Terdsak retains as Channel 7 let us down

Lad Sawai, Pathum Thani, Thailand
The weekend's action, as it often does, kicked off in Thailand earlier today with a small fight card televised courtesy of Thai channel 7. The show, although not the longest show, it did feature some genuinely interesting moments and a very disappointing moment as well.

The show began with a single under-card bout, a 6 rounder between the debuting Petchmanee Kokietgym (1-0) and Filipino Wilber Andogan (9-14-4, 3) . The fight, although having a clear winner in the Petchmanee, was entertaining with the Andogan coming to fight despite a relative lack of skill. Thankfully the desire and work rate of the Filipino, who started excellently, saw him surviving the 6 round distance despite looking very tired in the final round or two.

Following the under-card bout we moved on to the main event which saw former world title challenger Terdsak Kokietgym (52-4-1, 33) successfully defend the PABA interim Super Featherweight title with a clear, but tough decision over Filipino hardman Mark Sales (20-36-3, 6). Despite the fact Sales sports a journeyman's record he proved to be a difficult foe giving Terdsak real issue with his spoiling and sharp counters. The bout, whilst never in doubt, will have served Terdsak well with a solid work out and good chance to sharpen his tools against a genuinely tough foe.

Despite the fact the Terdsak/Sales bout was hard fought the most striking thing about it was Sales's resemblence to Filipino star Manny Pacquiao. Sure Sales didn't have the skills, speed or power of "The Pacman" but he had clearly styled his facial hair on the political puncher and one would be forgiven for suggesting that they looked like brothers.

We were supposed to get a second televised title fight on the broadcast, an PABA Minimumweight title bout, unfortunately the TV time ran out after just 3 rounds of what looked like a very entertaining contest. Through the 3 rounds we got to see it appeared Filipino fighter Jimmy Masangkay (who entered 4-2-1, 1) was getting the better of Thailand's very own Samartlek Chaiyonggym (who entered 14-4, 5) who was defending the title he won last March.

Unfortunately with the broadcast being cut after 3 rounds so we were originally unsure who won. It turns out that Samartlek took a clear decision though from we saw we'd be shocked if the bout was as clear cut as the scorecards indicate.

On the untelevised portion of the card we had a further 4 contests. These saw Petchjohee Kokietgym (1-0, 1) coming out on top of an all debutant clash with Santos Kwanjaisrikod (0-1), with Petchjohee taking a second round TKO, an opening round blow out for Rick Paciones (6-15-2, 3) over Saifah Sithpokrieng (0-2) and a pair of decisions.

The decisions saw former female world title challenger Amara Kokietgym (13-3-1, 5) come put on top against the debuting Nampetch Kwanjaisrikod (0-1) in a 6 rounder whilst Saenganan Sithsaithong (3-0, 2) claimed a 4 round decision over Wanhaeng Or Siththichai (0-1).

There was one other bout on the card, a rare stoppage victory for Rick Paciones (6-15-2, 3). Unfortunately we've no idea who he faced in his bout, though he did apparently take an opening round KO over his unknown opponent.
 
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
As well as the show in Thailand there was also a card, of novices, in Japan. The show, the first Dangan show of the year, featured 11 bouts, all scheduled for 4 rounds, with none of the fighters on the show having more than 8 previous bouts.

Of the 11 bouts 2 of them took place at Light Flyweight. These saw Yoshiki Abe (3-1-1, 1) taking a unanimous decision over the limited, though more experienced, Naoki Akagi (2-4-2, 1) whilst Shoji Ebisawa (4-1, 1) narrowly claimed a split decision over Tatsuji Kakumoto (2-4, 1).

As well as the 2 Light Flyweight bouts there was also 2 bouts at Flyweight. These saw the 19 year old Naoki Mochizuki (2-0, 2) scoring a second round KO over Takamasa Kawahara (1-2) who suffered he second successive stoppage loss. The other Flyweight contest, an all unbeaten bout, saw both men keeping their "0" as Sonin Nihei (2-0-1) and Yuma Kudo (2-0-1) fought to a majority draw. This bout, one of 3 bouts to end in a draw was incredibly close and played out much like it looked on paper, with both men being very evenly matched.

We saw another draw in one of the 2 Super Flyweight contests as the win-less Daichi Yamamoto (0-2-1) and Hiroki Ishii (0-2-1) also fought to a majority draw. The other bout at 115lbs went as expected with the hard hitting Masayasu Nakamura (4-0, 4) stopping Kazuma Ishikura (2-2, 1), the unbeaten Nakamura took 2 rounds to finish off Ishikura who had never previously been stopped.

In the Bantamweight division the 17 year old Ryusei Ishii (2-0, 1) took his most notable victory to date as he out pointed the previously unbeaten Ippei Azuma (2-1-1, 1). The bout, a close fought decision, was a much better test for Ishii than his 98 second blow victory in his debut bout.

The show's remaining draw came at Featherweight where featherweight Yuta Itagaki (2-1-1, 1) fought to a split draw with the most experienced man on the card, Tsuyoshi Naito (3-3-3, 1).

The biggest upset on the card came in the Lightweight division where the previously unbeaten Shoma Koga (3-1, 3) was unexpectedly stopped, inside a round, by Masahiro Kobayashi (3-1-1, 2). Koga, who we had been tipping as the potential star to come out of this show, lasted just 103 seconds with Kobayashi who bounced back well from his loss last time out to Osu Inoue.

At Light Welterweight, where we had the two remaining bouts, fans saw the debuting Rice Hayashi (1-0, 1) stopping fellow debutant Kodai Suga (0-1) whilst unbeaten teenager Andy Hiraoka (2-0, 1) took a decision over Yoshikuni Hashiguchi (2-4, 1). Although just 17 years old we'd advise keeping a serious eye on Hiraoka who is a very rangy 17 year old with real potential as long as it's developed well.


Tacoma, Washington, USA
Over in the US we unfortunately saw Mongolian Bayan Jargal (17-5-3, 11) lose to American veteran Zahir Raheem (35-3-0-1, 21) in what was really a slow burner. The first 6 rounds were genuinely awful to watch with Raheem's speed and movement being too much for the slow starting Jargal who was unable to get any traction in the early rounds. Despite being the better fighter Raheem was unwilling to put his foot on the gas and instead we got a very dull start to the fight.  Thankfully by the end of round 7 however Raheem was beginning to look tired and Jargal did make a good late charge for the victory, though had simply left himself too much with not enough time to do it and it was clear that he'd lost by a round or two.

Despite Jargal's late charge there unfortunately 2 judges who appeared unwilling to give him any credit scoring the bout 99-91 in Raheem's favour. The right guy won though those cards did leave something of a foul taste in the mouth