Japan’s Koki Kameda knocked out Mexican challenger Mario Macias in the fourth round to defend his World Boxing Association bantamweight title on Wednesday. The knockout came two minutes four seconds into the stanza when Kameda fired four punches to the stomach to send Macias onto the floor for the third time in the bout.
“I feel I was able to hit powerful punches. I’m in good form today. It’s because this is my home town,” said Kameda, who floored Macias with a left hook in the first and third rounds. I think this was the best fight I fought in the bantam class.”
It was Kameda’s third defence since winning the vacant title when he beat Alexander Munoz of Venezuela in December last year, stretching his record to 27 wins, including 17 KOs, against one defeat. Macias, 26 and ranked 12th the WBA, saw his record reduced to 23 wins, including 11 KOs, against eight defeats.
Also on the card, Tepparith Kokietgym of Thailand outpointed Daiki Kameda for a unanimous decision victory to keep the World Boxing Association super flyweight title. There were no knockdowns in the scheduled 12 rounds, but the three judges scored it 115-113, 116-112, 119-110 all in favor of the Thai champion.
After a cautious first round, the two boxers fought at close range for the rest of the bout, but neither could land a decisive punch as Tepparith unleashed a series of more accurate punches.
The 23-year-old Tepparith, who became the champion after title holder Tomonobu Shimizu suffered an injury, improved his record to 19 wins, including 12 KOs against two defeats. The 22-year-old Kameda, ranked top in the WBA, has now 22 wins, including 14 KOs, against three defeats.
And in the third bout of the tripleheader, the youngest of the three brothers, 20-year-old super bantamweight Tomoki Kameda (22-0, 14 KO) stopped Eduardo Garcia Garcia (21-7-1, 9 KO) in seven rounds.
Koki is the eldest of the three boxing brothers who have bad-boy images in the media and among boxing fans. Second brother Daiki was suspended from boxing for a year after his failed title bid against then World Boxing Commission flyweight champion Daisuke Naito in October 2007 for using dirty tactics including wrestling the veteran champion to the canvas.
Koki Kameda was reprimanded by the Japan Boxing Commission for urging his brother to fight dirty. Their father, Shiro Kameda, has been barred by the WBC from serving as a cornerman in its matches for abusing match officials and has been slapped with a life ban by Japan’s boxing authority.
