Yesterday was the long-awaited boxing matching between challenger 23 year old 亀田興毅 (Kouki Kameda) and defending champion 35 year old 内藤大助 (Daisuke Naitou).
Daisuke Naito vs Koki Kameda promo poster
Before I talk about yesterday’s match, a little history.
Daisuke Naito made his professional boxing debut in 1996 at the age of 22.
After five years of professional boxing, he was undefeated and challenged the then-flyweight champion of Japan (Sakata Takehumi). He lost that match.
But he went to Thailand and fought for the world flyweight championship. Unfortunately, he lost again.
In 2004 (just before his 30th birthday), he finally became the Japan Flyweight Boxing champion.
And when he was 32 he became the World Flyweight Boxing Champion.
Daisuke Naito with the World Flyweight Champion trophy and belt, 2007.
And then there’s the controversial Kameda boxing family.
Koki Kameda and his two younger brothers (Daiki and Tomoki) have all been trained since they were very young to become professional boxers by their father.
They are infamous for making rude comments to opponents before and after matches (in Japan, such antics aren’t common at all) and for unsportsmanlike conduct.
In 2007, Daiki Kameda challenged Daisuke Naito for his World Flyweight Championship belt.
Naito retained his championship due to Daiki Kameda‘s misconduct during the match.
With encouragement from his father and older brother Koki, Daiki Kameda elbowed Daisuke Naito in the face and the picked him up and threw him to the mat.
Daiki Kameda throwing Daisuke Naito to the mat, 2007
After that match, the Kameda brothers’ father was banned from training his sons forever and Daiki Kameda was banned from boxing for a year.
Daiki Kameda shaved his head after the match to show his regret and he showed up unexpectedly at the home of Daisuke Naito and apologized in person.
The Kameda brothers have since toned down their attitude and became more respectful.
As for Koki Kameda, he wasn’t in the same weight-class as Daisuke Naito before.
In 2006 (at the age of 20), he became the World Lightweight Boxing champion in a match that some have said was fixed.
Koki Kameda, World Flyweight Champion 2006 hoisted by Sumo Yokozuna Asashoryu
But Koki Kameda recently moved up to the Flyweight class and yesterday he challenged Daisuke Naito for the championship.
Koki Kameda (23才) vs Daisuke Naito (35才) on 2009 November 29.
I won’t put a YouTube clip of the match in this post because it wasn’t a very exciting match.
But the challenger, Koki Kameda won in an unanimous decision.
The new World Flyweight Boxing champion (2009), Koki Kameda after the 2009 Nov 29 match.
So now their records are:
Daisuke Naito (former World Flyweight champ)
wins 35 (22 by KO)
loses 3
draws 3
Koki Kameda (current World Flyweight champ)
wins 21 (13 by KO)
loses 0
draws 0
Tokyo Five 
I forgot to add to the photo in this post of Koki Kameda being lifted by the Sumo champion Asashoryu in 2006 that those two are considered the “Bad Boy Of Boxing” and the “Bad Boy Of Sumo”, respectively.
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That’s too bad. I’ll root against the Kamedas whenever I get a chance.
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I think most people were hoping Naito-さん would win.
Daisuke Naito said before yesterday’s match that if he loses, he probably retire from professional boxing (he is 35 years old, after all).
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