At last, a date, Saturday, 24 August, has been confirmed for a rematch between South African boxer Lerato ‘Lights Out’ Dlamini and former world champion Tomoki ‘El Mexicanito’ Kameda from Japan.
Dlamini and Kameda are scheduled to face off in an International Boxing Federation (IBF) featherweight elimination bout in Osaka, Japan. This is a repeat of last year’s clash, which was won by the Welkom-born boxer.
The 30-year-old Dlamini defeated the former World Boxing Organisation (WBO) bantamweight champion via a split decision at the Ota-City General Gymnasium in Tokyo in October last year.
“It’s signed and sealed. Lerato trusted the process and had a lot of patience while all this was happening and I told him that the rematch against Kameda was looking likely to happen. And here we are,” Dlamini’s manager and trainer Colin ‘Nomakanjani’ Nathan remarked.
Dlamini said about the rematch: “I’m very happy now that I got a chance to be number one. I am going to win. I am going to stop him.”
The winner of the August bout is going to challenge for the world title, which is currently held by Luis Alberto Lopez Vargas from Mexico. The 30-year-old Lopez is scheduled to defend his title against American boxer Angelo Leo in the United States of America (USA) in October.
Meanwhile, Dlamini is rated second by the IBF and 14th by the World Boxing Council (WBC). Kameda is third in the IBF, rated 12th by the WBC and is ninth in the World Boxing Organisation (WBO). – Monwabisi Jimlongo
