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One of the many Thai undercard bouts that will have only been watched by a handful of people in the west was the rematch between Ratchasak Kokietgym and Joel Kwong. The two men first met in August 2013 and their rematch was little more than a stay busy contest for the Thai who has now fought 6 times in 2014. (Video courtesy of ทีเคโอ มวยโลก)
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Thai veteran Noknoi Sitthiprasert has seemingly been around for years though at just 28 he still has plenty of time left in the sport. That time will be expanded somewhat if he continues to fight over-matched foes such as Dechchai PetchkasemfourGym who failed to survive 2 rounds against Noknoi this past week. In fairness to both it was a great knockout but was a complete and utter mismatch (Video courtesy of ทีเคโอ มวยโลก) Filipino fighter Crison Omayao is becoming a regular in Japan where he appears to be willing to take on the top Japanese prospects in the lower weights. He was the other man in the ring for the debut of Naoya Inoue, when Inoue stopped him in 4 rounds and announced himself as a prospect to watch. Earlier this year year we saw Omayao battle Kosei Tanaka, and get stopped inside a round by the fast rising Tanaka who looked sensational. Omayao's third bout with a top tied Japanese prospect saw him fighting against Genki Hanai. Hanai doesn't have quiet the same hype or expectation on his shoulders as Inoue or Tanaka though was expected to blast past the Filipino, something that seemed likely with Omayao was down in the opening round and again in round 3. What ended up happening however was Hanai got his first real test as a professional fighter with Omayao having genuine success in the latter rounds of the bout. (Video courtesy of 心のための習い事) Russian Olympian Egor Mekhontsev has been a professional for just a year but has already shown serious signs of improvement and most recently he went the 8 round distance for the first time as Joey Vegas showed his toughness but little in terms of desire. The win, for Mekhontsev, was his best to date though showed some flaws in his development as a professional. Those flaws will hopefully be ironed out before he takes another big step up, though it is very clear that he is a highly skilled individual with the potential to go a very long way. Russia has certainly become a talking point in professional boxing in recent years with the rise of Russian fighters like Sergey Kovalev and Denis Lebedev. The attention Russian boxing has got isn't all positive however and recently we saw a farce take place in Russia as Mickey Rourke, aged 62, battled against Elliot Seymour in a bout that resembled little more than joke contest. Sadly it was a contest that got a lot of attention and a lot of negative feedback due to the "quality", or rather lack of, Elliot Seymour. For those want to see this bout feel free to give it a view, for the rest of us lets watch some real fights. We've known for a while that Eduard Troyanovsky was a power puncher though we'll admit we were hugely impressed by his most recent knockout as he decimated Jose Agustin Feria inside a round with a knockout that was eye catching to say the least. This bout doesn't last long so try not to look away. Russian slugger Ruslan Provodnikov is rarely in a dull fight and although his most recent fight was a farce it was still an entertaining farce as he dominated, and stopped, Mexican veteran Jose Luis Castillo in what amounted to an easy come-back win for Provodnikov who was last seen losing a decision to Chris Algieri. The bout was relatively straight forward for Provnikov who was younger, faster, stronger and ultimately so much liver than the Mexican who is best known for his "win" over Floyd Mayweather Jr. This past April Thailand's talented Palangpol CP Freshmart scored an impressive stoppage victory over Indonesian Heri Amol. Some 7 months later we saw a rematch between the two and this time around Amol managed to see out the distance, though was a clear loser to Palangpol. From what we've been told in the past Palangpol is aiming for a world title bout at some point in 2015. On this performance he still has some way to go though there is plenty there for the 29 year old to build on. Though at the moment we suspect he still a fight or two away from getting a world title bout. (Video courtesy of ทีเคโอ มวยโลก) When we talk about great Light Welterweights we also have to include Kostya Tszyu, the Australian based Russian puncher who had the division on alert for much of the 1990's and early 00's. One of the most interesting of Tsyzu's bouts was his contest with Diosbelys Hurtado, a bout that featured one of the greatest opening rounds in recent memory. Inside a minute of the bout Hurtado was down, hard, it looked, for a moment like Hurtado was done. As Tszyu went in for the kill he was dropped himself and, before the round was over Tszyu was down for a second time. It was a brilliant round. Although the fight started at a hectic pace it some how managed to go to round 5 with Tszyu fighting much of it with a badly swollen right eye. The eye didn't prevent Tsyzu from hitting the talented Cuban who took some major body shots before eventually being stopped in a genuinely great fight. If you've not seen this one before you've really gotta give it a go now. Thailand's Chana Porpaoin will never be confused for a puncher. The talented Thai was one of the top Minimumweights of the 1990's, albeit one who was lucky to never fight the great Ricardo Lopez. His reign as the WBA champion lasted almost 3 years and saw him defending the belt 8 times with one of those defenses being a genuinely fun to watch victory over Rafael Torres in a bout that actually saw the Thai being dropped in the opening round and looking in some trouble before eventually settling into the bout and scoring a KO of his own after some crazy trading of blows. If you've not seen this one before it really is a very fun to watch contest with round 4 in particular standing out as one of the most exciting rounds of Chana's career. |
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March 2024
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