Kameda, Medina make weight

By Joe Koizumi
Photos by Naoki Fukuda

The weigh-in ceremony for tomorrow’s WBC interim super-bantamweight title bout was held today (Sunday) in Tokyo, Japan. WBC #1 Abigail Medina, Spain, scaled in at 121.5, while #2 Tomoki Kameda 121.75 — both under the limit at their first trip to the scale.

As for Medina’s heavy beard, the promoter Keiichiro Kanehira strongly accused him of a possibility that any grease or hemostatic may touch the beard, which might hamper Tomoki’s eyesight during the fight. Medina party promised to trim it and it will be examined by the WBC supervisor prior to the title bout.

In Japan, people (of course, men) seldom make a habit of wearing a beard to demonstrate machismo (manliness) or dandyism. It might be true that such a thick beard as Medina’s hasn’t seen in any world title bout here.

Should Tomoki be victorious to gain his second belt, he will establish a new record of all the three Kameda brothers’ acquisition of world belts in plural categories—following the footsteps of Koki (108, 112 and 118) and Daiki (112 and 115).

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