‘Prince’ eyes Tomoki throne

Immanuel ‘Prince’ Naidjala is reportedly acclimatising nicely to the weather in Japan ahead of his WBO bantamweight world title challenge against Tomoki Kameda next Tuesday. Naidjala and his trainer, Nestor Tobias, as well as Josef Hanthindi left for Japan on Monday to get ready for the fight. Speaking to Namibian Sun from Japan yesterday, Tobias said his fighter was ready to give a good account of himself during Tuesday’s bout. “The environment is good; the boy [Naidjala] is good and he is up to it [the fight],” said Tobias. “The weather is a bit cold but we managed to prepare quite well and did road work yesterday [Wednesday]. Now we are just waiting for the big day,” he added. Tobias said the hype around the fight is tremendous in that country as the team has been hounded by curious sport journalists. “Everywhere we go, there are journalists. We also had a public workout yesterday [Wednesday] and the gym was packed with journalists.” But Tobias is adamant his boxer knows why they went to Japan and is focused on getting a good result. “We are ready and we have worked hard and now we need just that little bit of luck and hopefully that will come our way.” Tobias also touched on the publicity the fight has brought for Namibia and added that he would not be surprised to see Japanese business investments in Namibia after the fight. “A lot of people wanted to know where Namibia is and those that still don’t know will know after the fight. So we are very confident that we have done good here,” he said. Kameda confident Meanwhile, defending WBO bantamweight champion Kameda said on Wednesday he is brimming with confidence ahead of his first world title defence against the sixth-ranked Naidjala at Osaka’s Bodymaker Colosseum. Tomoki, the youngest of the three Kameda boxing brothers, said if Naidjala goes with an out-boxing plan, he’ll be ready. “If he wants to brawl, bring it on”so , he told the Japan Times. “If he’s circling, I can chase him down. If he wants to slug it out, I’m fine with that,” said Kameda, after putting in about one hour of training in a practice open to the media. Naidjala, who is a compatriot of Paulus Ambunda, whom Kameda defeated to wrest the WBO crown in the Philippines in August, told the same paper that Ambunda’s defeat was of no consequence and he isn’t viewing the fight as revenge. Both fighters are undefeated, with Tomoki boasting a record of 28 wins from 28 bouts while Naidjala has 16 wins from 17 fights with a solitary draw. -Additional reporting by Japan Times