Nearly five years after his last bid for two-division glory, Tomoki Kameda is set for another crack at gold after beating Lerato Dlamini in an IBF featherweight eliminator this morning.
“El Mexicanito” (42-4, 23 KO) dropped a shock split decision to South Africa’s Dlamini last October, snapping the four-fight winning streak Kameda put together after falling short against Rey Vargas in 2019. There would be no repeat for “Lights Out,” as Kameda dropped him in the fifth en route to a split decision win that was by all accounts a significantly more one-sided fight than the scorecards would suggest.
Now a decade removed from his bantamweight reign, Kameda has earned himself a date with newly crowned champion Angelo Leo, who demolished Luis Alberto Lopez two weeks back with what might be 2024’s Knockout of the Year. A clash between these two body punchers could very easily produce fireworks.
Earlier in the show, former WBC minimumweight champion Yudai Shigeoka (9-1, 5 KO) bounced back from last March’s upset loss to Melvin Jerusalem with a competitive decision win over Samuel Salva (20-2, 13 KO).