Former World Boxing Council female flyweight champion Go Shindo of Green Tsuda Boxing Gym dropped a three-round unanimous decision in a semi-formal bantamweight bout with a male 4 rounder on Dec. 10 at EDION Arena Osaka’s annex.

  It was the 36-year-old Shindo’s first fight in seven years and a half as Shindo became a male by going through sex reassignment surgery in 2017 in Thailand and changed his family registration after the surgery. Shindo is married and has four children as he always says, ‘’I want to show the figure I fight in the ring to my children.’’

  Though Japan Boxing Commission does not approve a ‘’female’’ boxer to take a license test as a male boxer, it gave a go-ahead to Shindo having a three-round semi-formal bout during a professional boxing event as a special case.

  Fighting against Katsuyuki Ishibashi of Himeji Kinoshita Boxing Gym by using eight-ounce gloves under three three-minute rounds, Shindo got off to a good start by sticking out left jabs while throwing straights rights and uppercuts.

  While Shindo landed a barrage of left hooks to Ishibashi in the second round, the latter rebounded strongly as he connected with right-hand punches. Ishibashi suffered a cut above the right eyelid due to an accidental head-butt.

  In the third round, Shindo forced Ishibashi against the ropes but was floored by Ishibashi’s left hook to the temple. Shindo got up quickly to beat the referee’s count and fought back for the remainder of the round.

  All three judges scored the fight 29-27 in favor of the 35-year-old Ishibashi.

  After the fight, Shindo said, ‘’I am happy that I was able to fight against a male boxer. Since I am a kind of boxer with burning spirits, I exchanged blows with him. I am grateful to Mr. Ishibashi as well as to Himeji Kinoshita gym for accepting the fight. I have not yet decided whether to continue boxing.

  Shindo has a record of 16 wins, including 11 KOs, against four losses as a female boxer. Ishibashi has two wins against as many losses and one draw. He has no knockouts.