Considered one of the greatest thai fighters ever and an all-time great Flyweight by some, yet also a controversial overrated figure with others. Because of his wins over Perez and Rematch wins over Harada and Ebihara, he tended to be rated very highly for a long time by western historians who were going from second hand evidence rather than seeing the actual fights. Unfortunately for Pone, once footage started to wildly circulate( none of which is entirely complete as far as i know), the judging has been widely criticised in the first Perez fight and especially against Harada and Ebihara. Considering those fights make up the vast bulk of his big wins, it obviously throws doubt on his worth as a fighter.Especially as he lacked a long reign or many other quality victories to balance things out. What are your opinions/ranking of him?.
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Pone was a good fighter, but far from great imo. Besides having a good jab he really didn`t have much going for him, he had no inside game to speak of and he wasn`t particularly durable either. Had the Harada and Ebihara rematches been held on neutral ground there is no way he would have won them, he was clearly beaten in both bouts and only won due to being on home soil. The first Perez bout could have gone either way from the extended highlights I have seen, so I won`t go as far as to say he was gifted with yet another undeserved victory in that one.
Love that first Harada/Kingpetch fight btw, must have seen it close to 30 times over the years. Harada was something else as a flyweight, he was like a miniature version of the Tazmanian Devil high on speed at the weight, all he lacked was the polish to his technique and patience that came a bit later when he moved up and matured both as a fighter and person. Amazing to think that he was all of 19 years old when he won the title as well, you don`t see that all too often.
Agree with RB, great fighter on paper, very good one in reality. I will say though that the second Harada fight was at least close-ish, which was quite a decent effort on Pone's part. He got closer in that fight than a lot of other flyweights would have facing that Harada.
I watched the first Perez fight at the weekend, felt Kingpetch was awkward, nice jab but not great punching form apart from that. Seemed effective, I felt Kingpetch held his own. Against Pascual Perez, that speaks volumes IMO. Good fighter, I need to watch the above footage to come to more of a conclusion, but he must be very good just to hang with the aforementioned fighters, debatable decisions or not.
I've got to say that I was impressed with Kingpetch in the Perez fights, in particular the second fight. He looked good in the Seki fight as well. It was nice to see him winning after the only stuff on youtube being his losing efforts against Harada and Ebihara. I'm am very curious about the rematches on home soil against the above 2 though. Looking at Pone's record onboxrec I notice that Nat Fleischer, the neutral judge scored for Harada in the first fight and Kingpetch in the second. The second Ebihara fight was scored clearly for Kingpetch by the neutral Arther Hindman. Are these fights about. I'd love to see them. I agree with RB that Harada wasn't the finished article at flyweight. Still very impressive though, and at only 19 years old.
I've been watching some Ebihara and Kingpetch lately. Doing my homework, Ebihara was great, he had that quality to execute something that he planned in his head, a great great boxer. I think i'm in agreement with RB on Kingpetch thus far. That jab was great though, for effectiveness, well it got the job done against great fighters.
I like Kingpetch myself. Don't thnk he was a truly great fighter, but he was an excellent one imo.At least very good. Very good technical boxer from long-range, with nice classy standup skills and good footwork.Not an easy man to outbox. I thought the first Perez fight could have legitimately gone either way, though i don't put much stock in the rematch as Perez was finished by then.First fight was a strong peformance against a still excellent Perez. He looked very lucky to get the decisions against Harada and Ebihara, even if you give him all the rounds that aren't on film.However i agree with Sweet, on his performance in the Harada rematch, it was a supreme effort considering the first bout...one not many Flyweights would exceed. The same could be said for the Ebihara rematch to a slightly lesser extent.I don't find anything to criticise in those two performances, with the first meetings only beinga big drawback if you are trying to justify him as a true great. On the downside, he was pretty slow for a Flyweight, as Bull said had little infighting skills and though his jab could be great, it was also inconsistent.He'd often paw with it or throw slower than Liston jabs at the wrong moment.Directly responsible in a big way for the Ebihara KO. Not really too much of a defensive fighter either, mainly relying on his very good footwork and nice distance controlling skills.If you could slip the jab he was often open, as the excellent Burruni used that to good effect;beating him comfortably.I don't think Kingpetch looked past his prime in that fight either.Yet again, only a big drawback if you are looking at him from an all-tie great point of view, as Burruni was very good himself. All in all i think he was one of the top tier Flyweights in a very strong era.No mean feat. Incidentally, Pone vs arbachakov would likely be an awesome fight.
I really like Kingpetch think hes an excellant long range stylist and his wins over Perez were pretty good. Incidently Kingpecth vs Harada 1 is one of the best perforamces i have witnessed and there 2nd fight is one of my favrouites
Im starting to really warm to him again...he really was a fine boxer for the reasons gone over extensively already. Kind of one of those fighters who gets overrated...backlash occurs and his status drops...but sometimes that leads to him getting unfariyl overlooked and forgotten about. It must be said Perez, Harada and Ebihara are three of the better flyweights you would have to face and Pone did show he could hang with them if they fight was fought more to his liking.
Preach it, brother! I have been on Pone's (non-)case as a flyweight great for decades, before it became fashionable in the West. On a larger topic, I have been pontificating ad infinitum about how unreliable judging is in Asia (even in my fatherland, Korea, sadly), and that one has to actually see the fights in question to be sure of the reliability of decisions. Of course, judging is subjective and often controversial in the United States, too, but the level of incompetence and often outright corruption in Asia beggars belief - especially for fights half a decade or more past. I remember watching a video where it was said that Chan-hee Park refused 5 times the purse to fight in Mexico City against Canto because, I quote from memory, "he couldn't win a decision in Mexico City, and he couldn't lose a decision in Seoul."
I don't think a judge or a referee being from a "neutral" country itself is foolproof evidence of fight integrity though. Watch some of Richard Steele refereed bouts in Asia. Infamous for stopping fights prematurely here, he lets the home fighters continue as long as they are conscious in Asia.
