The Japan Boxing Commission (JBC) announced on Friday that it would not have licenses of Kameda Gym’s club owner Shinji Yoshii and its manager Satoshi Shima renewed because of its responsibility of having caused serious confusion on the aftermath of the previous IBF/WBA super-flyweight unification bout between IBF champ Daiki Kameda and WBA titlist Liborio Solis last December. It means the JBC actually suspended the activities of Kameda gym’s staging promotions featuring Kameda brothers of former WBA bantam champ Koki, current WBO bantam titleholder Tomoki and IBF super-fly ruler Daiki—inside of Japan.
Also, an unidentified JBC staff filed a lawsuit with Koki Kameda and Tomoki Kameda for having confined him in a room after the rules meeting and threatened him with their violent behavior. He claims a payment of 10,000,000 Yen (some 100,000 USD) for mental damage he suffered in Takamatsu, where Daiki participated in an IBF 118-pound elimination bout with Rodrigo Guerrero and acquired the vacant belt last September. Kameda brothers strongly refuted the JBC staff for the gloves required by Guerrero party despite the previous agreement.
Hiroshi Akiyama, the JBC director, opened a press conference and said, “Until we confirms Kameda Gym’s proper governance to recover, the JBC will have their licenses revoked.” Nobuaki Uratani, the vice executive secretary, also said, “There were too many troubles caused by Kameda Gym, and the JBC has lost mutual trusts with them.” The JBC suggested Kameda gym had been actually ill-controlled by Kameda brothers’ father Shiro Kameda, whose license of a cornerman had been indefinitely suspended because of his repeated violence by the JBC in 2007.
Haruo Kitamura, a renowned attorney, also had a press conference and argued against the JBC’s punishment as an unwarrantable measure, saying “Kameda Gym will ask for the JBC’s reexamination, and should the JBC not overturn the verdict, it will file a case with the JBC to prove their innocence.”
It is a very uncomfortable incident—for Japanese boxing fans—for the JBC to take such an action against Kameda gym that holds the active three Kameda brothers, who may be obliged to fight abroad beyond the JBC’s governance or move and belong to another gym in order to go on fighting here in Japan.