November 17th

[straycat]

1913- Gunboat Smith W 12 Sam Langford, Boston. Referee Dick Fleming. Smith relied almost totally on a stiff left jab, but Langford seemed unfazed by it and bided his time, working to the body. Late in the fight he began a serious assault and had Smith bleeding freely. When referee Fleming raised Smith's arm in victory, many ringsiders were surprised. (This "mixed bout" had previously been banned by the state of New York.)

1933- Barney Ross W 10 Sammy Fuller, Chicago. Retains World Super Lightweight Title.

1939- Billy Conn W 15 Gus Lesnevich, NYC. Retains World Light Heavyweight Title.

1950- Kid Gavilan W 10 Billy Graham, NYC.

1954- Jimmy Carter KO 15 Paddy DeMarco, San Francisco. Regains World Lightweight Title.

1967- Dick Tiger KO 12 Roger Rouse, Las Vegas. Retains World Light Heavyweight Title.

1971- Muhammad Ali W 12 Buster Mathis, Houston. Retains NABF Heavyweight Title.

1972- Esteban DeJesus W 10 Roberto Duran, NYC. Non-title fight. Thirty seconds into the first round a DeJesus left hook drops Duran. DeJesus hands the reigning World Lightweight Champion his first defeat by scores of 6-3-1, 6-2-2, and 5-4-1. This was just the beginning of one of boxings’ greatest rivalries!

1979- Eusebio Pedroza KO 11 Johnny Aba, Papua, New Guinea. Retains WBA Featherweight Title.

1979- Luis Ibarra W 15 Betulio Gonzalez, Maracay. Wins WBA Flyweight Title.

1993- Al Cole KO 5 Vince Boulware, Atlantic City. Retains IBF Cruiserweight Title

1995- Don King’s trial for insurance fraud ends in a mistrial when the jury informs Federal Judge Lawrence McKenna that it is irretrievably deadlocked.

2000- Larry Holmes KO 6 Mike Weaver, Biloxi, Mississippi. Twenty-one years after their first fight.

2001- Lennox Lewis KO 4 Hasim Rahman, Las Vegas. Regains World Heavyweight Title.

2001- William Joppy W 12 Howard Eastman, Las Vegas. Wins vacant WBA Middleweight Title. (Title became vacant when the WBA awarded Bernard Hopkins "Super Champion" status.)

2001- Yober Ortega KO 4 Jose Rojas, Las Vegas. Wins vacant WBA Super Bantamweight Title.

2006- Pongsaklek Wonjongkam W 12 WBC mandatory challenger Monelisi Mhikiza "Showtime" Myekeni, Nakhon Ratchassima, Thailand. Retains Lineal and WBC World Flyweight Titles.

Born On This Day

1986- Koki Kameda (born in in Osaka, Japan)
Japanese professional boxer in the Flyweight division. He is the oldest of the three Kameda brothers. His younger brother, Daiki Kameda, is a professional boxer in the super flyweight division, and the youngest brother Tomoki, is the WBC Youth Intercontinental Super Bantamweight Champion, who currently fights in Mexico. Kōki is the former WBA Light Flyweight Champion. He gave up the title shortly after defending it once to move up to the flyweight division. He is the former WBC Flyweight Champion and has a record of 22-1-0 (14 KOs).
Kameda and his two brothers are by far the most well known boxers in Japan. Their father began training them when they were young, and Kōki Kameda was featured in a television series after winning several amateur tournaments. His brother Daiki is a professional boxer and the current WBA Flyweight Champion. Kōki's youngest brother Tomoki, had been training for the Beijing Olympics, but was told he was too young to qualify for the Olympics. Tomoki decided to turn pro and is now the WBC Youth Intercontinental Super Bantamweight Champion. While growing up in Osaka, they trained at the Green Tsunuda gym, which also produced former WBC minimumweight title holder and former WBA interim minimumweight title holder, Katsunari Takayama, who also happens to be a critic of the Kameda brothers.
Back in 2000 when Kameda was only 14 years old, Kameda managed to get some national attention by taking on former two time division world champion, Hiroki Ioka, in a 2 round exhibition match. Ioka was the inaugural WBC minimumweight champion and was also the former WBA lightflyweight champion, a title which Kameda himself would controversially win in August 2006. Kameda at first was believed to have got a first round knockdown on the former champion by landing a left straight and a right hook, but the referee ruled it as a slip. Kameda throughout the exhibition bout, would try to go for a knockout. However, the fight went the distance and this would jump start Kameda by going all out on the former champion.
[edit] Pro career
On August 2, 2006, in his first attempt for the world title, Kameda squared off with Juan Jose Landaeta of Venezuela in Yokohama, Japan, for the World Boxing Association light flyweight title. The fight was rather controversial as Kameda won the fight in a split decision despite getting knocked down in the first round and being dominated in the final two rounds. Further fueling controversy was the fact that the Korean judge who scored the fight 114-113 in Kameda's favor gave the final round to Kameda 10-9, although the perception by most observers was that the clearly exhausted Japanese boxer did nothing but tie up his opponent and try to avoid being knocked out in that round. If the Korean judge had scored the final round in favor of Landaeta, the Venezuelan would have won the bout. The match reinforced the existence of a home field advantage and the bias a foreign fighter must face when fighting on Japanese soil.
There were mixed reactions from the Japanese public after the fight. Some 50,000 calls complaining against the decision were made to TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System, the station that broadcasted the fight) to complain about the decision. While some hailed the 19-year-old's aggressiveness and impressive technique, others believed Landaeta was obviously the better fighter and exposed Kameda's inexperience and questionable stamina. Despite the controversial nature of the decision, it was a close, bitterly contested bout. Scoring some of the very close earlier rounds for Kameda would give the young fighter the necessary buffer on the scorecards to required to win, despite Landaeta's late charge. Kameda's father and trainer's backlash against the critics went as far as death threats.
On December 20, 2006, in a highly anticipated rematch, Kameda decisively defeated Juan Jose Landaeta at Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo, Japan. Kameda employed a rather different boxing style from the one he used back in the title match on August. Kameda outboxed Landaeta for most of the match using his quickness and accuracy, and won by unanimous decision.
Kameda vacated his Light Flyweight Championship to move up to the Flyweight division on January 22, 2007,
Koki Kameda beat Daisuke Naito on November 29, 2009 for the WBC flyweight championship.
On March 27, 2010, Koki Kameda fought Wonjongkam to unify the WBC Flyweight championship and interim WBC Flyweight championship. The winner would also claim the vacant The Ring's Flyweight championship. Wonjongkam defeated Kameda by a 12 round majority decision to become the WBC and Ring Flyweight champion.
Kameda is often criticized for his flamboyance, immaturity, and lack of respect both inside and outside the ring. He has never spoken courteously towards anyone in his numerous TV appearances, (considering that the Japanese language has tenses specifically used for courteous speech) and often taunts opponents with insulting presents and language. Criticism also revolves around his boxing skills and sportsmanship. The fact that Kameda's first six opponents had a combined record of 0-18 brought much criticism during the early part of his professional career. Many Japanese boxers, including former WBC Super flyweight champion Masamori Tokuyama and WBC Minimumweight title Eagle Kyowa, have stated that they could easily defeat Kameda if given a chance, and that his boasting and popularity are greatly out of proportion with his actual skills in the ring.
There was an outcry from the Japanese public about his first bout against Landaeta being fixed. Former world champions Guts Ishimatsu and Yasuei Yakushiji have commented that they believe Kameda lost the fight.
He was also involved in the controversy surrounding his brother Daiki during his fight with Daisuke Naito. Koki escaped with a warning about advising Daiki to elbow Naito in the eye. His brother was suspended from fighting for one year and his father was suspended indefinitely for the incident.
It was originally rumored and intended that Kameda would fight then WBC Light Flyweight title holder, Brian Viloria, in a WBA/WBC unification title fight. However, Kameda's controversial decision over Landaeta in the first match and Viloria losing to Omar Nino made the match difficult to produce further talks.

[KSTAT124]

Update regarding Koki Kameda who turned 25 today:

Since the information above was compiled, Kameda has raised his record to 26-1 with 16 KOs.

He knocked out veteran four-time world title challenger Cecilio Santos in the 4th round on July 25, 2010.

Next, he won the vacant WBA world bantamweight title (Anselmo Moreno had been upgraded to super champion) by unanimously outpointing former two-time WBA super flyeweight champion Alexander Munoz over 12 rounds on December 26, 2010.

He successfully defended the title on May 7, 2011 when he stopped Daniel Diaz in the 11th round and on August 31, 2011 when he won a 12-round, unanimous decision over David De la Mora.

Kameda is scheduled to make his third defense of the WBA bantamweight title on December 7, 2011 against Mario Macias. His brothers will also be on the card- Daiki, 22, challenging WBA interim super flyweight champion Tepparith Kokietgym (AKA Tepparith Singwancha) and Tomoki, 20, taking on veteran Eduardo "Lalo" Garcia.