Boxing: Leo defeats Kameda in Japan, retains titlle (updated)

The site was Osaka, Japan, not Las Vegas, Nevada.

No matter. Angelo Leo rolled the dice and hit the jackpot.

Albuquerque’s Leo retained his International Boxing Federation featherweight title on Saturday with a hard-earned victory by majority decision in Osaka over hometown challenger Tomoki Kameda.

After 12 tactical yet brutal rounds, one judge scored the 12-round bout even at 114-114. Two judges scored it for Leo, 116-112 and 115-113.

Leo improved his record to 26-1 with 12 knockouts. Kameda, a former bantamweight world champion and super bantam interim champion, is 42-5.

There were no knockdowns. Leo never landed that crushing left hook that knocked out Mexico’s Luis Alberto Lopez when he won the IBF title in Albuquerque on Aug. 10, but it turned out he didn’t need it.

The bout was streamed on ProBoxTV, concluding just past 3:30 a.m. MT on Saturday.

Leo said earlier in the week that he’d opted to gamble with his title belt against Kameda in Osaka largely because the payday was by far the best of his career.

The gamble paid off.

Afterward, responding to questions translated from Japanese, Leo said he was confident he’d won after the final bell sounded.

“I think I outpointed him,” Leo said. “I landed more shots on him, and I think that’s what won me the fight.”

ProBoxTV analysts Paulie Malignaggi and Chris Algieri, who called the fight remotely, both said they felt the final two rounds tipped the bout in Leo’s favor.

As for the possibility of home cooking, it helped that the judges hailed from Canada, Australia and the Philippines and not Japan.

Leo opened the bout impressively, repeatedly pumping a sharp left jab in Kameda’s face and mixing in inside uppercuts and left hooks to the body. Punch stats were not available, but it appeared Leo threw and landed considerably more punches than Kameda did over the course of the bout.

Kameda, however, rarely took a backward step, landed some thudding body shots and appeared the stronger of the two when they engaged at close range.

This was not, Leo said, the Kameda with whom he’d previously sparred in Leo’s adopted hometown of Las Vegas.

“He was a lot stronger than I expected,” Leo said. “… He had a little bit more power than when I sparred him.”

Of his time in Japan, Leo said, “Japan has some of the best fans, and I’d love to come back and fight here.”

THE SCORECARDS: All three judges credited Leo with a strong start but differed somewhat after the first three rounds.

Gil Co, of the Philippines, scored the bout 116-112 for Leo. He had the Albuquerquean winning the first four rounds and splitting the final eight.

Richard Bloun of Canada scored the first three rounds for Leo but gave Kameda six of the last nine, scoring the bout a draw. He had Leo up by one round entering the 12th, which he scored for Kameda.

Carl Zappia of Australia gave Leo the first four rounds but gave Kameda five of the last eight in scoring the bout 115-113 for Leo.

The Journal’s (highly) unofficial scorecard had it 117-111 for Leo, scoring the fifth, ninth and 10th rounds for Kameda.

THE OTHER CORNER: Kameda got a harsh review from an analyst covering the fight for the Japanese audience — none other than Daiki Kameda, Tomoki’s older brother.

Daiki Kameda ripped his brother for allowing Leo to initiate most of the exchanges and not fighting with effective aggressiveness.

”if you are afraid of getting (punched, you) can’t win,” Daiki Kameda, himself a former world champion, was quoted as saying in a Japanese newspaper.