Sidney Boquiren of RingwalkNippon recaps a busy weekend in Japanese boxing that featured shows on Saturday and Sunday nights

Denkaosan Kaovichit (48-1-1, 20KO) vs. Daiki Kameda (15-2, 11KO) for Kaovichit’s WBA Flyweight title, Sunday February 7

Twenty-eight months after becoming the most vilified boxer in recent Japanese history, Daiki Kameda (16-2, 11KO) exited the ring Sunday night with the WBA Flyweight crown and, perhaps, newfound respect from more than a few people in the land of the rising sun.

The 21-year old new champion’s teary-eyed acceptance speech, which included an apology for his past actions, appeared to have made a 180-degree change in attitude.  Far from the foul-initiating heel that body-slammed former WBC Flyweight champion Daisuke Naito during their 2007 confrontation, this version of Daiki Kameda boxed fairly to a unanimous decision over Thailand’s Denkaosan Kaovichit.

The fight itself was marred with clinching, as was the first meeting between the two, and neither Denkaosan nor Kameda showed skills that one could describe as high level. However, the Japanese challenger used this occasion to present to the Japanese public and followers of the sport a more orthodox boxer – one that used footwork and a jab to position himself into landing power shots. Whereas in previous contests, Kameda would only throw single shots, he was now trying to put combinations together. 

In a few segments of solid action, Kameda showed good speed and accuracy with his main weapon – the left hook – while nicely mixing in lead right hands. It will be interesting to see how effective he will box an opponent that is more active or applies better pressure than his competition on Sunday. 

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.

Some video of the action - with the champion losing steam, Daiki Kameda does some of his best work in the fight in round 9...

After the final bell…

Koki and Daiki are the first set of Japanese brothers to win world titles… While I personally do not care much for the WBC champ, he does look to be tougher than Daiki. The younger brother was flat on his backside SIX times during the fight, supposedly because of Denkaosan’s clinching. I don’t think Koki would allow that to happen… Daiki wears his trunks very low, giving opponents a huge target to aim for… Koki was seen selling the "Kameda Roll" - a cream-filled sponge cake with a biscuit crust - outside of the venue… Daiki also loses to Koki in the TV ratings. Last night’s fight pulled in only 19% in the Kanto area. Koki vs. Daisuke Naito went over 43%.

Along with Kameda vs Kaovichit, there was more Japanese boxing action to report on this weekend...

The 31st edition of the Japan Boxing Commission's Champion Carnival started on Saturday with a promising card between two heavy hitters at Super Featherweight and a difficult test for a world ranked Featherweight against a tricky opponent.

Ryol Li Lee (14-1-1, 8KO) vs. Kazunori Takayama (17-5-4, 4KO) for the vacant Japanese Featherweight title

Takashi Miura (17-1-2, 14KO) vs. Seiichi Okada (10-0, 6KO) for Miura’s Japanese Super Featherweight title

Ranked #14 by the WBA after upsetting Hiroyuki Enoki last July, Ryol Li Lee was making his first attempt at a professional title. The victory over Enoki earned him inclusion in the top ten Featherweight ratings by Ring magazine as Enoki was known for fighting future WBC Featherweight champion Takahiro Aoh to a draw in 2008 and losing to WBA title holder Chris John in October that same year. Lee showed adept footwork and defense in that effort, weaving through barrages from the heavy handed former OPBF champion, and scoring enough on two cards to earn a split decision.

His opponent on Saturday was the unorthodox Kazunori Takayama, whose best victory was a KO over former Japanese Super Bantamweight champion Rikiya Fukuhara. However, that stoppage was a rarity as the 27-year old journeyman had a total of 4KOs in 26 pro contests.

The question for the favored Lee would be how dominating would he be en route to picking up the national belt. While he was able to take the 126lb crown by unanimous decision (98-94, 97-94, 97-95), Lee hardly looked like an elite Featherweight.

Much of that was due to Takayama's awkward style - jerky footwork, winged punches, no jab whatsoever - which clearly bothered Lee for the first three to four rounds. Lee did just enough in landing heavier punches, particularly his straight right, to hold an advantage until his opponent, who had been rated #1 by the JBC, began to lose steam in the second half of the fight.

By the sixth round, Takayama's lack of stamina found him hunched over, just trying to land a lucky punch to hurt the oncoming Lee. For his part, Lee's arsenal, on this night at least, also seemed to be void of a jab as he would often try to slip inside Takayama's defense with footwork alone. The best action of the fight was in the eighth when Lee remembered to use his left, throwing three punch combinations, one-twos and had his opponent on the run for the last 30 seconds of the stanza.

While Lee succeeded in winning the title, there are several areas he will have to improve should he hope to take advantage of his world ranking and pursue tougher fights. His movement is good, as he bobs and weaves to make himself a hard target. However, his hands are held loosely in front, leaving a wide-open target that a more technical fighter who punches straight will expose to their advantage. Using his jab - which is not bad when he actually throws it - in order to get inside would have made this fight much easier. He does very well when punching in combination, but will forget to do so, throwing single shots for long spells.

Though world title challenger Satoshi Hosono looks like a possible future opponent for Lee, I hope that he takes a few more fights on the national level to build more experience before stepping up against the former OPBF champion. Lee has shown he can handle himself against a strong veteran, but a young, hard puncher like Hosono may be too much for him at this point in his career.

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Knockout artist Miura and combination puncher Okada battered each other for 10 rounds in an epic war complete with ebb and flow, a bloodied champion, an overwhelmed but relentless challenger, and a split decision that testified to the close nature of the fight.

The only thing that the fight was missing was a knockdown, as both men, despite landing and receiving bombs throughout the bout, stubbornly stayed on their feet for all 30 minutes. In the end, the champion, Miura, retained his belt by scores of 96-94 and 96-93 against one 96-94 scorecard for Okada. 

RingwalkNIPPON scored the bout 96-94 for Okada, but it was a close fight that could have gone either way. Miura landed the more powerful shots in the first half of the fight, but had to resort to volume punching after sustaining a cut in the fifth. Apparently only one of the judges preferred the cleaner punching by Okada, who, by no means, lacked power as the champion walked away with swelling all over his face. 

A rematch between this pairing would be more than welcome down the road. Okada needs to tighten his defense, use some head movement, and be more active with his jab in order to get inside where he excels. With only 11 pro fights, including this match, he has time to learn, but he will continue to eat a lot of leather if he can't make adjustments. 

The champion is in his physical prime, and will only turn 26 this May. A fight with OPBF champion Koji Kawamura, who Okada beat last year, is very winnable. Ranked just outside of the top ten by both the WBA and the WBC, Miura may want to take on mid-level opposition if he wants to test his hand against foreign competition.

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Check out Sidney's blog, RingwalkNippon for a detailed round by round account of the exciting Miura/Okada bout