Pichit Sithbanprachan
Courtesy of Boxrec.com
Through out the course of history only a handful of champions have retired undefeated. Arguably the least well known is former IBF Flyweight champion Pichit Sithbanprachan (24-0, 18) who held the IBF title for 2 years in the 1990's with out getting much recognition from the boxing community.
The fighter from Chaiyaphum, one of the north eastern provinces of Thailand, seemed to burst out of nowhere in 1992 when he defeated the experienced and highly regarded Alfonso Blanco in a genuinely big upset.
Prior to becoming a world champion Sithbanprachan has a some what mysterious background. The commentators on his bout with Blanco seemed to doubt his age (which they mentioned was "24") and with good reason as some sources list him as being born in 1966 whilst others suggest 1968. This sadly was one of many unanswered questions of the Thai.
Despite the questions surrounding his early days what we do know is that Sithbanprachan made his debut in the late 1980's against Taksin Muangsurin in the famous Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. Although the stadium is famed for it's Muay Thai tournaments, which are amongst the most prestigious in the sport it is also one of the best indoor boxing arenas in Thailand.
The fighter from Chaiyaphum, one of the north eastern provinces of Thailand, seemed to burst out of nowhere in 1992 when he defeated the experienced and highly regarded Alfonso Blanco in a genuinely big upset.
Prior to becoming a world champion Sithbanprachan has a some what mysterious background. The commentators on his bout with Blanco seemed to doubt his age (which they mentioned was "24") and with good reason as some sources list him as being born in 1966 whilst others suggest 1968. This sadly was one of many unanswered questions of the Thai.
Despite the questions surrounding his early days what we do know is that Sithbanprachan made his debut in the late 1980's against Taksin Muangsurin in the famous Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. Although the stadium is famed for it's Muay Thai tournaments, which are amongst the most prestigious in the sport it is also one of the best indoor boxing arenas in Thailand.
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On his debut Sithbanprachan stopped Muangsurin then appeared to take over a year away from the sport before returning to the sport and scoring a string of victories in Bangkok. Although the actual number of victories scored by Sithbanprachan in this early stage of his career is debated he was certainly unbeaten at either 11-0 or 13-0 with a vast majority of his victories coming by stoppage.
Having run up his series of early wins, all against limited opponents with little, if any, professional boxing experience, Sithbanprachan had managed to achieve a lofty IBF ranking. This had helped him lure over the recently crowned IBF champion Alfonso Blanco of Colombia. Blanco was certainly more experienced than Sithbanprachan with over 30 professional bouts under his belt, including 3 world title fights, though with 7 losses on his record going in to the bout it was known he could be beaten. Oddly in Blanco's only previous bout in Asia he had actually been stopped, in 8 rounds by Korean great Myung-Woo Yuh. Sithbanrachan started the bout with Blanco slowly with the first round being a bit of a feeling out round by both men though by the midway point of the second the Thai was starting to move through the gears and having notable success as connecting on his more experienced opponent. By the end of the second it was Sithbanprachan looking like the seasoned veteran and Blanco looking like the out gunned novice as the confidence grew in the Thai who was really enjoying himself in front of a huge home crowd. Be it the crowd or the other conditions Blanco wasn't performing and Sithbanprachan was as he started to connect with powerful left hooks and crisp straight rights. Sithbanprachan's control of the bout extended through the early portion of round 3 before the Thai unloaded on the champion and forced him down with a beautiful right hand that left him wondering quite what had happened. Following the massive victory over Blanco, Sithbanprachan went on an incredibly busy run having 5 fights within a year. Although victories over Dan Nietes (the uncle of Donnie Nietes) and Ladislao Vazquez were both in non-title bouts he did also defend his title 3 times inside a year. The title defenses, all by stoppage, saw Sithbanprachan stopping Mexican Antonio Perez (TKO4), South Korean Kyung-Yung Lee (TKO1) who had been the innaugural IBF Minimumweight champion and Miguel Martinez (TKO9). Having had an excellent 12 months at the top Sithbanprachan started to look like a faded force in 1994 when he was pushed hard by American Arthur Johnson who was fighting just his 9th professional bout. Johnson, who had lost many of the early rounds came on incredibly strong and started to close Sithbanprachan's eye in an enthralling contest that effectively spelled the end for the Thai who would defend his title just once more. The final IBF title defense by Sithbanprachan saw him controversially over-coming Jose Luis Zepeda, a man who had no real right in pushing a world champion all the way. With the bout being declared a split decision in favour of Sithbanprachan it was real proof that the Thai had slipped a long way from being the fighter who had beaten Blanco less than 18 months previous. Following notable inactivity Sithbanprachan was stripped of the title and announced his retirement. It appeared that that was that for the Thai though he would later return to the ring in 1996 stopping Filipino Sammy Sordilla and twice again in 2000 before retiring for good with his name marked in the history books. On paper Sithbanprachan's short reign of terror in 1992 and 1993 wasn't outstanding but is was solid. He looked from the footage available like a very, very capable fighter who was defensively adept and offensively powerful with quick hands and intelligent shot selection. Though the fact he fought solely in Thailand did leave him as a bit of a mystery fighter who very few saw. His mystique was certainly helped by the fact so little is truly known about him but his appearances in Ring Magazine's Flyweight rankings (at #2 in 1992 and at #3 in 1993) seem to suggest that there was a genuine quality to him that has been forgotten around 20 years after he burst on to the scene. The footage below, thanks to FleaBOXING shows Sithbanprachan's excellent performance against Blanco and as a rarity it actually includes English commentary. |
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