Miyo Yoshida

Miyo Yoshida (吉田実代, Yoshida Miyo, born 12 April 1988) is a Japanese professional boxer. She held the IBF female bantamweight title 2023-2024 and twice the WBO female junior-bantamweight title from 2019-2020 and 2021-2022.

Boxing career Yoshida made her professional debut on 28 May 2014, scoring a four-round majority decision (MD) over Ayaka Sato at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Two judges scored the bout 39–37 in favour of Yoshida while the third scored it a draw at 38–38. After winning her first four fights, she suffered the first defeat of her career against Yuki Koseki on 13 March 2016, losing via unanimous decision (UD) over four rounds with scores of 38–39, 37–39 and 36–40.

Yoshida bounced back with three victories before defeating Tomomi Takano by UD over six rounds to capture the inaugural Japanese female bantamweight title, with all three judges scoring the bout 58–57. The bout took place on 6 October 2017 at the Korakuen Hall. After successfully defending the title in March 2018 against Kai Johnson, winning via six-round UD, Yoshida defeated Gretel de Paz on 20 August 2018 at the Korakuen Hall to capture the OPBF female bantamweight title. The fight was stopped in the fifth round after Yoshida was cut from an accidental clash of heads, causing the decision to rest on the scorecards over the five rounds that had been contested. Yoshida won via technical decision (TD) with two judges scoring the bout 49–46 and the third scoring it 48–47.

Following successful defences of her OPBF and Japanese titles in September 2018 and March 2019 respectively, both by UD, Yoshida challenged for her first world title against Casey Morton on 19 June at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. Yoshida won the bout via UD (100–90, 100–90, 99–91) to capture the vacant WBO female junior-bantamweight title.

She successfully retained the title with a unanimous decision win over Li Ping Shi at Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo on 31 December 2019.

In her second defense, Yoshida lost the title to Tomoko Okuda at EDION Arena in Osaka on 13 December 2020. The fight was stopped in the sixth round due to a cut Okuda suffered after an accidental clash of heads in the previous round was ruled too severe for her to continue. Okuda was ahead on all three ringside judges' scorecards at the point the bout was halted and was therefore awarded the win, and the title, via unanimous technical decision. A rematch took place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo on 29 June 2021 with Yoshida reclaiming the title by split decision. Two judges scored the fight 96–94 in her favour, while the third had it 96–94 for Okuda.

Again at Korakuen Hall, Yoshida made the first defense of her second title reign against Tamao Ozawa on 30 May 2022. She lost via split decision with the judges' scorecards reading 97–93, 94–96, 94–96.

On 9 December 2023, Yoshida defeated Ebanie Bridges by unanimous decision at Chase Center in San Francisco, California, United States, to win the IBF female bantamweight title.

Yoshida made the first defense of her IBF bantamweight title against Shurretta Metcalf at Madison Square Garden in New York City, United States, on 23 October 2024. She lost the bout by unanimous decision.

Yoshida is scheduled to challenge WBC female super-bantamweight champion Skye Nicolson at College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, United States, on 8 November 2026.

Professional boxing record

Kickboxing record

Mixed martial arts record Loss

Mai Ichii Decision (unanimous) Jewels: 10th Ring

Tokyo, Japan Win

Yoko Kagoshima KO (punches) Jewels: 8th Ring

Tokyo, Japan Loss

Yuko Oya Decision (majority) Deep: Fan Thanksgiving Festival 2

Tokyo, Japan Strawweight debut