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
Showing posts with label Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym. Show all posts
Monday, 15 March 2010
Monday, 11 January 2010
Poonsawat rules in Tokyo -- Sky Sports
By Rachel Griffiths, Sky Sports
Poonsawat Kratingdaeng has successfully defended his WBA super-bantamweight title against Japan's Satoshi Hosono.
The fight was scored 115-113 and 117-113 in Poonsawat's favour by two judges, while the third deemed it a 114-114 draw, giving the 29-year-old the majority decision in Tokyo.
Poonsawat developed a strong lead in the middle rounds and held on to secure the first defence of the title he won by defeating Irishman Berard Dunne last year.
"I'm proud that I defended the title in a foreign country. He (Hosono) is a big fighter, so I'm satisfied with a decision victory," said Poonsawat.
The win saw the Thai boxer's record stretched to 40 wins, including 28 KOs, against one defeat.
And now Poonsawat has his sights set on a possible showdown with Hozumi Hasegawa.
Poonsawat confirmed: "If the WBC bantamweight champion Hozumi Hasegawa wants to challenge me, I'm ready to fight against him."
It was the first loss of Hosono's professional career after the Japanese fighter, ranked 10th in the WBA, won his first 16 bouts, including 12 KOs.
Shock
"It was a shock for me that I couldn't beat the champion," said Hosono.
"I couldn't hit him because of his excellent technique. I'm going to work harder and get stronger."
Meanwhile, Japanese challenger Takashi Uchiyama captured the WBA super-featherweight belt by stopping Juan Carlos Salgado in the dying seconds of their fight.
Uchiyama delivered a combination to Salgado's head to send the Mexican to the canvas late in the final round.
Salgado briefly returned to his feet before the referee stopped the clash with just 10 seconds to spare.
The 30-year-old Uchiyama, ranked third in the WBA, improves to 14-0 with 11 knockouts, while Salgado, who relieved Venezuelan Jorge Linares of the title last October, falls to 21-1-1.
Source: skysports.com
Poonsawat Kratingdaeng has successfully defended his WBA super-bantamweight title against Japan's Satoshi Hosono.
The fight was scored 115-113 and 117-113 in Poonsawat's favour by two judges, while the third deemed it a 114-114 draw, giving the 29-year-old the majority decision in Tokyo.
Poonsawat developed a strong lead in the middle rounds and held on to secure the first defence of the title he won by defeating Irishman Berard Dunne last year.
"I'm proud that I defended the title in a foreign country. He (Hosono) is a big fighter, so I'm satisfied with a decision victory," said Poonsawat.
The win saw the Thai boxer's record stretched to 40 wins, including 28 KOs, against one defeat.
And now Poonsawat has his sights set on a possible showdown with Hozumi Hasegawa.
Poonsawat confirmed: "If the WBC bantamweight champion Hozumi Hasegawa wants to challenge me, I'm ready to fight against him."
It was the first loss of Hosono's professional career after the Japanese fighter, ranked 10th in the WBA, won his first 16 bouts, including 12 KOs.
Shock
"It was a shock for me that I couldn't beat the champion," said Hosono.
"I couldn't hit him because of his excellent technique. I'm going to work harder and get stronger."
Meanwhile, Japanese challenger Takashi Uchiyama captured the WBA super-featherweight belt by stopping Juan Carlos Salgado in the dying seconds of their fight.
Uchiyama delivered a combination to Salgado's head to send the Mexican to the canvas late in the final round.
Salgado briefly returned to his feet before the referee stopped the clash with just 10 seconds to spare.
The 30-year-old Uchiyama, ranked third in the WBA, improves to 14-0 with 11 knockouts, while Salgado, who relieved Venezuelan Jorge Linares of the title last October, falls to 21-1-1.
Source: skysports.com
Thai champ Poon faces undefeated Hosono today -- Bangkok Post
Bangkok Post
WBA super-bantamweight champion Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym faces undefeated knockout artist Satoshi Hosono in the first defence of his belt in Tokyo today.
Poonsawat snatched the title from Bernard Dunne with a third round knockout in Ireland last November, but looks to have a much tougher assignment this time against the former Japanese amateur champion.
Hosono has won all 16 of his fights, with 12 stoppages, and scored his best victory last time out when he upset former world title challenger Hiroyuki Enoki.
Sakhon Nakhon's Poonsawat has a 39-1 record with 28KOs and is one of Thailand's four world boxing champions alongside Oledong Sithsamerchai (WBC strawweight), Denkaosan Kaovichit (WBA flyweight) and Usanakorn Kokietgym (WBC women's bantamweight).
The 29-year-old has been labelled as Thailand's Manny Pacquiao in some quarters of the international press and was chosen as the Bangkok Post's best boxer of 2009.
Channel 3 will televise the fight live, with the broadcast starting at 2.30pm.
Source: bangkokpost.com
WBA super-bantamweight champion Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym faces undefeated knockout artist Satoshi Hosono in the first defence of his belt in Tokyo today.
Poonsawat snatched the title from Bernard Dunne with a third round knockout in Ireland last November, but looks to have a much tougher assignment this time against the former Japanese amateur champion.
Hosono has won all 16 of his fights, with 12 stoppages, and scored his best victory last time out when he upset former world title challenger Hiroyuki Enoki.
Sakhon Nakhon's Poonsawat has a 39-1 record with 28KOs and is one of Thailand's four world boxing champions alongside Oledong Sithsamerchai (WBC strawweight), Denkaosan Kaovichit (WBA flyweight) and Usanakorn Kokietgym (WBC women's bantamweight).
The 29-year-old has been labelled as Thailand's Manny Pacquiao in some quarters of the international press and was chosen as the Bangkok Post's best boxer of 2009.
Channel 3 will televise the fight live, with the broadcast starting at 2.30pm.
Source: bangkokpost.com
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