By Jake Donovan
Their first fight proved there's little to separate between Jamie McDonnell and Tomoki Kameda. The weigh-in heading into their sequel provided the latest similiarity between the two.
Both fighters weighed in at 117.8 lbs. for their bantamweight title fight rematch Sunday afternoon at American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas. As was the case in the first fight, part two will also air live on CBS in the latest installment of Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) series.
McDonnell survived a third-round knockdown to rally back hard in the second half and claim a narrow decision win in their CBS-televised clash in May. The loss was the first of Kameda's career, although most observers had the former bantamweight champ buidling up a big enough lead in the early going to prevail in the end.
Despite the positive reviews in the court of public opinion, Kameda watched his "0" go, coming on the heels of his being stripped of his version of the bantamweight title.
Also on the show, Anthony Dirrell looks to rebound from his first career defeat as he faces longtime middleweight contender Marco Antonio Rubio, who moves up in weight.
The immediate challenge for Dirrell to overcome was getting within fighting weight. The former super middleweight champ initially tipped the scales at 170.6 lbs., but returned less than an hour later to get within the 170 lb. contract limit.
Dirrell engages in his first fight since losing his super middleweight title to Badou Jack in his first defense this past April.
Rubio came in at 169.4 lbs. for his first fight since a knockout loss to unbeaten middleweight champ Gennady Golovkin last October. It is also the first fight above the middleweight limit for the 35-year old Mexican slugger since 2012.
Jake Donovan is the managing editor of krikya360.com.
Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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