October 8th

October 8th has been an interesting day through Asian boxing history with several contests of note, 4 of which are mentioned below.

The first of the 4 bouts we'd like to mention comes from 1978 when Sung-In Suh was beaten, on debut, by Mun-Pyo Chang in a 4 round decision bout. At the time neither man was known, in fact both were making their debuts and strangely the men actually fought 3 times, with Chang winning the first 2 of their meetings. Chang's career was relatively uninteresting, other than his trio with Suh however Suh would go on to become the second ever IBF Super Bantamweight champion beating Bobby Berna for the title in 1984, avenging a loss to Berna from 4 months earlier. Sadly Suh's reign was a short one losing the title 9 months after winning it to Ji Won Kim who twice defeated Sun and forced him into retirement in the mid 1980's.

In 1984 Sot Chitalada, fighting for just the 8th time as a professional, claimed the WBC Flyweight title as he narrowly over-came Gabriel Bernal with a split decision. Chitalada's rise to a world title had taken around 17 months and had included a notable set back around 6 months earlier when he was defeated by Korean great Jung-Koo Chang. Chitalada would fight Bernal twice more, scoring a very tight and controversial draw in 1985 and a clear win in 1986 as he continued to hold the title until 1988. In 1989 Chitalada avenged his loss, to Yong-Kang Kim, to reclaim the title and his second reign lasted until 1991 when he was stopped by Muangchai Kittikasem. From then on his career at the top level was over though he had left a serious impression on the lower weights.

From the little guy to a big guy. It was on this day in 1989 that the monster punching In Chul Baek made the first defense of his WBA Super Middleweight title. Baek, who had won the title in May, stopped American Ron Essett in 11 rounds to defend the title and give Essett his first of 3 world title set backs with the American later losing to Mauro Galvano in a WBC title fight and to Chris Eubank in a WBO world title fight. Sadly for Baek his reign would last just 5 months longer with him making just one other defense of the belt.

More recently, 2011, Filipino fans saw the popular Donnie Nietes claim the WBO Light Flyweight title with a 12 round decision over Ramon Garcia Hirales. This saw Nietes becoming a 2-weight world champion and he has defended the title consistently since winning it 3 years ago!

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

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