By Kayla Lewis, 8CountNews
What country comes to mind when considering who produces the best boxers in Asia? Korea had their first world champion in Ki-Soo Kim and depending on your preference, also in In-Jin Chi. Fighting Harada came from the “Land of the Rising Sun” or Japan. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos aren’t even ranked, while China has yet to have a world champion. The Philippines made Pancho Villa, Flash Elorde, Rex Navarette and of course, Manny Pacquiao. Indonesia has Chris John, who also deserves to be in the P4P rankings, but is continually under appreciated outside his homeland. Thailand’s fighters were Pone Kingpetch and in my opinion, one of the greatest in Khaosai Galaxy.
Khaosai Galaxy retired with a record of 49 wins, 1 loss with 43 knockouts. The power this man possessed at such a low weight division had many referring to him as the “Thai Tyson”. He was the WBA Super Flyweight Champion for seven years from 1984 to 1991. He ended up defending his title a total of 19 times throughout his career. Galaxy was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999 and is listed as #19 on The Ring’s 100 greatest punchers of all time. In 1988, his twin brother Kaokor Galaxy won the WBA Bantamweight title, making the two the first twin brothers to ever capture world titles.
At this moment, Thailand only has 2 world champions in Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym and Oleydong Sithsamerchai. If you take a look at the P4P rankings of boxers from Thailand, by looking at their records, you may wonder why there is only a couple. To someone fairly new to boxing, a boxer with a 66-1 record and 64 KO’s may seem like Superman. On the other hand, from what I have observed, these kinds of records tend to be more padded than legit. In case you haven’t noticed, Thai boxing is a bit corrupt and lacks in the professionalism department. The sport there is more of a gambler’s game than a boxer’s fighting chance to be something.
Fighters from outside the country often travel to Thailand, hoping for a win, just to end up losing. Thai promoters and managers tend to keep their fighters within the country, often inflating their records, so when the time comes for the fighters to start being noticed, they are. That is how they “win” their money, rather than earning it. Promoters will keep all their fighters, with talent or without, in a single group. This results in major sanctioning bodies to overlook fighters from Thailand when it comes to title shots simply because they must not have the time to decipher who has what and who doesn’t. A prime example of one of the many issues with Thailand is top ranked Thai featherweight Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo was set to fight Guty Espadas Jr. in Mexico as an eliminator bout, for the winner to challenge Elio Rojas for his WBC Featherweight title. Behind the scenes, something must have gone down because Rojas vs. Espadas was then formed with Piriyapinyo out of the picture and never heard from again.
Through the bad and the ugly, Thailand does have a good side. The Galaxy brothers are evidence to that. Also, the fact that early in his career, Manny Pacquiao lost his WBC Flyweight title to Thai boxer Medgeon Singsurat is something to be noted. The point is, why don’t we see more Thai boxers as world champions or getting opportunities in the US? You can’t tell me that through the entire smokescreen hovering over the Thai boxing scene, that there isn’t a single fighter that rises above the rest. Isn’t it called something like seek and you shall find?
Maybe we don’t see many successful Thai boxers because they fail to take the journey outside their country in an attempt to upgrade their careers while continuing to downgrade in Thailand. Or maybe it is an unknown fear that Michael Buffer and Jimmy Lennon Jr. have of mispronunciating a Thai boxer’s name before a fight. Whatever it is, something’s gotta give.
The question is, will the boxing world begin to take heed to the possibilities of Thailand having a great champion in its midst? Or will we continue to act as if boxing in this country doesn’t exist and is just a mere figment of our imagination?
Source: 8countnews.com
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