LAS VEGAS — David Picasso looked somewhat sharp Saturday, but he’ll have to be immeasurably better if he is to have a legitimate shot at upsetting a much more dangerous Japanese fighter later this year.
Picasso picked apart Kyonosuke Kameda with his jab and right hand and won their 10-round featherweight fight by majority decision at MGM Grand Garden Arena. Mexico’s Picasso (32-0-1, 17 KOs) defeated Japan’s Kameda (15-5-2, 9 KOs) comfortably on the cards of judges Eric Cheek (98-92) and Chris Migliore (97-93). Lisa Giampa, however, gave Kameda more credit and scored their fight 95-95 on the Manny Pacquiao-Mario Barrios undercard.
Picasso, 24, nonetheless remained the WBC’s No. 1 contender for one of undisputed 122-pound champion
Naoya Inoue’s titles.
Beating Kameda at least kept Picasso in contention to fight the winner of the bout between Japan’s Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs) and Uzbekistan’s
Murodjon Akhmadaliev (14-1, 11 KOs) on Sept. 14 in Nagoya, Japan.
Kameda predicted during a press conference Thursday that he would knock out the heavily favored Picasso in the first round. He didn’t seem to affect Picasso with any of his punches, though.
Picasso, who turned down a shot at Inoue’s Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO belts earlier this year, slipped many of Kameda’s punches and mostly fought from a comfortable range that enabled him to work effectively off his jab. His overhand right caught Kameda with most of the flushest punches either fighter landed.
Kameda threw a lot of punches, but he wasn’t accurate and clearly lost.