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

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