Kameda (42-5, 23 KO), fighting for the first time since a close loss to the equally inactive Angelo Leo 17 months ago, can still claim the belt with a victory. Odds are he’d inherit the Inoue fight, too; a fight between them would do absolute gangbusters on Japanese turf.
Should he fall short, perhaps no. 1 Mirco Cuello will finally get his due. The Argentinean is coming up on two years since he won a final eliminator, having been forced to watch as Nick Ball fought a pair of super bantamweights before letting Figueroa cut the line. Behind Cuello sits knockout artist Mikito Nakano, then Kameda, then Ivan Chirkov, who somehow got that ranking despite his most recent fight being a six-round draw against a random Uzbek whose previous 11 foes combined for an 0-12 record.