DAIKI KAMEDA vs TAKEFUMI SAKATA

Japanese rivals meet in Tokyo on Saturday when Daiki Kameda defends his flyweight title against Takefumi Sakata in an eagerly awaited youth versus experience match.
 
Sakata, 30, will be the crowd’s favourite. Kameda was widely criticised in Japan for using dishonourable tactics when he lost widely on points to the tough veteran Daisuke Naito three years ago. In the last round, a frustrated and somewhat outclassed Kameda picked up Naito and slammed him to the canvas. Kameda’s father and then-trainer had his licence revoked by the Japanese commission for urging his son to win by any means necessary, which included fouls, his remarks having been picked up on the Japanese TV broadcast. 
 
Kameda, 21, subsequently apologised to Naito, and he has redeemed himself to a large extent by conducting himself professionally in the ring and winning a world title at the third attempt. He was only 18 when he lost to Naito and I see him as a boxer who has matured and shown technical improvement. In his early fights, Kameda would move in with gloves up, get up close to the other man and let go with both hands, especially to the body. He was strong but one-dimensional. However, Kameda showed some smart moves when he outpointed the much more experienced Denkaosan in February to become champion after having boxed a draw with the sturdy Thai veteran four months earlier. It now seems to me that Kameda is evolving into a boxer-fighter type although Denkaosan looked a suddenly old fighter in the rematch.
 
Sakata was a champion at 112 pounds and he, too, twice fought Denkaosan. Their first meeting was a gruelling draw, but in the rematch Sakata lost shockingly on a second-round knockout — the Japanese boxer had never been stopped, and Denkaosan was not regarded as a very hard hitter. There might have been a bit of a fluke about that KO, though. The fighters banged heads, and it was Sakata who seemed to come off worst. It seemed to me that he lost concentration after the collision, and Denkaosan caught him high up on the head with a right hand — the so-called “temple shot” — to send him crumpling to the canvas to be counted out.
 
Although Sakata has won three in a row since that defeat I think he is starting to look just a bit worn after a 12-year career. He has always been a busy, dead-game, pressure fighter type, and he looked in fabulous shape at Friday’s weigh-in, but I think he might be starting to wear out a bit. Kameda, meanwhile, seems to be a much-improved boxer from the one who lost to Naito, and of course he is much the younger man.
 
The sportsbooks are not offering lines on this fight but I make Kameda the favourite and I am expecting him to win, though not easily. Sakata is in something of a last-stand situation and he will be throwing everything he has at the younger man. I think, though, that Kameda can withstand the onslaught and box and fight his way to a hard-earned win, probably on points.