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Sidney Boquiren of RingwalkNippon had a chance to sit down and talk with up and coming 154lb boxer Charles Bellamy (ring name - Charlie Ota), current holder of the OPBF and Japanese titles.  For more Japanese boxing news and updates, you can follow Sidney on twitter: RingwalkNippon@Twitter

Despite an amateur career that consisted of a mere seven bouts, former US Navy serviceman Charles Bellamy has attained a surprising level of success in the pro ranks, usurping both the Japanese and OPBF Light Middleweight titles in only his 15th fight.

The 28-year old Maryland native, who fights under the name Charlie Ota, has been able to climb the domestic ranks predominantly on the strength of his athleticism and natural physical abilities – his stout 5’6" frame is a solid mass of muscle. As in his title-winning performance in March, Ota showed that he could overpower an opponent swiftly if given even the smallest of openings. Ten of his 13 victories were stoppages within the scheduled number of rounds.

However, athleticism and physical ability alone will not get one very far in the pro ranks, and Ota, who says of himself "is more a boxing fan than a boxer," has tempered those traits with an education based on the likes of Pernell Whitaker, Roy Jones, Jr., and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. An avid follower of pugilism, Ota’s style in the ring hints of influence from some of boxing’s recent greats. While he has not been able to show his James Toney/Money May-inspired shoulder roll or his close range defensive aptitude – a la Sweet Pea – in recent bouts, future opponents would be wrong in concluding he is a one-dimensional come-forward brawler whose only attribute is power based on his string of stoppages.

On the 29th of this month, Ota will attempt to make the first defense of his regional title against OPBF #1 ranked King Davidson.

The undefeated Australia-based Nigerian (12-0, 6KO, WBA & WBO #15) may have fewer pro bouts than Ota, but has a reported 175-5 amateur record, including a bronze in the 2002 Commonwealth Games and a gold in the 2003 All-Africa Games. In Davidson, Ota will again be facing a much taller opponent, and a southpaw nonetheless. Moreover, the champ likely has never been matched with someone who has the pedigree nor the active, educated jab that the Aussie possesses.

Also add into the equation that Davidson should have Johnny Lewis in his corner (a man that has trained world champions Kostya Tszyu, Jeff Fenech, Jeff Harding and Gairy St. Claire), and Ota vs. Davidson has the makings of an intriguing showdown between two up and coming prospects

I was able to spend some time with Ota last Saturday when he was at Korakuen Hall to receive his Outstanding Performance award for his TKO victory over Akio Shibata during the Champion Carnival.

The champ comes off as a bright, hardworking student of the game. As he is still working on improving his Japanese, I sensed that an interview on his boxing career in English was a rare opportunity for him. We discussed his title-winning effort against Shibata, the upcoming Davidson bout, as well as his experience as an American boxer in Japan.

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The Boxing Bulletin (TBB): First off, congratulations on winning the Outstanding Performance award for the Champion Carnival (vs. titleholder Akio Shibata). Could you give us your personal evaluation of the fight in March?

Charlie Ota (CO): Thank you very much for the congratulations. I think I did about 70% of my ability. I felt that in most of the beginning rounds, I wasn’t active enough. I could have been more active and that would have been a lot better. I think I might have been a bit tight. At the time, I didn’t feel tight, but after looking at the video, I think I looked a little tight. Also, I can’t really take anything away from Shibata because he made me like that. It’s a credit to him as he didn’t allow me to come out the way I normally should have.

TBB: It looked like he just didn’t want to engage with you and was constantly on the move. By the time you would be able to set your feet, he’d move again. Were you frustrated at all by his unwillingness?

CO: I wasn’t frustrated because I felt I wasn’t expending any energy. I was like "Okay, he moved again…" When I would hit him with a good shot, I’d look at his face, and he looked worried. So he’s looking worried and using a lot of physical energy by moving all the time and emotional energy, too. I didn’t think he’d be able to keep it up all night. But if he could, I better start stepping on the pedal more, just in case, because you never know.

TBB: Do you think you would have been able to catch him if he continued to just runaway from you?

CO: Yeah, during the later rounds when I loosened up, I started moving around more. Once I did that, I was able to stay with him and land more punches. So, I think I would have caught him.

TBB: What was the game plan coming in to the fight?

CO: Well the game plan, for the first few rounds, was to feel him out, box with him but not really bang away. We wanted to see what the judges wanted to see since it was open scoring. For the first couple of rounds, we were boxing and I thought I was doing really good. I’m not really getting hit, or at least I don’t remember getting hit cleanly, and I hit him with some good jabs. But when I heard the scoring (after the fourth) I thought I must have been doing something wrong because I’m losing by a lot. So I better switch it up.

TBB: How do you like the open scoring system?

CO: It’s good and it’s bad. It takes a lot of excitement out of the fight, but for some fighters it can be good. For me, I think I’m the type of fighter that can make adjustments, so it can be an advantage. Others aren’t able to adjust, so it doesn’t help them.

TBB: It looked like you definitely made an adjustment from around the sixth round and started freeing up your style. You had just heard that you were down in points a few rounds before that. What was your corner saying?

CO: They started yelling at me (laughs). They told me, "You better put more pressure on him. Go to the body. Go to the body. Go to the body. Put more pressure on him. Go to the body." But Shibata was moving really well. They say if you can’t hit the head, go to the body. But he was moving his whole body, not just his head.

TBB: I don’t think he stood still for more than a few seconds at one place.

CO: Yeah, I’d get an occasional body shot in, maybe two, but he was moving really well. So my corner was telling me we’d get him, but we need to put more pressure on him.

TBB: Can you tell us about the eighth round and how you were able to finish him?

CO: I noticed that at the end of the seventh, he slowed down a bit. His punches felt like they didn’t have anything on them. So, in the eighth round, I rushed him, and I was able to catch him a couple times. I backed off a little then engaged him again. I was able to land some hard shots, and thought I would be able to put him down then. But suddenly the ref grabbed us and pulled us apart because Shibata had a cut. For a second, I thought the ref might stop the fight, but it was a headbutt.

TBB: I remember that. I didn’t think there was a headbutt.

CO: I didn’t remember because I was giving it to him. So they separated us and the doctor looked at it. I was thinking that if he got to sit down between rounds, they’re gonna stop the fight. Since it was an accidental headbutt and he’s ahead on points, all he has to say is "I can’t fight." But as soon as they let us fight again, that’s when I just ran directly at him to engage. Since I went right at him, I ran into two or three punches, but I didn’t feel them. Then I threw my own punches and I caught him with a right and a left and put him down. But he got up.

TBB: Were you surprised that he got up?

CO: I was surprised that I put him down.

TBB: Really?

CO: They weren’t hard punches. I just hit him with two quick ones. I didn’t think they would put him down, but they did. So he got up, and what really surprised me was that he just stood there and fought. It was either that he couldn’t run anymore or that he felt that he had to fight. I had a lot of energy left, since I didn’t expend much earlier, and just let my hands go. The punches were coming out quicker and quicker, then they gave me the stoppage.

TBB: What were some of the things you learned from that fight? Were there any points that you thought you needed to improve on, looking back?

CO: One thing is that I realized I don’t always need to punch hard. Sometimes, just a little tap, tap, tap will work. But when I was punching against Shibata, I tried to make sure that everything would hurt, even my jab. I guess I was loading up. I know that in rounds five and six, I wasn’t as active as I could have been because I was loading up too much on punches. So I know that I just need to let my hands fly more fluidly, even if to just touch him up and make him and the judges aware.

TBB: Your first defense of the OPBF title is on the 29th. Could you tell us what you know about your opponent, King Davidson?

CO: I know he’s a tall southpaw, rangy, and that he has an excellent amateur background. I think he had over a hundred amateur fights?

TBB: 180. He won 175 of those.

CO: He must know how to fight then. He’s gotta be an excellent boxer. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

TBB: Shibata, who you beat for the title, had a six-inch height advantage. Davidson will likely have five. Do you have problems fighting guys who have such large height advantages?

CO: Not really. Even though I’m a short dude, my arms are pretty long, so I can still get to them. Also, since I’m the shorter guy, I’m the harder target and I have an extra place to go – I can go down. I can go left, right, back, and down. I have that extra space to dodge a punch; whereas they can go left, right, and back, but if they go down, they’ll be at eye level with me. If they go down, that’s when I can really light them up.

TBB: You mentioned that you know Davidson’s a southpaw, and I noticed that over half the bouts in your career have been against lefties. Even though you have a lot of experience with them now, do you have any difficulty with them, and do they affect the way you fight?

CO: I have no difficulties fighting southpaws. In fact, I do better with southpaws than against orthodox fighters.

TBB: Why is that?

CO: My gymmate and the guy I always spar with, Makoto Fuchigami, is the #1 ranked Middleweight in Japan, soon to be champ. He’s a southpaw. For the last few years, we have come up together – he got better, I got better – so fighting a southpaw just became normal to me.

TBB: I know you saw a couple of Davidson’s bouts and heard some of the reports. He looks and sounds like a guy who will probably fight the way Shibata did – he’ll keep busy, move around. Davidson will probably have more speed than Shibata and definitely a busier jab. What plans do you have for someone who will probably try to outbox you?

CO: I am confident in my athletic talents, my ability to move in and out. He may be able to outbox me for a few rounds, but I don’t think he’ll be able to do that the whole time. I think I’ll be able to eventually make him stand and fight.

TBB: You mentioned earlier that your main style is to be a boxer rather than a pressure fighter, but the guys you’ve been matched with have forced you to come forward.

CO: Yeah. After I fought Shibata, one of my friends asked why I didn’t just box and move on him. I told him when you box, you backpedal, you move, and you counterpunch. I felt that if I took a step back from Shibata, he wouldn’t have come to me and there wouldn’t have been a fight. As of yet, I’m still working on how to make my opponent engage me while I box. But now that I have the belt, and there’s that old saying, "You have to take the title from the champ," they have to come to me. Hopefully, I’ll have two or three rounds going backwards and counterpunching – doing what I like to do.

TBB: Hopefully we’ll see your shoulder roll in this fight?

CO: Hey, if he stands there with me, and wants to fight inside, then yeah. I’d like to show my defensive prowess as well as my punching power.

TBB: Have you been doing anything special in preparing for Davidson compared to your previous opponents?

CO: More time in the gym. I work during the day and train mainly at night, but for this fight, I’ve been taking off more time from work to prepare mentally and physically. I know that he’s no joke – he’s got a lot of amateur fights and is undefeated as a pro – and this isn’t going to be a game.

TBB: I want to step back a bit and talk about your background. There have been many foreign pro boxers based in Japan, but I don’t think many fans today have heard of an American fighting out of Japan. I understand that you started boxing as a means of exercise. Did you have any idea at the time that you would turn pro?

CO: When I first started training, I would go to gym and just work out. I felt pretty good and was hoping that I might get scouted, but that never happened. Right before I turned pro, I was thinking about moving back to the US. I had just gotten married and we decided to stay in Japan a bit longer. So when the gym asked me if I wanted to turn pro, I was thinking that I wanted to see how far I could make it and said okay.

TBB: Where you interested in boxing before you started, and if so, were you inspired by anyone in particular?

CO: Roy Jones. I remember watching HBO one day when I was in elementary or junior high school, and a lady was talking about Roy Jones. She was in awe. She loved the guy. So I thought, let me see what she’s talking about. I watched Roy Jones fight and thought, "DAMN. This guy’s fast." I went back and did research, saw his older fights. He just looked so smooth and nice. From there I just branched out and watched other boxers, too.

TBB: For example?

CO: Mayweather, Zab Judah, Kostya Tszyu. Now, I like Chad Dawson. I like Chad a lot, he needs to fight more often. Pascal. Chad and Pascal are gonna fight. That’s a fight I really want to see. Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell.

TBB: How would you describe your boxing style, and did you pattern it after anyone?

CO: Since I’m such a fan, when I’m fighting, I think about all the fights I’ve watched and I’ll imitate a fighter based on the situation. So, say I need to slow a guy down, I think to myself, I’m going to give him my (Julio Caesar) Chavez. Then he stops, so I switch – now I got to give him my Toney style. Whatever the situation, I’ll draw back to the fighters that I like so much and use their style.

TBB: I notice you have some flair in the ring. In your fight with Shibata, there was a point when he hit you with a left hook and you just dropped your hands and stared at him – kind of in a taunting manner. I also remember that in your fight against Daio in last summer, I heard a few calls for "Do the Sweet Pea!" There’s clearly a bit of a showman in you. Can you tell us more about that?

CO: You gotta do something to make the crowd want to see you fight. And for boxing, the crowd wants to see two things – either me getting hit, or me hitting somebody. I prefer it when I’m the one doing the hitting (laughs). So there are a few things I try to do to liven up the show and spice up the crowd. I just try to have fun in there.

TBB: There have been several foreign boxers that have been based in Japan. Jorge Linares and Edwin Valero. Rick Yoshimura was also a US Navy serviceman who fought out of Japan. Those are just a few examples. Could you describe your experience as an American fighting in Japan?

CO: It was difficult for a long time. Training and working at the same time. Then trying to get fights. When I started out, I wanted to fight all the time. Even if I had just finished a fight, if I could get another one in two weeks, let’s go. I didn’t have a long amateur background, so I wanted to get more fights to build experience. I wanted to see how far I could make it. In Japan, you need to be your own promoter. If I got a fight, they’d give me 50 tickets and say, "Go sell ’em." That part of being a boxer in Japan is probably the most stressful.

TBB: You have been a pro for just 4 years and had only seven amateur bouts before that. Could you tell us what you have done to bring yourself to this level in such a relatively short amount of time? What improvements have you made in the past year or two in particular that has brought you to the championship level?

CO: I was going to the gym everyday. Working on things, always trying to get better. Some people try to find something they’re particularly good at and work only on that. But I would think, "What’s the worst thing I do?" and start from there. I would try to work on my worst quality and make that better. Recently, it’s been loading up on punching. Before, I couldn’t throw an uppercut very well, so I worked on that. In the very beginning, I had to work on my stamina. When I started, I would be dead tired after a round. So I had to work on building my stamina and just running.

TBB: Nobuhiro Ishida is the WBA Super Welterweight interim champ, and King Davidson is ranked #15 by the WBA. If you beat Davidson, there’s a good chance that you’ll be ranked somewhere in that range. Would you eventually like to target Ishida, or whoever has the title in the near future?

CO: Of course, why not? I would like to have the opportunity to fight Ishida, but I know I have to prove myself. I know I still have things to do to show that I am worthy of that challenge. If I get by Davidson, I will have my mandatory for the Japanese belt, which could be (former three-division national champ) Tadashi Yuba. If I get by him, I’d like to take on another good, solid challenger. Hopefully by then, my ranking will move up, and I’ve shown the general public and boxing fans that I am worthy of fighting Ishida

TBB: Any final comments for our readers that you would like to share?

CO: On the 29th, I know it’s a Tuesday, but if you’re in Japan, come see the fight because it’s going to be a really good match. I always try to put on an exciting fight for the fans and I won’t disappoint people, so please check it out.

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For more coverage of Japanese boxing, follow Sidney on Twitter: RingwalkNippon@Twitter