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Yasutsune Uehara (上原康恒, born October 12,
1949)  is a former boxer who was the World Boxing
Association|WBA's world Jr. Lightweight champion.
He was managed and promoted by Masaki Kanehira.

== Biography ==
=== Professional boxing career ===
Yasutsune was born in Naha, Okinawa, Japan.Uehara
began boxing as a professional on November 14,
1972, when he beat Sam Fraticelli by a fourth
round knockout in Honolulu, Hawaii. As a matter of
a fact, his first fight fights as a professional
were held in Honolulu. On his second fight, held
on November 21 of the same year, he lost for the
first time, being outpointed by Mat Yuzon over six
rounds. After five fights in Honolulu, Uehara
reestablished himself back in Japan, to build a
fan base among his countrymen and women.

On December 12, he beat Sichiro Sato by a six
round decision, in what signified the beginning of
a nine fight winning streak, of which seven were
knockouts. Among the fighters he defeated during
that streak was Ricardo Arredondo, a Mexican world
champion boxer, by a ten round decision, on
November 29, 1973. 

With a record of 10 wins and one loss, with eight
knockouts, Uehara was relatively inexperienced
when he traveled back to Honolulu for his first
world title try, against WBA world Jr. Lightweight
champion Ben Villaflor (another Asian who had been
fighting in Hawaii. Villaflor retained the crown
on August 24, 1974, defeating Uehara by a second
round knockout. On November 30, Uehara returned to
victory, defeating Freddy Martin (boxer)|Freddy
Martin over ten rounds on points back in Japan.

On July 21, 1971, Uehara won his first
championship as a professional, the regional,
Japanese Jr. Lightweight title, knocking out
Susumu Okabe, in the first round at Tokyo. He
defended that title a total of ten times, a
considerable number for these types of
championships (usually boxers do not defend
regional titles more than five times). Among his
defenses of the Japanese Jr. Lightweight title,
there was a rematch with Okabe, knocked out in
eight rounds on December 9 of '75 in round eight,
once again, in Tokyo.

After his ten defenses, and a few non-title bouts,
(all victories), were completed, Uehara was once
again ranked as the number one challenger by the
WBA in the Jr. Lightweight division. On August 2,
1980 Uehara participated of an undercard in
Detroit, Michigan|Detroit that included Thomas
Hearns' coronation as WBA world Welterweight
champion by knocking out Jose Cuevas in round two.
Having lost all five rounds in each of the three
judges' (which included Stanley Christodouluo,
referee of The Battle Of The Champions and Harold
Leterman, currently an HBO Boxing commentator),
Uehara connected with a punch in the sixth round
that knocked defending world champion Samuel
Serrano out, thus Uehara winning the WBA world Jr.
Lightweight championship. Uehara's victory was
qualified by Ring Magazine as the upset of the
year for 1980.

Uhehara defended his title with success against
perennal contender Leonel Hernandez of Venezuela,
winning by a split fifteen round decision on
November 20.

When he was rematched with Serrano on April 9,
1981 in Wakayama, however, he lost the title to
the Puerto Rican by a fifteen round unanimous
decision, after which Uehara retired. Unlike a
large number of boxers, he was able to stay in
retirement permanently.

== Record ==
*Amateur boxing career:unknown
*Professional boxing career:32 Fights 27 Won 21
KOs 5 Losts 

==External links==
http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=0
45689 Uehara's page on boxrec.com