Here's what I saw on Thursday night:
Daiki Kameda failed to excite the crowd in his first world title fight.
He failed to show up mentally for the biggest fight of his life.
Fighting a man 15 years his senior, Kameda rarely took the initiative seriously.
He danced around the ring. He clutched and grabbed Daisuke Naito as often as possible. And at times, it looked as if he wanted their prime-time bout to be a wrestling match. Case in point: He pushed his opponent to the canvas.
Even in the 12th round, when he should've tried to land the knockout punch, Kameda grabbed Naito and was docked for points by the fight referee.
Bad decision, bad fight.
This was an embarrassing effort by the young fighter. (Any other fighter who did what Kameda did on Thursday night also would've earned the same assessment by this boxing scribe.)
Scoring the fight from the newspaper office, I had Kameda winning only three of the 12 rounds.
His defense was as weak as his offense. He left himself vulnerable to numerous body shots from the hard-working Naito.
It's the notion here that Kameda learned a valuable lesson on Thursday night. He must throw more punches, fight more aggressively and leave the wrestling tactics at home where they belong.