Kameda to defend Youth title in November
Back in July we saw Kyonosuke Kameda (7-2-1, 6) [亀田 京之介] claim the Japanese Youth Featherweight title, stopping the previously unbeaten Tsubasa Narai (7-1, 6) [奈良井 翼] in 2 rounds to claim the title in what was a genuinely entertaining, though short lived, bout. Since then things have been quiet regarding Kameda's future. At least they were prior to this past weekend when it was announced that Kameda will defending his title for the first time on November 13th at the EDION Arena Osaka, in Osaka City.
The hard hitting champion, the cousin of the three fighting Kameda brothers, will be up against former Rookie of the Year winner Hiroki Hanabusa (8-2-3, 3) [英洸貴] in what looks like a solid first defense.
Kameda, as mentioned the cousin of Koki, Daiki and Tomoki Kameda, has come a long way since being stopped in his professional debut, back in 2018. He doesn't look like a world champion in the making but at 22 years old he certainly seems to have the tools needed to compete high up the domestic rankings, and perhaps even win a Japanese title down the line. He does however have a lot of work to do for that to happen, and we suspect the next few years will be key for his development, with the Youth title being a major part of that.
Hanabusa on the other hand is someone who is struggling for form recently. He won Rookie of the Year in 2018, but has gone 3-2-1 (1) since then and struggled to really show what he can do. He challenger for the Japanese Youth Super Bantamweight title in 2020, but was stopped in 5 rounds by the criminally under-rated Toshiki Shimomachi, and was beaten by Katsuya Fukui earlier this year. Thankfully for him those two losses have come to excellent fighters, and in some ways can be dismissed as simply being against fighters who are just too good, but another loss here will be very hard to bounce back from.
On paper this should be a match up between the boxing skills of Hanabusa, who is a very nice tidy boxer, and the power and physicality of Kameda. As a result this could end up being a very interesting bout where Hanabusa could look levels above, but always be walking the proverbial tight rope.
The hard hitting champion, the cousin of the three fighting Kameda brothers, will be up against former Rookie of the Year winner Hiroki Hanabusa (8-2-3, 3) [英洸貴] in what looks like a solid first defense.
Kameda, as mentioned the cousin of Koki, Daiki and Tomoki Kameda, has come a long way since being stopped in his professional debut, back in 2018. He doesn't look like a world champion in the making but at 22 years old he certainly seems to have the tools needed to compete high up the domestic rankings, and perhaps even win a Japanese title down the line. He does however have a lot of work to do for that to happen, and we suspect the next few years will be key for his development, with the Youth title being a major part of that.
Hanabusa on the other hand is someone who is struggling for form recently. He won Rookie of the Year in 2018, but has gone 3-2-1 (1) since then and struggled to really show what he can do. He challenger for the Japanese Youth Super Bantamweight title in 2020, but was stopped in 5 rounds by the criminally under-rated Toshiki Shimomachi, and was beaten by Katsuya Fukui earlier this year. Thankfully for him those two losses have come to excellent fighters, and in some ways can be dismissed as simply being against fighters who are just too good, but another loss here will be very hard to bounce back from.
On paper this should be a match up between the boxing skills of Hanabusa, who is a very nice tidy boxer, and the power and physicality of Kameda. As a result this could end up being a very interesting bout where Hanabusa could look levels above, but always be walking the proverbial tight rope.