IBF featherweight champion Angelo “El Chinito” Leo has chosen the long flight over the hometown crowd, defending his title against Japan’s former bantamweight king Tomoki “El Mexicanito” Kameda this Saturday, 24 May, at Intex Osaka. ProBox TV streams the main event live at 8 a.m. ET.
Leo’s Albuquerque advisers offered a stateside showcase, but the 31-year-old sees bigger stakes abroad. “Overseas—bigger payday,” he told ProBox, “and my name gets linked with Naoya Inoue.” Indeed, a highlight win in Inoue’s backyard could fast-track a mega-fight if the pound-for-pound superstar moves up from 122 lbs, which he’s hinted will happen once the weight cut becomes brutal.
Watch the KO of the week by Angelo Leo: Watch
Saturday’s assignment is no tune-up, as Kameda rides a six-fight streak since returning from a two-year lay-off and has home-soil pedigree: he captured his first world title in Tokyo at 21 and owns a rabid local following. Leo, however, brings fresh momentum of his own, having detonated a “knockout-of-the-year” right hand on Luis Alberto Lopez last August to claim the belt. He sparred Kameda in 2018 and 2021 - “I got the better of him,” he says - and believes the styles still favour him.
A victory keeps Leo mandatory-free until 2026 and positions him perfectly for the winner of the WBO clash between Ruben Villa and Raymond Ford or, if Inoue jumps, a lucrative unification on Japanese turf. “I’ll leave Japan with my belt—I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” Leo vowed.
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