- Brandon Figueroa makes the first defence of his WBA featherweight title against Tomoki Kameda at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on Saturday 17 October
- It is the co-main event to Fundora v Hadribeaj, live on TNT and DAZN, with the weigh-in on Friday at 4pm Eastern
- My prediction is Figueroa by stoppage in the second half of the fight, as the champion’s pace wears the veteran down
Figueroa v Kameda Is This Saturday
Right then. Fight week has arrived in Las Vegas, and the co-main event is a proper featherweight fight. Brandon Figueroa puts his WBA featherweight title on the line for the first time against Tomoki Kameda at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan on Saturday night. It streams on TNT and DAZN, and the weigh-in is Friday at 4pm Eastern, which is 9pm for us in the UK. The main event, Sebastian Fundora against Ermal Hadribeaj, is due on at 8pm Eastern, so the co-main is on well before the early hours for once. Let’s not beat around the bush, Figueroa v Kameda is a fight worth staying up for.
The Champion
Figueroa is 27-2-1 with 20 knockouts, and he is a two-division champion from Weslaco, Texas. He won this belt by stopping Nick Ball in the 12th round in February, and that is the kind of finish that tells you everything about him. He walks forward, he throws in bunches, and he is still throwing in the last round. Make no mistake, it is a style that has cost him in the past, but at featherweight there are very few men who enjoy being on the receiving end of it.
The Challenger
Kameda deserves respect. He is 42-5 with 23 knockouts, and he was the first Japanese boxer to win a WBO title when he took the bantamweight belt in 2013. He has been a world-level operator for the best part of 15 years, and he has boxed all over the world. He is also 35, he has fallen short in bids for world titles at super bantamweight and featherweight, most recently by majority decision, and the margins in those fights were narrow. He is no mug.
Why The Gap Is Too Big
Here is my problem with the Kameda story: he is a clever, technical boxer, but he has not been a heavy puncher at this level, and against a volume puncher he needs to keep Figueroa off him for twelve rounds. That is a huge ask. Figueroa is taller than most featherweights, he is a southpaw, and he makes it ugly. Kameda will land clean shots early, because he always does. But the champion will keep walking through them, and the body shots will start to add up.
My Prediction
Figueroa by stoppage, somewhere between rounds eight and eleven. Kameda will box well in the early rounds and might even nick a couple, but the pace will tell. If you know, you know: when Figueroa gets his rhythm, the opposition fades. Expect a proper scrap, expect the veteran to show his class for a while, and expect the belt to stay with the champion.