In what was a fight of the year contender, Jamie McDonnell returns to the United States to defend his WBA world bantamweight title against Tomoki Kameda in the same state of Texas but in a different city. McDonnell feels he is more prepared this time around for his arrival into the states.
“I’m very confident that I’ll do it again,” McDonnell told RingTV.com. “I’ve been training with Dave Coldwell, and we’ve been working on lots of new things coming into the rematch. I’m as fit as I’ve ever been, sharper than I’ve ever been, and I’m out to prove a point.”
The heat at the tail end of summer in Texas is something that was taken into account and prepared for.
“We came out to Texas two weeks prior to the rematch, and everything is fine,” said McDonnell “That’s plenty of time to adjust to the time difference and we also got some quality training done in the heat.”
McDonnell says defense has been key in camp and is something they prepared for more in the rematch which wasn’t much of the case in the first fight.
“We’ve been working on letting our shots go and getting back into a defensive position. There’s been a lot of defensive work in this camp because Kameda is dangerous with that big right hand, and we don’t want to go there again,” explained the bantamweight title holder.
Should he win, he has a multiple options whether at 118 or 122.
“If I beat Kameda, [WBA bantamweight titleholder] Juan Carlos Payano is my best option at bantamweight,” said McDonnell. “If that doesn’t come off, then I’ll move straight into the junior featherweight division and mix it with the big guns like [Scott] Quigg and [Carl] Frampton. Any match-up that has a world title attached would interest me although the money has to be right. I’m not scared to take on anyone at bantamweight or junior featherweight because these are all winnable fights for me. I just need to beat Kameda first to create that demand.”
