Tomoki Kameda had been struggling a little in his U.S. debut, then did in Pungluang Sor Singyu with a perfect left hook to the body that was preceded by an uppercut that set up the shot. Sor Singyu writhed in pain, as well he should have, and the fight was over just like that in the 7th.
The bantamweight bout aired on the undercard of the Showtime pay-per-view event headlined by Saul Alvarez and Erislandy Lara. Other than the main event, it was the most evenly matched bout of the undercard, and it aired over Showtime proper in advance of the PPV starting.
Kameda (pictured at right) was too tentative for the bulk of the bout, and Singyu, a Thai fighter with 48 fights at age 24, took advantage. Kameda would move and throw jabs but didn’t really open up with power shots until he connected on a big right in the 6th. The end came quite suddenly the next round. Somehow in the 7th (I missed when it happened) Singyu got bloodied, too, so even when the writhing ended there was a lot of dripping.
It was a mixed performance — a sensational ending to a bout where the performance to that point had been anything but.
Tomoki is thought to be the most talented of the Kameda brothers, and he’s slowly making his way up toward most accomplished. The 23-year-old Japanese fighter can certainly make for some interesting bouts at 118 in this hemisphere, if he opts to stay for a spell.
