Wonjongkam Defeats Kameda In Thriller To Reign Flyweight Champion

Tokyo, Japan - In a cracking contest, Pongsaklek Wonjongkam (75-3-1, 39 KO) won The Ring magazine's flyweight championship and regained the WBC flyweight title from the hands of Koki Kameda (22-1, 14 KO) with a competitive majority-decision win in Tokyo.

It was a top drawer back and forth battle, Wonjongkam got the better of the early action, dictating the pace in the opening four rounds. In the fifth, a nasty clash of heads caused both fighters to cut with Kameda getting the worse of it, but it seemed to spring him into action as he began to even things out in the middle rounds.

But the pace gradually caught up with Kameda, and Wonjongkam came on strong to finish with a flurry. The last round summed up the fight, with the momentum switching hands from one boxer to another, but Wonjongkam finishing the stronger of the two. The scores were 116-112, 115-112 in favour of Wonjongkam with a level card 114-114. The BTBC also scored the fight 116-112 in favour of the Thai fighter.

If your a Kameda fan, there's no need to worry, he was competitive against the most experienced and probably the best flyweight around at the moment. He's still #2 at 112 pounds, and only 23, he has a fabulous future ahead of him. A rematch with Wonjongkam is highly possible.

For Wonjongkam, he won his 75th professional fight, that's an amazing achievement. He adds another alphabet trinket to his trophy cabinet, but most importantly, the lineal flyweight championship. Like I've seen posted elsewhere, this probably seals Wonjongkam as a hall-of-famer. At 32, he's just overcome a younger opponent that was heavily tipped to defeat him, so big stock boost for Wonjongkam who looked really good in that ring.

On the undercard, Oleydong Sithsamerchai (34-0, 12 KO) successfully defended his WBC strawweight title with a closer than expected unanimous decision victory over Yasutaka Kuroki (23-4-1, 15 KO), winning by scores of 114-112, 114-113 and 113-112. Sithsamerchai is a major player at 105 pounds, but I don't expect him to face Roman Gonzalez, Nkosinathi Joyi or Denver Cuello anytime soon.

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Kameda Hits The Big Time

Koki Kameda put the final stamp on an action-packed and thrilling weekend of boxing by defeating rival Daisuke Naito and long time WBC flyweight champ in Saitama, Japan, staying undefeated.

The talented trash-talking Kameda (22-0, 14 KO) won by unanimous decision via scores of 116-112, 117-111 and 117-111. BTBC scored it 116-112 for the challenger, who used speed, accurate punching, and ring generalship to outpoint Naito.

Naito (35-3-3, 22 KO) looked no older today than he has in his other recent fights. At 35, he's slowing down, but he's still a world-class fighter at 112 pounds. This was a big win for Kameda, no doubt.

This was less a show that Naito was too old than it was a passing of the torch in a lot of ways. Kameda is the real deal. His counter punching was outstanding, he stayed controlled the entire fight, and unlike the ferocious killer Kameda we've seen before, he recognized that Naito wasn't one of those slugs without a pulse he'd sparked in the past. Despite any out of the ring trash talk, Kameda clearly respected Naito as a fighter.

Kameda’s performance might just edge Bute for the fighter of the week.

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