- PBC cancelled Brandon Figueroa v Tomoki Kameda hours before the Las Vegas card on 17 October after Figueroa missed weight and then fell ill overnight
- Figueroa had already been stripped of the WBA featherweight title on the scales, and Kameda would have been eligible to win it
- The card carried on without the fight, and I think Kameda deserves the next WBA shot after being left stranded in Vegas
Figueroa v Kameda Is Off
Right then. What a way to wreck a fight week. I wrote yesterday that Brandon Figueroa had missed weight and lost the WBA title, and now the whole fight has been cancelled. PBC announced hours before the Las Vegas card that Figueroa had fallen ill overnight, and Tomoki Kameda was left with nothing to show for a long camp.
Illness is illness, and I will not pretend to be a doctor. But let’s not beat around the bush, this all started with the scales. A champion who cannot make 126lb puts himself in trouble before the first bell, and that is why the title was already gone before the cancellation.
A Raw Deal For Kameda
Make no mistake, the man I feel for is Kameda. He is a veteran who prepared for a world title shot, would have been eligible to win the WBA belt with a victory, and instead goes home with a cancelled fight. I called him a brave veteran in my preview and I stand by that. This was his night, taken away through no fault of his own.
The Card Moved On
The show went ahead without it. A super middleweight 10-rounder was promoted to the co-feature, and Sebastian Fundora’s dramatic win over Ermal Hadribeaj made sure the night was not a write-off. That is credit to PBC for keeping the show running, but it does not fix the damage to Kameda.
My Prediction
Here is where I land. Kameda gets the next WBA shot, and Figueroa does not get a free pass back to the top. If the fight is rebooked, Kameda has the experience to cause a proper upset against a man who has now shown the sport he cannot be relied on at weight. Figueroa has talent, but he has to fix the basics first.