Saturday Results - Kameda defeats Sakata; wins for Wlodarczyk, Murray, Cuello and Quigg

Tokyo, Japan

Daiki Kameda UD12 Takefumi Sakata - The rapidly improving middle Kameda brother scored a relatively wide decision victory over former titlist Sakata, making the first defense of his flyweight title.  Kameda opened up a cut over Sakata's eye in the third round and reportedly got stronger as the fight went on in a hard fought bout.

Tijuana, Mexico

Ramon Garcia MD12 Manuel "Chango" Vargas - Garcia narrowly defended his interim light flyweight title in a thoroughly entertaining bout.  Vargas pressed forward the entire bout, often eating two punches to get off one, but was able to frequently impose his will on Garcia.  Garcia showed how to handle a pressure fighter in an exciting way, generally fighting off the back foot, but several times a round stepping in and exchanging with Vargas on the inside.  Round 12 was one of the better rounds of the year, with Vargas, bloodied and mouth completely agape, leaving every ounce he had in the ring trying to score the knockout.  While Garcia spent the first half of the round backing up, Vargas was able to lure him into a mini war, with both fighters getting rocked during the stanza.  Lupe Contreras made a rare (and major) gaffe, initially announcing Vargas as the new interim titlist, and then having to correct himself after Vargas already began celebrating, much to the chagrin of the crowd.   The final scores were 114-114, 115-113 and 115-113 in favor of Garcia.  Garcia remains the mandatory to fight true champion Giovanni Segura.

Humberto Mauro Gutierrez UD10 Rene Gonzalez - Former interim titlist Gutierrez gets another decent notch on his record two fights after losing to Vitali Tajbert.

Reno, Nevada

Kassim Ouma TKO6 Joey Gilbert - Ouma came in having won just one fight since 2006, and only two of those losses (Jermain Taylor and Vanes Martirosyan) were really expected. Ouma did perform well in January against Martirosyan, with many feeling he'd won that fight. Gilbert was fighting on his home turf in Reno, but was finished off in the sixth round, bloodied and complaining of double vision, according to referee Vic Drakulich, who stopped the fight. Ouma (27-7-1, 17 KO) just might really be on the comeback trail at age 31.

Warsaw, Poland

Krzyzstof Wlodarczyk UD12 Jason Robinson - Wlodarczyk reportedly didn't look too good in defeating Robinson, a handpicked opponent who was 3-3 over the last eight years.  From reports, Robinson was able to control Wlodarczyk's aggression with unorthodox movements and solid counterpunching.  If ring generalship was the primary scoring mechanism, then Robinson might have won the fight; however, Wlodarczyk is just younger, fresher and stronger, and was able to get the victory on his home turf after a fight in which most of the rounds could have gone either way.

Tomasz Hutkowski D10 Zakaria Azzouzi - Hutkowski is considered one of Poland's more promising prospects, but he got a stiff test in this one, proving that he needs more seasoning before trying to step up to the European level. 

Krzyzstof Bienias UD6 Konstantins Sakara - Bienias has taken a couple of light touches since getting his butt kicked by Kell Brook.  He reportedly had some struggles in this one as well, yet the WBO still sees it fit to rank him in their welterweight top ten.

Wigan, England

John Murray TKO9 Andriy Kudryavtsev - Murray moved to 30-0 in an easy first defense of his European lightweight title.  While he's not the world's greatest technical boxer, he does have an exciting style, and it might be nice to see him step up to the back half of the world level just to make some entertaining bouts, if nothing else. 

Albert Sosnowski TKO1 Paul Butlin - Sosnowski got an easy win in his first fight after losing to Vitali Klitschko.  Butlin had already lost his last six fights, but he had never been knocked out in the first round before, so that's a positive.

Prince Arron TKO6 Mihaly Kotai - Since getting blown out by John Duddy in 2007, 6'3" Arron has gone 10-0-1, including an overall victory at Prizefighter junior middleweights.  More interestingly, he's scored knockouts in his last two bouts, raising his career knockout total to three.  Arron might be worth keeping an eye on.  Winning Prizefighter likely has allowed him to start training relatively full time, and he seems to be rapidly improving.  He has just enough physical talent and is young enough that he could make it to the world level if he continues to improve and find his power.

Bury, England

Scott Quigg KO3 Santiago Allione - Quigg looked sharp in his first fight for any sort of title, controlling the early contest with his jab and with the hometown crowd well behind him.  In the third round, he landed what looked like a couple of glancing right hooks, and Allione went down and couldn't make it back up before the count of ten.  Before the fight, someone announced that they are putting together a 16-man heavyweight tournament with fights in Dubai, England, China and India, that would have a grand prize of $13 million.  They also said that Evander Holyfield agreed to participate, and that they're in discussions with David Haye and the Klitschkos.  They even have a website and everything.  Let's just say I'm not holding my breath.

Manila, Philippines

Denver Cuello KO9 Muhammad Rachman - Cuello becomes the first fighter to knock out a very shop worn Rachman.  He should be near the front of the line for a shot at the title held by Oleydong Sithsamerchai, who's looked pretty vulnerable his last few times out there. 

Also this weekend:

Logan McGuinness TKO2 Buzz Grant, Antonio Pitalua TKO3 Antonio Fitch, Teon Kennedy TKO10 Alex Becerra, Joe Murray TKO2 Richard Szebeledi, Ali Ismailov TKO3 Jozsef Nagy, Michael Landero TKO8 Yasutaka Kuroki