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Thailand's Suriyan Sor Rungvisai first announced himself to the boxing world with a fantastic effort, albeit in a loss, against veteran Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. The loss to Wonjongkam was a very close one and showed that Suriyan had world class ability though perhaps lacked the experience to over-come such an experienced fighter. Just 10 months after the loss to Wonjongkam we saw Suriyan, now fighting at Super Flyweight, challenge WBC champion Tomas Rojas. Rojas was visibly much taller and rangier though Suriyan used his edge in speed to neutralise those advantages as the Thai genuinely impressed us in what was a break out performance and proof that his showing against Wonjongkam wasn't a fluke performance or a case of Suriyan being over-looked. Interestingly for fans of the Thai it's this bout that perhaps gives hope that Suriyan can win his upcoming WBC Bantamweight title fight with Shinsuke Yamanaka who, like Rojas, is a tall southpaw with notable height and reach advantages over Suriyan. If the Thai can neutralise those advantages of Yamanaka as he did with Rojas there is a chance he could become a 2-weight world champion on October 22nd. (Video courtesy of konnahuk)
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Later this month, October 2014, we will see Thailand's Suriyan Sor Rungvisai in a WBC Bantamweight world title fight against Shinsuke Yamanaka. That bout will be the 5th fight outside of Thailand for Suriyan who made his international debut 6 years earlier in South Korea when he traveled to Masan City to battle against the light hitting Jin-Man Jeon in a fight for the vacant WBO Asia Pacific Flyweight title. At the time of this bout Jeon, best known for his 2010 loss to Milan Melindo, was viewed as a promising Korean Prospect and came in to this bout with just 1 loss from 10 bouts, a stoppage to the then OPBF Super Flyweight champion Kuniyuki Aizawa. As for Suriyan he was a complete unknown outside of the hardcore Thai fans who had perhaps seen him in action in his homeland. We won't ruin the result of the fight though it's fair to say that both men have gone very different ways in their career following this bout with Suriyan having become a world champion in 2011 whilst Jeon is a long forgotten fighter who we believe has since retired. And despite neither looking world class here the fight was an enjoyable one with several rounds of very fun to watch high-octane inside work from both Note, this bout was on the same card as Hayato Kimura Vs Little Roseman. Thai fighters change their names relatively often over the course of a successful career, one man who is only ever really know buy one name is Pongsaklek Wonjongkam. Despite fighting under a number of other names fans world wide will remember Wongjonkam as Wonjongkam, not as Pongsaklek CP Freshmart, as he fought under at one point in his career, or Pongsaklek Sitkanongsak which he used at one point. One fighter who fans may remember for two names however is Suriyan who fought much of his early career as Suriyan Por Chokchai before later becoming Suriyan Sor Rungvisai. One of the most notable bouts Suriyan fought as "Por Chokchai" was his WBC Flyweight title fight with Wonjongkam. For many it was the first notable fight that Suriyan took part in and it was also a bout that made it clear that Suriyan had real potential to be a world champion, something he managed to do just 10 months after this fight when he moved to Super Flyweight and claimed the WBC title there. For those interested in numbers this bout it was Wonjongkam's 81st whilst Suriyan was fighting for just the 19th time. It was Suryan's first world title fight whilst Wonjongkam was making the first defense of his second reign following a long and memorable first reign as champion. If you've not seen this we suggest you give it a go and realise that Suriyan's talent was obvious from a relatively young age, he was just 21 at the time of this fight! Back in 2011 the the Super Flyweight title scene was very different to what is it now and the top Thai back then was Suriyan Sor Rungvisai, a stable mate of Thailand's current Super Flyweight star Srisaket Sor Rungvisai. Suriyan, at the time, was the WBC Super Flyweight champion having beaten Tomas Rojas for the belt and in the eyes of some was one of the emerging stars of Thai boxing. He proved his ability and his team's confidence by fighting well regarded challengers with one of those defenses coming against Japan's tough as nails Nobuo Nashiro, himself a former world champion. We won't ruin much of the bout though we would like to say that this was highly competitive and that the scorecard of Thawuth Pluemsamran, which you'll see at the end, was frankly ridiculous and competes for the award of "one of the worst scores of recent years". As for the fight it saw two people with contrasting styles both putting up very good efforts against each other. |
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