Bangkok,Thailand
This past Thursday in Thailand saw a number of bouts with a trio of notable Thai fighters.

Of the three Thai's in action the most significant at the moment is current WBC Minimumweight champion Wanheng Menayothin (39-0, 14) who scored a 4th round stoppage victory against Ardi Buyung (2-5). Wanheng, who is expected to return to the ring in about 6 weeks, did little more than stay busy with this bout as he moves towards a world title defence against Young Kil Bae.

Another was former WBC Minimumweight champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai (57-1-1, 21) who made light work of the win-less Petchmai Sor Praithong (0-6), who was stopped in the 5th round.

The third bout of note saw former WBA interim Flyweight championship Yodmongkol Vor Saengthep (36-3, 22) score a 3rd round KO win against Edo Anggoro (7-4), and claim a lower tier title with the win.

Thailand
The only Asian show this past Friday came from Thailand where several notable fighters were in televised action.

In the main event we saw former WBC Minimumweight champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai (56-1-1, 21) retain his WBC International Super Flyweight title as he easily out-pointed Indonesian visitor Rasmanudin (19-9-3, 10). The Indonesian didn't travel to lose and did try to fight back against the Thai but simply wasn't good enough or big enough Oleydong. Looking at the Thai it's a real mystery as to how he ever made Minimumweight as he is looking massive at Super Flyweight and dwarfed Rasmanudin who has fought as high as Featherweight!

Another notable fighter on this card was Petch Sor Chitpattana (30-0, 19) who defeated Filipino visitor Jestoni Autida (7-3, 3). On paper this was a mismatch but the visitor did make a good go of things late in the bout and again left us questioning Petch's real potential. The 21 year old Thai is young but with 30 bouts under his belt we do wonder if he's really progressing or developing as he should.

One fight we do like and we do see a lot of potential in is Kongfah CP Freshmart (13-0, 8) made light work of his opponent on this show. Kongfah, who got out attention last year, was too good for his opponent and it showed when ever the unbeaten prospect turned the screw. In defense of the opponent he did come to fight but was widely out classed. Another man who beat an out classed opponent was Chanachai CP Freshmart (3-0, 2) though his opponent was hapless and really looked like a light touch for the unbeaten prospect. Unfortunately as the time of writing the opponents of Kongfah and Chanachai are unknown.

Victoria, Australia
There were more Thai's in action in Australia, though unfortunately they were out classed.

The more experienced of the Thai's here was Yodmongkol Singmanasak (12-15-1, 7) who was stopped in the 4th round by the once touted Michael Zerafa (17-1, 9). This was Yodmongkol's 11th stoppage loss and he has gone 1-9 in his last 10, leading us to wonder what purpose he was really serving here against a talented kid like Zerafa.

The other Thai was the debuting Kayfai Singmanasak (0-1) who was widely out pointed by Khoder Assi (5-1, 1) in a mis-matched 6 round contest.

This past Friday was a somewhat busy day though most of the more notable action came from Thailand with a number of title fights whilst in Japan we had some low level action.

Wat Tako, Thailand
In one of the Thai shows we saw two unbeaten men extending their winning records and claiming regional title belts with relatively straight forward wins, though wins which came in completely different ways.

One of those bouts saw the less than impressive Saenganan KKP (8-0, 5) claim the WBC Asian Boxing Council Continental Light Flyweight title with a 12 round decision over the limited Wilber Andogan (10-16-4, 4). Unfortunately for fans wanting to see excitement this bout would have been thoroughly under-whelming with Andogan showing little in terms of positivity whilst Saenganan left us wondering just how low his ceiling will be. To say we are less than impressed by both of these men would be stating the obvious and Saenganan has really disappointed us in successive fights now.

Whilst one Thai disappointed us the other impressed us. That was Petchchorhae Kokietgym (7-0, 5) who looked sensational in a second round blitz to claim the WBC Asian Boxing Council Silver Flyweight title. Petchorhae had won the opening the opening round and done all the feeling out he needed before rushing Roilo Golez (15-13-1, 6) in the opening seconds of round 2 to stop the Filipino in what was really a statement making win.

On the same card there was also a trio of other bouts. The most interesting of those saw the unbeaten Petchmanee Kokietgym (2-0) defeating the highly experienced Domi Nenokeba (11-21-1, 7). On paper this looks like a straight forward win however Nenokeba did drop Saenganan KKP in a recent bout and may well have done enough to have deserved the win on that occasion. The bouts both ended in second round KO's as Kongthara KKP (2-0, 2) stopped the debuting Samart Por Aripai (0-1) and Petchnamchai KKP (1-0, 1) scored a debut win over Sakadpetch Sor Kanitsorn (0-1)

Bangkok, Thailand
The second Thai card took place in Bangkok and featured a trio of notable bouts.

The main event here saw Petch Sor Chitpattana (26-0, 17) defend his WBC Youth Silver Bantamweight title with an 8th round KO against Filipino foe Jaymart Toyco (14-6, 10). Petch didn't have things all his own way though the ending was a decisive one with a fantastic 1-2 sending a defeated Toyco down. In credit to Toyco he put up a decent effort though he was fighting a better over-all fighter.

Whilst Petch and Toyco were the only title fighters on this card they weren't the only notable fighters on the card, in fact the most notable was former WBC Minimumweight champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai (53-1-1, 21) who, at the third time of asking, stopped Indonesian journeyman Falazona Fidal (25-41-1, 8). The ending was a controversial one with the Indonesian protesting the stoppage though he seemed to act more hurt than he was when he went down and was effectively punished for his poor acting.

A third bout on this show saw Kongfah CP Freshmart (8-0, 4) score an amazing KO over the previously unbeaten Sangthong Chor Pakdee (4-1, 4). The bout was relatively even through the first 2 round rounds with Kongfah doing enough to win them with out dominating though in round 3 Sangthong was dropped hard in a real KO of the year contender. We kid you not, this was stunning.

One fighter who didn't score a stoppage on this card was Fahpituck Por Pakdee (4-0, 3) who had to take a 6 round decision over the usually fragile Fahpikard Twins Gym (2-7).

Tokyo, Japan
As well as the action in Thailand there was also a card in Japan featuring 9 bouts, many of which were highly competitive affairs, albeit at a low level.

One of the competitive bouts saw Daisuke Sudo (2-2) claim a very narrow majority victory over the previously unbeaten Naoyuki Sakamoto (1-1, 1) likewise Fumihiro Ijima (2-2) did the same against Hiroyuki Yago (2-1) who also lost his unbeaten record. A third majority decision in the 4 rounders saw Jim Miura (2-0) narrowly keep his "0" with a win over the debuting Seiryu Toshikawa (0-1). Had any of those bouts ended up in 4 round draws no one would really have had much of a complain as they really were tight and close contests with little to seperate them. Thankfully we did have some decisive action in the 4 rounders with Mao Tameda (1-1) taking a clear decision over Ryuji Kohama (0-1) and, even more clearly, Satoshi Hongo (2-2, 1) scoring a 4th round KO against Hiroki Ishii (1-3-1).

In the sole 6 rounder Yasuhiro Tanaka (4-1-2) took a clear cut decision over Takahiro Iida (4-5-1, 2). This was Tanaka's first bout in 17 months.

The main trio of fights were all 8 rounders the most competitive of which resulted in a majority draw between Ryutaro Taira (8-4-2, 3) and Ryu Onigashima (12-6-1, 7). One of the scorecards, a 78-74 win for Onigashima, appears to be far out with the others agree to a draw with scores of 76-76 and 77-77 suggesting the bout was extremely close in their eyes. 

Another of the 8 rounders saw Kazuki Matsuyama (9-5, 5) take a 6th round TKO win over the limited but heavy handed Yudai Ueno (7-7-2, 6) whilst the final bout saw Yuki Fukumoto (16-9, 5) take an expected victory over Yasuhiro Sakurai (7-17). The Fukumoto/Sakurai bout came to an end with less than 2 minutes left due to an accidental injury with Fukumoto taking a wide technical decision win.

Western Australia, Australia
It wasn't a good day for Asian's in Australia as a trio of travellers lost.

The most notable of these was Indonesian James Mokoginta (25-14-2, 13) who lost a clear decision to Nathaniel May (7-1, 4) in a bout for the WBO Asian Pacific Youth Super Flyweight title. Although the clear loser Mogoginta likely showed up May's questionable about power, especially when one considers that that Indonesian fighter has been stopped in 8 previous fights.

Thai debutant Payayong Sueksasongkro (0-1) was a clear loser against the unbeaten Louisa Hawton (3-0, 1) though was game enough to last the distance, as was Pantiwa Laewmahosod (0-2) who took on the talented Lauryn Eagle (9-4-1, 3) in a 6 round bout.

(Image courtesy of boxingnews.jp is from the Fukumoto/Sakurai bout)

Today's action came in two chunks with the early morning stuff coming from Thailand before we later moved on to fights from Russia. It's wasn't action that will rival Saturday's but it was still more than enough to warm us up for the weekend.

Surat Thani, Thailand
The Thai action wasn't really high profile though it did see former WBC Minimumweight champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai (54-1-1, 20) in action as he defended his WBC International Super Flyweight title against the over-matched Noli Morales (10-5, 3). Morales was completely out of his depth and, although Oleydong isn't a big puncher, he lasted just 4 rounds.

As well as Oleydong's bout we've been informed there were two others. These saw veteran Noknoi Sitthiprasert (49-4, 28) taking a decision over the experienced Fernando Lumacad (29-8-3, 12) and Morakote Patanakan Gym (9-3, 5) scoring a quick blow out over over an over-matched foe. From what we under-stand the Japanese fighter was Shigeru Murata, though we're unsure on his record.

Moscow, Russia
Although the action kicked off in Thailand it was the Russian card that many fans were more interested in and it kicked off around 8 hours after the Thai show had finished.

The card had interesting bouts through out, the first of which was an excellent win for the very highly regarded Sergey Lipinets (2-0, 1) who stopped the over-matched Dzemil Cosovic (3-2-1, 1) in 4 rounds. We're really looking forward to seeing what Lipinets does in the future though some have described him as a future Russian superstar.

On the under card there wasn't just a victory for Lipinets but also for Evgeny Smirnov (2-0, 1) who defeated Milan Savic (1-2-1) via a 6 round decision. Although not as highly regarded as Lipinets there are good things being said about Smirnov.

Another man down the card who was in action was Eduard Troyanovsky (18-0, 15) who made light work of Anton Bekish (5-11, 4). Unfortunately for Troyanovsky he was hoping to fight Richar Abril but numerous issues have prevented that bout from happening, including both fighters suffering injures. It seems likely that he this was a stay busy fight for the Russian Lightweight hopeful but it'll have been a frustrating one for him after all the promises of a world title bout this year.

Further up the card Aslanbek Kozaev (25-1-1, 7) took a 10 round decision over the out matched Igor Faniyan (14-8-2, 7). It wasn't a great match up but it was Kozaev's first bout since his loss to Ray Robinson in the US in February.

The chief support bout on the show saw Russian Cruiserweight hopeful Rakhim Chakhkiev (19-1, 14) defend his WBC international Cruiserweight title for the first time as he over-came former world title challenger Santander Silgado (25-2, 20). Although the victory was a good one for Chakhkiev he really did struggle early on with Silgado who, despite losing, made life difficult for the highly touted Russian.

Although Chakhkiev struggled his compatriot, Alexander Povetkin (27-1, 19) looked sensation as he returned to the ring and dominated Manuel Charr (26-2, 15) in a very, very impressive performance. Povetkin bounced shots off Charr at will before closing the show with a world class combination that sent Charr down hard in round 7 for a genuinely eye catching victory for the Russian Heavyweight.


Metro Manila, Philippines
In the Philippines fans got to see the hard hitting Marbon Bodiongan (10-1-2, 8) wipe out the limited Cris Leon (7-10-4, 3) in 7 rounds. Bodiongan is now unbeaten in 5 with 4 KO's in those 5 bouts since his sole defeat back in August 2012.

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

This past Friday was a busy day through out the Asian boxing world with both fights in Asia and fights outside of Asia involving Asian fighters or various rankings.

Bangkok, Thailand
The action really kicked off in Thailand where Channel 7 televised a small show with 3 contests on, all of which included someone of note.

The main event saw the very promising, and amazingly well named, Knockout CP Freshmart (6-0, 3) successfully defend his WBC Youth Minimumweight title with a clear decision victory over Filipino challenger Jonathan Refugio (13-4-4, 3). This was Refugio's 4th loss in 6 bouts whilst Knockout, who has now defended his Youth title 6 times, appears to be on the verge of climbing in to the fringes of the world rankings.

As well as Knockout the show also featured former Minimumweight world champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai (53-1-1, 19) who scored a rare stoppage by taking out the win-less Kompetch Twins Gym (0-3). 

The other fight on this card featured the #1 ranked WBC Minimumweight challenger Wanheng Menayothin (33-0, 10) who managed to score a 6 round decision victory over Indonesian veteran Heri Amol (34-16-4, 14). It really is time that Wanheng moved on to fighting for a world title as he's been the #1 contender for far too long to just keep waiting.

Tokyo, Japan
In Tokyo Japanese fans got treat to a 12 fight show at the Korakuen Hall, with all the fights being scheduled for 4 rounds.

Of the 12 bouts only 3 actually completed the schedule with these bouts seeing Tatsuji Kakumoto (3-4, 1) out point Shuhei Takahashi (2-2, 1) in a Flyweight bout, Yuta Itagaki (3-1-1, 1) defeat Genji Ishida (1-2) at Super Bantamweight and unbeaten Featherweight Takahiko Suzuki (3-0, 2) managed to over-come Kei Iwahara (2-1, 1).

The shortest of the other bouts on the show lasted just 67 seconds as Satoru Morishita (3-5, 2) made unexpectedly light work of Kazuki Sanpei (2-2). Morishita's stoppage victory was one of two opening round KO's with Kazuto Nakane (2-1, 1) stopping the previously unbeaten Shinnosuke Yoshimori (1-1, 1).

The most common result on the card were second round T/KO's which occurred in 5 of the 12 bouts. These included a victory for the unbeaten KO artist Naoki Mochizuki (3-0, 3) who stopped Iwashi Miyahara (1-4), Muneyuki Kishii (3-2, 2) who beat Kotaro Banba (1-1, 1), The unbeaten Ryo Hino (2-0, 1) who stopped Shun Wakabayashi (1-1), Hikaru Takaki (4-4, 4) who defeated Mitsushige Takahoshi (1-4, 1) and Taichi Kimura (3-1, 2) who claimed a victory over Ryota Harukawa (2-3, 2).

The remaining bouts all finished in round 4. These saw Toshiki Maruyama (2-4, 2) beat Akira Watanabe (1-3, 1) and Kimihiro Nakagawa (2-0, 2) taking out Daigo Miyagawa (1-2-2).

Suining, China
In a show in China we saw a number of bouts, including 2 title bouts.

For us the key bout here was the third meeting between China's very promising Qiu Xiao Jun (12-2, 4) and and Filipino veteran Jonathan Baat (25-5-3, 12). After having lost twice to Baat this was all about revenge for Jun, who manage to take a clear decision over his nemesis and defend his 
WBC Asia Council Continental Super Bantamweight title in the process.

In the other title bout the Japanese based Ugandan Okello Peter (21-8, 19) was forced to retire from his bout with Russian giant Evgeny Orlov (15-12-1, 11) who claimed the WBC Asia Council Continental Heavyweight title courtesy of a 9th round retirement victory.

The biggest upset on this card came in a female bout as China's Luo Yu Jie (3-6, 1) scored her first stoppage victory and defeated Japanese veteran Tamami Tor Buamas (6-4, 5). Although "Tor Buamas" is generally a Thai fighting name it seems that the 47 Tamami, real name Tamami Morimoto, has been fighting under a Thai banner since her debut back in 2009, hence the possible confusion. After this loss it seems that that's probably her career over though

China's very own Qu Peng (5-0-1, 3) was successful on the card as scored his 4th straight win with a decision over Australian Paul Watson (2-3, 1).

The one other bout on this card saw once beaten Russian Andrey Kalyuzhnyy (5-1, 3) take just 32 seconds to see off win-less Thai Kajorndet Or Ekachai (0-2).


Victoria, Australia
One of the highest ranked fighter in action was Filipino Randy Petalcorin (21-1-1, 16), the WBA #2 ranked Light Flyweight. Petalcorin, fighting against experienced Thai Samransak Singmanasak (35-22-1, 27), made light work of his opponent who was stopped in just the second round.

Petalcorin was the only Asian on the card to win though wasn't the only one in action. The others who fought on the same show were Thailand's Kiatchai Singwancha (34-12, 23), who was stopped in round 7 by Manny Vlamis (12-3, 9), and Manopnoi Singmanasak (10-19, 6) who was stopped in 4 rounds by the light punching Terry Tzouramanis (12-1-3, 3).

Although it was a memorable outing for Petalcorin, who seems likely to be fighting for a world title soon, it wasn't great for Thai's who went 0-3.

New South Wales, Australia
On a second Australian show we saw one of the most notable upsets of the day as the criminally over-looked Joebert Delos Reyes (12-4-1, 9) scored a sensational KO over the previously unbeaten Valentne Borg (6-1, 4). The over-looked Filipino was 4 rounds down when he landed a perfect right uppercut that dropped Borg hard.

The victory for Delos Reyes saw him claiming the IBO Youth Lightweight title and extend his winning run to 5 fights. Sadly however we're seriously wondering if he'll struggle to get fights after upsetting 3 unbeaten fights in the last 2 years.

The same card had mixed fortunes for other Filipino's as Joel Dela Cruz (17-20-2, 7) was beaten by Kurt Bahram (13-4-1, 5) in a bout for the New South Wales State Middleweight title, Michael Correa (3-10-3, 1) was beaten by Nathan Wright (3-0, 1) and Aswin Cabuy (14-46-4, 7) managed to score a draw with Zhang Yong (2-4-1, 1).

Distrito Federal, Mexico
The worst result of the day for an Asian fighter came in Mexico as the hard hitting Filipino Marvin Mabait (19-2-2, 13) was sensationally upset by Alejandro Hernandez (27-10-2, 14). Mabait, defending his WBO Inter-Continental Bantamweight title for the first time, was hurt and a follow up attack in round 5 saw eventually being stopped in a result that will be a major set back for the Filipino.

(Photo, of Wanheng, courtesy of boxrec.com)

This past Friday, as with most Fridays, saw action from Thailand courtesy of Channel 7. As with the usual shows from Thailand there was title action as the headline action, in fact there was double title action.

Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand
The most noteworthy fighter in action on the card was surprisingly not involved in a title fight of any variety. That was Oleydong Sithsamerchai (51-1-1, 18), the former WBC Minimumweight champion, who scored a 4th round KO over the out classed and inexperienced Sandeep (0-3) who was there more to keep Oleydong rust free than to really challenge him.

World ranked by both the WBO (#10) and WBC (#2) Oleydong does seem like a man awaiting another world title fight and wins like this are more about staying active than improving any part of his game. It may not seem to make sense to many but it's keeping money in his pocket and that's the key to these mismatches.

In the title fights we saw 2 WBC youth title fights. One of these saw Kongfah CP Freshmart (4-0, 2) retain his Light Flyweight title, courtesy of a 10 round victory over the previously unbeaten Iranian teenager Mosayeb Teimoorikia (2-1). The other saw the amazingly well named Knockout CP Freshmart (5-0, 3) retaining his Minimumweight title against a debutant. Sadly we're unsure about this debutants name which appears to be just Amid (0-1).

Texas, USA
Over in the USA Korean-American Abraham Han (21-1, 13) managed to score his second successive victory since suffering his sole loss. Han, fighting the massively over-matched Daniel Gonzalez (9-30-2, 3) took an expected victory though left few wondering what his future will really bring.