August 31, 2011
August 31, 2011
TOKYO, JAPAN
Japanese southpaw Koki Kameda (26-1, 16 KOs) (right), 118, barely kept his WBA bantam belt as he floored previously unbeaten Mexican David De La Mora (23-1, 16 KOs) (left), 118, in the third, but became inexplicably cautious in later rounds and barely earned a hairline unanimous verdict over twelve lousy rounds on Wednesday in Tokyo, Japan.
The official tallies were as follows: Ricardo Duncan (Panama) 114-113, Carlos Sucre (US) 115-113 and Pinit Prayadsab (Japan) 115-112, all in favor of the defending titlist. The referee was Raul Caiz Jr.
Kameda, making his second defense since acquiring the vacant WBA belt by beating Alexander Munoz last December, had a tough time coping with the younger Mexican, a year his junior at 23, throughout the contest. De La Mora didn’t have enough power to dethrone the champ but good hand speed and good heart.
Kameda was in command in the first two rounds thanks to his precision in countering the game Mexican. In round three De La Mora turned so aggressive that Kameda was pinned to the ropes though he defended himself up with a peek-a-boo guard. The champ then caught the aggressor with a southpaw left hook, flooring the challenger to the deck. De La Mora promptly pulled himself up and began to pay his respect to the champ’s counters since then.
Everything was condensed in round three, when there happened a sole knockdown in the bout and also happened Kameda’s gash under the left eyebrow. It was also a turning point that Kameda became cautious and negative though leading on points in the first three sessions.
De La Mora, WBC FECARBOX bantam champ, looked like a human windmill without good precision. He threw much more punches, most of which hit the air or the champ’s gloves. But the Mexican dominated three rounds in four sessions from the fourth simply because of his aggressiveness, since Kameda became very defensive and seldom threw many punches positively. The champ only tried to counter the pugnacious but powerless challenger.
Encouraged by his chief second Eduardo Montiel (Fernando’s older brother), Kameda threw more blows in the eighth but failed to hurt the still fresh challenger. The champ also took the ninth with a fewer but more accurate combinations to the less experienced challenger.
De La Mora was in command in the tenth and eleventh, but Kameda controlled the final session with his fine display of versatile combinations which he should have shown much earlier.
Kameda gloomily said, “I’m not satisfied with my performance today. De La Mora was a young and good challenger. I couldn’t show my best, but I’ll do more training to show myself better next time.”
The Mexican loser repented of having failed to throw more punches, saying, “Should I have punched more, I could have won this game. Kameda won’t give me another chance to fight him, as he realized my real power.”
Promoter: Kameda Promotions.
WBA supervisor: Alan Kim (Korea).
(8-31-11)