo Checa retired as a world-class superfeather and moved to Belfast, UK where he made world champions like Dave Mc. Auley.
In the 1990s Celso Chavez went to Colombia where he trained Mauricio Pastrana, among other champions. Rigoberto Garibaldi taught Rosendo Alvarez and coached Ricardo Mayorga in some of his most important fights. Just to mention a few.
Panamanian boxers have not won a world championship since April 2016, and currently, lightweight Ricardo Nuñez (WBC #2) and flyweight Azael Villar (WBO #15) are the only ranked fighters, the worst situation it has ever faced, so Mosquera’s decision to move to Japan places him closer to big fights.
