Japanese Boxing: Champion Carnival 2010

Combat sports in Japan have a time honored tradition of displays of honor and amazing feats through tournament victories. Boxing is of course no different, as there is more to boxing than just the Kameda brothers, as SBN's own Boxing Bulletin has been showing over the past few weeks, covering the Champion Carnival this year.

Of course one of the highlights from last weekend was Daiki Kameda capturing the WBA Flyweight Championship.

The champion simply looked uninspired, and while his attack to Kameda’s very long midsection earned him a few rounds, he suffered from the same lack of stamina that produced the ugly first meeting four months ago. While a boxing master, such as Bernard Hopkins, will use clinching to disrupt and prevent a challenger from getting into an offensive groove, Denkaosan’s repetitious holding only resulted in point deductions on two occasions and emphasized his apathy toward protecting his crown. 

Kameda’s next match has already been determined, as the WBA has issued a mandate that the winner of this bout fight former champion Takefumi Sakata. Does the longtime Flyweight stalwart have anything left in the tank? Is Kameda’s transformation as a boxer complete? Those are perhaps the two major questions that will be answered with this match up. 

While flashes of the old Daiki appeared during yesterday’s fight on a few occasions as he smirked at and taunted the Thai champion, it would seem that he has rededicated himself to the sport and grown up just enough that he did not let his frustration with Denkaosan’s clinching get the better of him. I would not go so far as to say this version has learned humility, but I will say that he certainly has taken steps toward maturity.

Stay tuned for The Boxing Bulletin for more Japanese Boxing coverage.