- Brandon Figueroa weighed 127.4lb and then 126.8lb on his second attempt, missing the 126lb featherweight limit, and has been stripped of the WBA title
- Tomoki Kameda made weight and can still win the belt tonight at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, but if Figueroa wins the title becomes vacant
- My prediction is a pulled-back one: Figueroa by decision, not the stoppage I called in my preview
Figueroa Stripped Of The WBA Title After Missing Weight
Right then. This is not how anyone wanted the co-main event to go. Brandon Figueroa stepped on the scale on Friday at 127.4lb, 1.4lb over the 126lb featherweight limit, and when he came back for his second attempt he got down to 126.8lb. It still was not good enough. The WBA title has been taken off him, and the Figueroa weight story has changed the whole night in Las Vegas before a punch has been thrown.
Tomoki Kameda weighed in under the limit, so the opponent did everything right. The fight is expected to go ahead tonight at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan as the co-feature to Sebastian Fundora against Ermal Hadribeaj. The card starts at 8pm Eastern, which is 1am in the UK on Sunday morning, and it is live on DAZN worldwide and on TNT and truTV in the United States. The two camps are still negotiating a penalty for the miss.
What It Means For The Belt
Here is how it works. Figueroa can no longer win or defend the WBA featherweight title, because he has already lost it on the scale. Kameda can still win it. If Figueroa wins, the belt goes vacant. Let’s not beat around the bush, that is a hell of a swing for the challenger: he is the only man who can leave the ring as a world champion.
Why Missing Weight Is Unforgivable At Champion Level
Make no mistake, I am not interested in excuses here. I do not know why Figueroa missed, and nobody outside his camp does yet. But the job of a champion is to make the weight, first time, with room to spare. He had the whole of fight week, he was given a second go, and he was still 0.8lb over. That is a failure of preparation, and it hands his opponent a real advantage, because Kameda has done his bit and Figueroa has not.
I also said in my fight preview on Friday that Figueroa would stop Kameda in the second half of the fight. That prediction was made when I thought he was a champion defending his belt. The picture is different now.
Kameda Is Not A Mug
Kameda is 42-5 with 23 knockouts, and he has been world level for the best part of 15 years. He has nothing to lose tonight and a world title to win. A fighter who has had to cut hard, then boil down again to get inside the limit, is often a fighter who tires. If Figueroa is drained, Kameda’s class and experience come into play, especially in the middle rounds.
My Prediction
I am still backing Figueroa, because when he is right he is the busier, heavier-handed fighter and he has the tools to wear Kameda down. But I am pulling it back. Figueroa by decision, a hard and uncomfortable one, after Kameda wins some rounds early and makes him work for everything. If you know, you know: a fighter who has struggled at the scale rarely looks as sharp as he does in camp. And if he does stop Kameda, the belt is vacant and there is no champion to celebrate. What a mess for the WBA featherweight division.