April 4, 2012
YOKOHAMA, JAPAN
In a WBA super-flyweight unification bout, full champ Tepparith Kokietgym (18-2, 11 KOs), 114.75, a hard-punching Thailander, impressively unified the belts as he overwhelmed and overpowered WBA champ in recess Tomonobu Shimizu (19-4-1, 9 KOs), Japan, en route to a fine TKO victory at 2:15 of the ninth round on Wednesday in Yokohama, Japan.
Also, WBA bantam champ Koki Kameda (28-1, 17 KOs), 118, barely kept his throne by eking out a debatable unanimous decision (115-113, 117-110 and 118-110) over WBA#11 overmatched Indonesian Nouldy Manakane (24-11-1, 15 KOs), 116.25, over lousy and monotonous twelve rounds.
Shimizu sustained an eye-socket fracture when he captured the WBA belt from Mexican veteran Hugo Cazares on points last August and required a treatment for months before he resumed training. The WBA then elevated interim champ Tepparith to the full titleholder and sanctioned his initial defense with Daiki Kameda, the second oldest of Kameda brothers, here in December. The Thailander showed his superiority in speed and power, winning a unanimous verdict over Daiki.
The taller Japanese, 30, tried to throw many jabs to keep him from coming in, but Tepparith, 23, was faster and ferocious enough to have the upper hand. Midway in the fourth, Shimzu, an upright stylist, took a very solid right-left combination to lose his equilibrium. Tepparith went all out for a kill, but Shimizu desperately grabbed him to avert his follow-up to be fortunately saved by the bell.
The shorter Tepparith was an aggressor, while the Japanese jabber continually attempted to keep the distance by utilizing his trademark footwork. The Thailander apparently took the initiative, but his attack occasionally missed the target and Shimizu kept jabbing and moving away from the hard-puncher.
The ninth witnessed Tepparith abruptly accelerate his furious attack and pin Shimizu to the ropes with a fusillade of punches, to which the Japanese couldn’t respond as he was a helpless stationary target. Referee Ferlin Marsh, New Zealand, wisely declared a halt to save Shimizu from further punishment.
The official tallies before the trick happened were as follows: Raul Caiz Jr. (US) and Michael Lee (Korea) 77-75 and 77-76 respectively for Tepparith, and Silvestre Abainza (Philippines) 77-75 for Shimizu. The third judge might have evaluated Shimizu’s hit-and-run tactics a little too highly. It was amazing that the officials generously gave more points to Shimizu than the crowd expected since Tepparith maintained the strong pressure all the way.
As Kameda himself admitted, it was a least satisfactory performance for him and probably the worst in his career even if his left hand pain accounted for his sluggish showing. Kameda, a Japanese southpaw, remained negative and defensive only to be content to counter the Indonesian aggressor. It was Manakane that always took the initiative, throwing punches first and attacking the champ with combinations despite less precision.
As the contest progressed, people realized something wrong with Kameda, who was neither sharp nor swift this night. He seldom threw punches positively in combination by defending himself up with his peek-a-boo guard.
Kameda seemed only superior in terms of precision although Manakane unleashed probably twice as many punches as the champ. The contest monotonously progressed with the similar pattern. Kameda looked too cautious as if he became afraid of fighting his opponent toe-to-toe, retreating and circling time and again.
In round ten Kameda was penalized a point for having hit low. The Japanese southpaw turned loose to overcome the deficit on points in the last two sessions, which had him a winner on Filipino judge Silvestre Abainza’s score 115-113 since his tally after the tenth was deadly even 95-95. Michael Lee (Korea) and Ferlin Marsh (New Zealand) might have evaluated Kameda’s precision rather than Manakane’s volume of punches, scoring 118-110 and 117-110, which were inexplicably against our general impression.
The loser Manakane angrily said, “I thought I won or drew at worst. I was surprised to see such a wide margin as 118-110. I knew Kameda didn’t like my body punches, so aimed at this midsection all the way, which paid well.”
We have a couple of world bantamweight champions?WBC ruler Shinsuke Yamanaka and WBA titlist Kameda. Yamanaka, on this coming Friday, will cope with such a dangerous challenger as Vic Darchinyan in his first and voluntary defense. Kameda, on the contrary, fought such a mediocre opponent as WBA#11 Manakane who had suffered no less than ten defeats prior to this bout, and thus displayed an unsatisfactory performance. On the record, however, Kameda registered his fourth defense?to his credit.
Ex-WBA fly champ Daiki Kameda, 114.25, finished overmatched Thailander Pompetch Twinsgym, 114, at 2:53 of the second round in a scheduled ten.
Promoter: Kameda Promotions.
WBA supervisor: Alan Kim (Korea).
(4-4-2012)