Tomoki Kameda targets Jamie McDonnell after Showtime win

Tomoki Kameda got a closer than it seemed split decision win on Saturday night against Alejandro Hernandez, successfully defending his WBO bantamweight title on Showtime. Now, the 23-year-old Japanese fighter says he wants a unification fight -- of sorts, anyway -- against Jamie McDonnell.

"I'm going to talk to my team but we're hoping for a unification fight with McDonnell," he said after the win.

Kameda (31-0, 19 KO) didn't put on the sort of scintillating performance that might have been expected, or at least desired, but he got the job done against a solid veteran fighter in Hernandez, and fought through a cut for the first time in his career.

"I was surprised by the judges' scorecards," said Kameda, won won on scores of 115-113, 115-113, and 113-115. "I thought I won by unanimous decision. He's a good fighter and he's experienced, but I thought it was clear that I won.

"I can't remember what round the cut happened, but it was the first time I was cut in my career and it was a good learning experience."

Kameda struggled a bit with the cut in the final three rounds of the fight, but did enough to earn the win, and nobody besides Hernandez (28-11-2, 15 KO) seems to be disputing that. Hernandez said he wants a rematch, but it's extremely unlikely he'll get one.

"I feel I was the winner," Hernandez said. "I want the rematch. I feel the decision was not accurate. My fans are probably thinking the same. This loss doesn't bring me down, it motivates me to train harder and get back out there."

McDonnell (24-2-1, 11 KO) fights on November 22 in Liverpool as part of the Bellew-Cleverly II card, defending his WBA "world" title against Walberto Ramos, a non-contender from Colombia. Ramos (23-6-2, 16 KO) is ranked 114th in the world by BoxRec's system, and hasn't fought anything scheduled for more than eight rounds since 2009. He was out of the sport from February 2009 until April 2013. And though he's won seven fights in a row since his comeback, only one of them has been even remotely credible.

So with McDonnell all but a certainty to retain his belt, which is the secondary version of the WBA title held by Juan Carlos Payano, the Kameda-McDonnell fight should be makable for sometime in the first quarter of 2015.