August 20th

Some days are more interesting than others and it's fair to say that August 20th was a very interesting day in Asian boxing boxing history.

On August 20th 1977 Thai great Saensak Muangsurin made the 4th defence, of his second reign, of the WBC Light Welterweight title with a 6th round victory over talented American challenger Mike Everett. Sadly for Everett this was the beginning of the end for him and he would, if boxrec.com is right, win just 1 of his subsequent 6 bouts before retiring in 1979. If reports are right around 50,000 fans attended this contest and it showed Saensak's incredible popularity at the time. Sadly though the Thai was coming to the end of his career and he would win just 4 of his following 9 bouts before retiring in ill health.

In 1994 Ratanapol Sor Vorapin recorded his 7th defence of the IBF Mnimumweight title as he stopped Venezuelan challenger Marcelino Bolivar in 4 rounds of a complete and utter war. The fight, despite lasting less than 12 minutes, saw both men ruled down in round 2, Bolivar down in round 3, Ratanapol deducted a point in round 4 and Bolivar being stopped on the 3 knockdown rule later in round 4. It was anarchy and it ended Bolivar's career with the Venezuelan never fighting against. The Thai southpaw would fight on for another 15 years though how he survived that long with his style is a real mystery.

A third notable world title bout took place in 2000 as Malcolm Tunacao made the sole defence of his WBC Flyweight title and retained his belt with a draw against Celes Kobayashi. Unfortunately for the Filipino he lose his title less than 7 months later being taken out in a round by Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. Incidentally just 9 days after Tunacao lost his belt to Wonjongkam fans in Japan saw Kobayashi claim the WBC Super Flyweight title with a 10th round TKO over Leo Gamez.

In terms of birthday's we've had two notable champions born on August 20th. The first of those was South Korea's Yong-Soo Choi who was born in 1972 and held the WBA Super Featherweight title from 1994 to 1998  defending it 7 times, including one defence against Lakva Sim and one against Takanori Hatakeyama, who would later beat Choi for the belt.

The other champion was Ryo Miyazaki, the recent WBA Minimumweight champion. Miyazaki, who returns to the ring on September 16th, was last seen losing to Fahlan Sakkreerin Jr this past New Years Eve, defended the 105lb title twice before weight struggles forced him to vacate the title.

(Image, of Choi, courtesy of boxrec.com)

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