It was the rematch of their May fight from earlier this year as Jamie McDonnell and Tomoki Kameda locked up once again. It would be the second time these two would meet on the undercard of a PBC card and the second time they would fight in Texas – at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi.
The bout was the co-feature of PBC on CBS, headlined by a matchup between Anthony Dirrell and Marco Antonio Rubio.
Kameda started off with the crisper punches and looked generally ready to exchange, while McDonnell seemed dry. There was an effort from both fighters to establish a jab in the first round, but Kameda’s was more impressive, even if he would later abandon it.
In the 2nd round, Kameda continued to dominate with effective punching and McDonnel still looked like he wasn’t quite warmed. Kameda landed a big left hand, the biggest punch of the fight thus far, and would start to gain even more momentum as McDonnell would end the 2nd with a cut above his eyebrow.
However, the fight would start to even up as McDonnell began to get into his grove and open up more. The heavier leather landed was on the part of McDonnell in the 3rd round.
The 4th round was razor close, but Kameda picked his shots well and relied on opportunity a little more than volume. Still, McDonnell wasn’t far behind and it would come down to preference in the 4th.
Kameda was able to do what he wanted in the middle rounds, the problem is he didn’t want to do more than he was already doing. McDonnell was defenitley pressing his opponent backwards, but he was failing to take much advantage of his positioning. Kameda continued to find his way out of tough spots without ever being touched.
And it wasn’t like McDonnell failed to cut off the ring because he was able to get the job done to a certain extent, but Kameda was able to get out of the corner before suffering the consequences.
McDonnell started to stage his own moments of dominance in the latter rounds. He was doing well in the early round, only to allow his opponent to gain some of the momentum back, making the fight a bit closer and tougher to score.
In the 12th and final round, McDonnell scored a knockdown that at first look appeared to be a Kameda slip. Regardless, the point was awarded. Kameda was definitely effected by the knockdown in a positive manner. He started coming back aggressive in an attempt to get the point back and even up the round.
It wasn’t the fight we thought it could be, but in the end #McDonnellKameda did deliver a very special moment in the closing seconds of the final round. Other than those brief heroics, the fight was slightly above average and failed to compare to the first, although it was still a good fight.
I expected a close score, perhaps a split-decision outcome.
However, all three judges scored the fight for McDonnell as he retained his world bantamweight title with scores of 115-112 116-111 and 117-110.
McDonnell said after the fight, “I think I threw my jab more than any other punch I think. I thought to myself ‘I haven’t thrown the left hook to the body yet.’”
McDonnel admitted that he thought Kameda slipped, which was confirmed on the arena’s big screen after the 12th, but the extra point wouldn’t have mattered.
Kameda was obviously disappointed in the decision and said in the post-fight interview, “I thought I won this fight. I thought I followed the right game plan.”
