...well, in the past I've advocated for abolishment of the practice of prizefighting among children in Thailand (in all bloodsports...Muay Thai, western boxing, MMA...) - in fact a debate on that pretty much ended my friendship with @Russell on here (very weird hill that he chose to die on) ...but that was more about minors, under eighteen. We see plenty of pros in their late teens all the world over; in Japan and Mexico especially you have 18 year olds already mixing with some of their country's toughest gatekeepers. I'm not sure it bothers me too much as long as the youngster is proven enough in class to be able to defend himself. I'd assume the local authorities expect Khaophimai to actually beat Yordan, since this is taking place on home turf and they likely don't want a visitor embarrassing them and derailing a young prospect...so he must be a gym legend or a renowned junior kickboxer or something. If this is a lamb to slaughter and the kid gets hurt then, yeah, that really sucks (and I like Yordan a lot but will condemn him for taking part if this is an uncompetitive steamrolling)
How can this match possibly be made. Khaophimai is 7-0 but he hasn't fought anyone of real substance. The combined career record of his opponents is 14-44. Yordan has been away two years but he's beaten a lot of good fighters. I can't imagine that Yordan has regresses to the point where he woud lose to Khaophimai.
Its either fighting for them or the sex trade unfortunately. Very rough life and most westerners won't understand the choices that have to be made. That said, there are some youngsters that are so brilliant at fighting, they are already fighting in the main stadiums at 14-15 years old. Tawanchai and Yodwicha comes to mind. If you take away the opportunity from them, they have no other honorable way to make big money.
This somehow got sanctioned for the vacant WBC Asian Boxing Council super lightweight Silver title. Mind you, Khaophimai has never even graduated past 6-rounders, so doubtful that he's even WBC top 50 in the world at the weight.
