“Why Is He Winking”: Fans Watch in Horror as Boxer Suffers Through Swollen Face After Becoming Bantamweight Champion

He is yet to complete the fifth year of his professional career, but Ryosuke Nishida is already a world champion. Yesterday, he defeated IBF bantamweight champion Emmanuel Rodriquez by a unanimous decision and became the new title holder. However, as it appears, more than his victory, it’s a picture of him that’s been doing the rounds across the social media forums.

The post-fight photo shows him with the area above and below his right eye swollen. As a result of the bulge, he is seemingly unable to open his eye completely. The condition of his left eye appears normal. Rodriguez had incidentally won the vacant title roughly eight months ago, defeating Melvin Lopez unanimously. However, the first title defense proved to be his undoing.

“We Don’t Play Boxing. This is what it took for Ryosuke Nishida to become bantamweight world champion,” tweeted @BOXRAW with a photo of Ryosuke Nishida attached. Boxing Kingdom had pinned a more straight-forward message: “Ryosuke Nishida with a massively swollen face after winning the world title in Japan last night.”

Nishida fought his debut fight on October 3, 2019. He inflicted a defeat on Sakol Ketkul by knocking him out in the very first round of their bout in Bangkok. It remains the lone early stoppage of his career. Thereafter, all his bouts, including the latest one, occurred in Japan.

Ryosuke Nishida: Battle Scars of Victory

With yesterday’s victory, Nishida has become the ninth active world champion from Japan. As they chanced upon his picture, some of the followers started commenting. It didn’t take much time before some of them indulged in light-hearted jesting.

This user believes that perhaps Ryosuke Nishida should get better at his defense to avoid such injuries to the face.

Not sure whether he is taking a dig at the boxer, the next user, however, seems to wonder why Nishida is ‘winking’ when his face is in shambles.

When the face of the winner could be in such disarray, this follower appears worried about how it bodes for his defeated opponent.

The next follower also echoed similar sentiments, expressing his reservations about the condition of Emmanuel Rodriguez’s face.

Ryosuke Nishida’s face perhaps forced this user to make a serious point about all those who consider boxing a mere game instead of taking it seriously.

It is the third professional loss for the much-experienced Emmanuel Rodriguez. He suffered his first loss, the only knockout defeat of his career as well, at the hands of Naoya Inoue back in 2019, the year when Nishida made his debut.

Interestingly, two months after he became a champion, the Puerto Rican boxer even announced his retirement from the sport. Things got off to a rough start as Ryosuke Nishida started dominating Rodriguez right from the beginning. Then, in the fourth round, the Japanese boxer’s left hook to the body had the 31-year-old Boricua touching the canvas. But soon, the latter found his mojo and fought his way to ensure the match went to the scorecards.

What’s your take on Nishida’s eye condition? Please share your views with us in the comments below.