Sot Chitalada vs Charlie Magri - 1985-02-20 - WBC World Flyweight Title

I was under the impression that Borkhorsor was more or less finished when Ferreri beat him but if he was still capable then it's a highly notable win. Speaking of the Thai fighters frequently draining weight, I've often wondered how the feck Borkhorsor ever made flyweight. He was an absolute tank even at bantamweight; at fly he must've been an utter terror. Beating up Betulio Gonzalez to a stoppage and locking out Salavarria over 15 was some serious ****.

Ferreri is the type of fighter who could've been a longstanding splinter titleist or even a unified one in recent years. That awkward and rangy but skilled mobile southpaw style would be a tough nut to crack for most. Even an expert seek and destroy artist like Zarate took a long time to pin him down, though I thought he was clearly in front when Steele stopped it on the cut.

 

I remember reading something about him training his fighters to 'optimum fitness', then insisting they fight at weight 10% lighter than that.

 

Yes he probably was past his best by then. Interesting that Ferreri was a southpaw and by all accounts Rodolfo Martinez turned southpaw when he fought Venice after a tough couple of rounds. Even southpaws don't like fighting southpaws!

 

I was at the Chitalada ,Cedeno ,Mercedes and Laciar fights.As I recall Magri, whose chin wasn't too good ,looked out of it against Chitalada. If I remember correctly Laciar deserved no worse than a draw.

 

Excellent fight with a disapointing conclusion.
Keep digging Russel, I really appreciate the stuff you are posting.

 

The press beforehand were saying it was Magri’s last chance and whatnot, he’d been through the wars and clearly wasn’t going to win and that’s why it was stopped when it was.

Chitalada never looked better than in this fight IMO (maybe against Ahn)

 

Yep, and Poontarat, and Sagat.

Chatted to him the other week funnily enough. Lovely fella. He told me he wanted Chitalada to move up to super feather straight from fly, that’s how much he was cutting to make the weight, over 20lbs

 

Fleeeeeaaaa! Woohoo!

 

Good to see you on here Flea. I was thinking about you when I mentioned Charles Atkinson.

 

I am not mcvey, and I sort of caught the end of the era as a fan going to the fights (I was born in 74, so most of my fandom came during the early 90s rather than 80s, when my Dad took me to some shows). But my take as a youngster going with the ol' man was that crowds were a lot more working class.

On the plus side the atmosphere was more intense and real. Knowledge was very limited, you only had the numbers the fight programmes gave you (spun by the promotion), and but for all but most well known, you had no film footage. No one I knew had seen Bonecrusher Smith film (when he fought the Bomber), let alone Sot and Laciar! So watching these special fighters was a more fulfilling experience.

On the downside, there was a real hardcore of boxing fans who had associations with the far right, that even I picked up as 10/11 year old. There were many knowledgeable fans who simply would not even recognise the excellence of a non white British fighter.

By the 90s, we all use to go to wine bars in the West End before going to shows. And you never stepped into the arena before the main event, unless you had a friend (or friend of a friend) fighting.

Looking back the 90s fans were more pricks than the 80s, but they were at least fans and their love of the sport has gone through to their children, which has helped the boon in the sport (in the UK) now.

 

Lots of crossover with soccer hooligans, skinheads, National Front, etc. As a huge fan of skinhead oi bands from that time period, I've always noticed how often they'd mention boxing in interviews, in thank you lists on records, etc. Minter and Magri was big favorites. I'm talking about the non-Nazi skinheads though. Obviously the racist ones were big Minter fans. I wonder if they were as big fans of Magri, considering that he wasn't a "true Brit" type ethnically.