Yamaguchi Falcão
Yamaguchi Falcão Florentino (born 24 January 1988) is a Brazilian boxer, currently a professional and a former holder of the World Boxing Council Latino Middleweight Title. In his amateur years, he won silver at the 2011 Panamerican Games and a bronze at the 2012 Olympics at light heavyweight. He is a southpaw and the brother of Esquiva Falcão. He was born in São Mateus, Espírito Santo. Amateur career. At the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships he beat two opponents at middleweight then lost 3:8 to eventual winner Abbos Atoev (UZB). At the 2010 South American Games he lost  to Alex Theran but got a bronze anyway. Afterwards he moved up in weight. At the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships he beat Amine Azzouzi and Carlos Gongora, then lost to Elshod Rasulov. In Guadalajara at the PanAms he beat two opponents then lost to Cuban favorite Julio César la Cruz. At the Olympic qualifier he beat three opponents including Osmar Bravo who also qualified then lost the final to American southpaw Marcus Browne. All three made the Olympics. At the 2012 Olympics he controversially edged out Sumit Sangwan 15:14, then Meng Fanlong 17:17, on countback before besting Cuban world  champion Julio César la Cruz 18:15. He was defeated at semi-finals by the Russian favorite Egor Mekhontsev 23:11 and received the bronze medal. Unlike what his name suggests, he is not of Japanese descent. Professional career. On October 2, it was revealed that Falcão became a professional, signing with Golden Boy Promotions. In his debut, he was disqualified alongside Martín Fidel Ríos after the second round. Both fighters traded a few punches after the round ended followed by Ríos spitting on Falcão. The call was seen as excessive by both fighters, whom wanted to keep fighting. However, Falcão won  all of his subsequent 11 fights. In the tenth, against Jorge Daniel Caraballo, Falcão got the World Boxing Council Latino Middleweight title. He is currently ranked 21st in the overall WBC Middleweight ranking.