Tuesday 3 December 2013

Tomoki Kameda v Immanuel Naidjala

Prior to today Japanese boxing fans had never seen a WBO world title bout take place on their soil. That changed thanks to WBO Bantamweight champion Tomoki Kameda (29-0, 18) who became the first ever Japanese fighter to defend a WBO and the first man of any nationality to defend a WBO title on Japanese soil.

Kameda, defending the belt he won earlier this year in the Philippines, was fighting the previously unbeaten Immanuel Naidjala (17-1-1, 11). Like Paulus Ambunda, who Tomoki defeated for the belt, Naidjala was a tough and proud Namibian, though also like Ambunda he lacked the skills needed to really test Tomoki.

The fight started excellently for the defending champion who quickly established a lead with his busier and crisper work. Naidjala, after 3 rounds was being backed up, and tagged to the body time and time again. It seemed that Tomoki had a game plan based on breaking up body of Naidjala with the left hook which he whipped time and time again to the midsection.

By the start of round 6 it appeared that Naidjala was crumbling. The body shots kept coming, Tomoki kept marching forward and and the challenger appeared to have nothing to offer in terms of return fire. It was genuinely one way traffic, not a beat down but certainly all the action was going one way with Naidjala back pedaling and forced to cover up.

With Tomoki having established a clear lead going in to the championships rounds he appeared to turn off. Maybe he was tired from the work he had put in, maybe it was something mental but he suddenly stopped firing as he had done earlier on. This saw Naidjala coming back at him and seemingly taking 2 or 3 of the later rounds.

Those rounds for Naidjala were never going to be enough though and rightfully Kameda retained his title with a clear unanimous decision.

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