by Ronnie Nathanielsz

Mark John Apolinario will face Koki Kameda for the Japanese fighter’s WBA bantamweight title in Tokyo on July 23.

The 23 year old Apolinario is the former WBO Oriental super flyweight champion and has a record of 17-2-3 with 4 knockouts.

He had two consecutive clashes for the WBA Interim bantamweight title against former champion Robert Vasquez but both fights ended in a draw.

Promoter Sammy Gello-ani told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard he felt Apolinario won the first fight which ended in a majority draw in Argentina on November 3, 2012 and that is why the Filipino was given a rematch in Panama which ended in a split draw on March 16 this year.

The  26 year old southpaw Kameda has a record of 30-1 with 17 knockouts although his last two fights were close with split decision victories by the champion.

The first was against Thailand’s Panomroonglek Kaiyanghadaogym on April 7, 2012 in which Kameda apologized to the fans for his poor performance in a post fight interview. The  second split decision  was against Mexico’s Hugo Ruiz on December 4, 2012  in which he bloodied the nose of Ruiz and took the last three rounds to win the fight.

Kameda won the vacant title with a twelve round unanimous decision over Venezuela’s Alexander Munoz whom he dropped in the final round in Saitama, Japan on December 26, 2010. Kameda has successfully defended the title six times.

Gello-ani told us that Apolinario has been doing some roadwork initially but will begin heavy training next week under Jun Agrabio who is the trainer of Dr. Rajan Yraola, the manager of Apolinario.