Earlier today in Osaka, Japan, IBF featherweight champion Angelo Leo of Albuquerque, New Mexico retained his title by way of a 12-round majority decision win over Tomoki Kameda. Scores were 116-112 and 115-113 for Leo, with the third judge handing in a scorecard that had it dead level at 114-114.
Leo, who was making the first defence of his title, is now 26-1(12). Kameda, who falls to 42-5(23), was trying to become a two-weight champion himself, as he is a former WBO bantamweight champion. Leo formerly held the WBO junior featherweight title.
Today’s very entertaining fight saw defending champ Leo forced to work hard all night long, this as 33 year old Kameda, the older man by two years, managed to get to him with a variety of punches. The early rounds were close. There was some terrific action in some of the rounds today, and it was clear by the middle rounds that this one could turn out to be either man’s fight.
Kameda, a real hero in Japan, dug deep in the later rounds, as did Leo. This really was a fight where you would hate to have been a scoring official. Indeed, as good as today’s fight was, it really does seem once again as though there can be no dull or unmissable lower weight fights taking place in Japan right now.
Before today’s successful maiden title retention, Leo said he is more than willing to welcome “Monster” Naoya Inoue to the 126 pound division. Maybe, after seeing the trouble his countryman Kameda gave Leo today, Inoue will perhaps relish the opportunity of moving up to challenge Inoue in what would be the current unified super-bantamweight champ’s first go as a featherweight.
Leo took a risk by agreeing to fight away from home in his first title defence today, but it paid off in the end. As for Kameda, it’s kind of tough to see where he goes from here. Kameda has been a pro since way back in 2008.