WBC super bantamweight champion Rey Vargas 34-0 (22) retained his title by unanimous decision in a largely lacklustre affair against Tomoki Kameda 36-3 (20) at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Caron, California on Saturday night.

After some early action the fight settled into a dour pattern with few punches thrown as Vargas secured a 117-110 win across the board.

The titleholder however didn’t see the fight that way.

“The idea was to throw a lot of punches and to have a very intelligent fight,” Vargas said during his post-fight interview.

“I believe that we made this a very smart fight, an intelligent one. This is a boxer’s style, to fight with precision.

“I believe that he brought a lot of fans from Japan and that’s why they don’t agree with the decision.”

Japan’s Kameda, who fights out of Mexico, was the one who made the fight and was cheered by the crowd during his post-fight interview.

“I want to say thank you to everyone,” said Kameda. “I recognize Vargas. I believe that he won the fight tonight and I respect him as a champion. He won. I need to learn and to practice more in order to get another chance to be champion again. I am very grateful for all the Mexican people.”

Despite the uninspiring performance, Vargas insisted he wanted to unify the titles in his next fight.

“Danny Roman, we need to unify titles, why not?” said Vargas, calling out the WBA and IBF champion.

“I want all three titles. Danny, we are ready. I am ready whenever you want to fight. You know when a Mexican fights another Mexican, it’s a war.”