Japan’s Ryota Murata, the London Olympic middleweight champion, said Tuesday he is looking for a knockout in his third pro fight later this month.

In the first overseas fight of his brief pro career, Murata will take on 40-year-old Carlos Nascimento of Brazil on Feb. 22 in Macao.

Ryōta Murata (村田 諒太 Murata Ryōta, born January 12, 1986 in Nara, Nara Prefecture) is a boxer from Japan, who took the gold medal in the men’s middleweight division (– 75 kg) at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He had served as a Toyo University official.



In the 2012 Summer Olympics, second-seeded Murata defeated Algeria’s Abdelmalek Rahou 21–12 in the round of 16 at the ExCeL London on August 2, 2012. He subsequently beat Turkey’s Adem Kılıççı 17–13 in the quarter-finals on August 6,and also outpointed Uzbekistan’s Abbos Atoev 13–12 in the semi-finals on August 10. In the final on August 11, he beat the Brazilian Esquiva Florentino with a score of 14–13 and took the gold medal. After winning the quarter-finals, Murata and Florentino were both assured of the first men’s boxing medal for their countries since the 1968 Summer Olympics. It was a tough, close bout.



Murata is the hundredth gold medalist for Japan in their Olympic history. It is Japan’s first boxing gold medal since Takao Sakurai won in the bantamweight class in 1964, and also is the first-ever boxing medal in a weight class other than bantamweight or flyweight.



The Brazilian Olympic Committee had asked the International Boxing Association (AIBA) for a review of the final, but the AIBA turned down the request.



Murata finished his amateur career with a record of 119–19 (89 RSC).

Murata registered with Misako Boxing Gym in April 2013, and signed with Top Rank in June. He also asked Teiken Promotions for cooperation in promotion. Dentsu’s funds made these happen. But the pro-am relationship that was about to be repaired was damaged again. Before these, Murata had declined participation in AIBA Professional Boxing by letter saying that he intended to retire as a boxer. So, when he suddenly started saying he wanted to turn professional, Murata was banned from Japan Amateur Boxing Federation (JABF) for his disloyal behavior in February 2013.



Qualified as a light heavyweight professional boxer in April 2013, he has been allowed to fight in eight or more round bouts. His professional debut took place in a six round 161 pound bout against Akio Shibata at Ariake Coliseum on August 25, 2013. Murata won the bout by a second round technical knockout.