OSAKA -- Former World Boxing Council bantamweight champion Joichiro Tatsuyoshi said Monday he will come out of retirement to take a shot at a third world title next year. Tatsuyoshi, a popular 30-year-old boxer who announced his retirement after a crushing defeat in August 1999, said he has already started training out of the ring and will begin work in the gym in February.

"The announcement of (my retirement) was to free myself from the media and I haven't hung up the gloves inside me," Tatsuyoshi said. "I think I'll be able to shift to gym work soon."

Tatsuyoshi made his professional debut in September 1989 and won the WBC bantamweight title in 1991 after only eight fights, the shortest time in which any Japanese boxer has claimed a world championship crown.

The Okayama native claimed his second title in November 1997 in a comeback from a career-threatening detached retina in his left eye he suffered in 1993, before losing his belt in December 1998.

Another comeback attempt was considered over forever the following year when he lost to champion Veeraphol Nakonluangpromotion of Thailand in a seventh-round technical knockout in Osaka in August.

A non-title fight is being considered for Tatsuyoshi as early as May as a step toward a crack at a world title. Tatsuyoshi has 17 wins, including 12 by knockout, against six losses and one draw in his career.