Saensak Muangsurin?

My guess is there's over 10,000 bouts not on boxrec, mostly from countries with questionable record keeping AND "secondary bodies" (that used to be flagged as "unsanctioned"). Boxrec is great but certainly not infallible. They still have Shokichi Iwata's last bout (from the Inoue Vs Donaire bout) wrong and that was a recent bout televised in Latin American on a major card.

 

It’s like watching an urban legend grow. There’s a guy on this very thread who visited him (page 2) and apparently knew him/his family who absolutely says he was not blind (this is in old age, not when he was fighting).

I’ve found some second-hand accounts that said he had a ‘possible torn retina.’ I’ve seen people question ‘wasn’t he blind in one eye?’ — as if a question was an answer, it magically becomes ‘fact.’

He presumably had to take basic medical tests, including an eye exam, to be licensed. You’d have to do more than just say ‘well someone on the internet suggested he had an eye problem’ to leap to any conclusion that every test he took before every fight was dodgy or that they knew he was blind and let him fight anyway.

Ten months before he fought Hearns he was still wearing a world championship belt. Was he shot? I don’t think so. Past prime? Sure. Fighting above his best weight? No doubt.

But it’s not like Hearns didn’t do this to a lot of opponents, including Pipino Cuevas.

Look at any of his fights and you can see he was a ‘face fighter’ who never saw a punch he didn’t eat. He just had power and used it to clobber a lot of 140-pounders who were forgotten as soon as the fight was over.

He did something quite remarkable to win the title with so little actual pro boxing experience but I don’t think he was a special talent.

 

Okay see your point completely, though you're suggesting medical tests in the 1970's were of the same standard they are today and that thy weren't able to be "beat". Worth noting Katsutoshi Aoki admitted he was blind in 1 eye and had passed the eye tests by simply memorising the chart they made him look at (he was blinded as a child from dirt in the eye). Tatsuyoshi also appears to have fought his final few bouts with a detached retina (hence whilst JBC and Osaka Teiken wouldn't let him fight in Japan).

Certainly wouldn't disagree with him being a face fighter, he as a tough rugged puncher, not a slippery, smart boxer or a special talent, just a brute of a puncher. I'd suggest he was probably on the slide from very early in hid career, the two different results with Lion Furuyama may suggest he was on the slide as early as their rematch.

29 can be old for a fighter, especially, as you put it, a face fighter. Many are well beyond their best at that age, others yet to peak.

Plenty of Thai sites reference his eye being damaged (some say as early as 1978)
https://www.thairath.co.th/news/local/bangkok/1420725
https://hilight.kapook.com/view/35958
https://www.sanook.com/sport/9526/
http://oknation.nationtv.tv/blog/olympic2549/2009/04/17/entry-1

 

I'd imagine a lot over 10,000! Probably the majority of fights for non-world ranked fighters from Asia before the Internet age may not be on Boxrec for starters. I cannot imagine record keeping is that much better in Latin America, too.

 

Thank you for the kind remarks. I enjoy and learn much from here too - though it seems like some of the older posters seem gone now.

 

Was his win over Mamby homecooking or legit?

 

I've never seen the fight, but I've heard it was an awful decision. I am going to presume Thailand guilty unless proven innocent.

 

Sweet Saoul was never more than a round better or a round worse than anyone he fought in an 85-fight career that spanned nearly 40 years — debuted in 1969 and finally hung them up in 2008 (although the final bout was a one-off after he had retired the first time in 2000).

 

I felt sorry for him in the Hearns fight. He was overmatched and he knew it. But it was sad. I don't like fights like that, but a good fight for Tommy..

 

I just feel like pointing out that Sugar Ray Seales "passed" eye tests while legally blind. So who knows what passing an eye test, especially more than 40 years ago, really means.

Saensak went from "beginner" to prime in record time...and prime to shot in record time also. Moving up in weight to fight a monster like Hearns, who even under the best of circumstances is pretty much the worst possible matchup for Saensak, while possibly also battling eye problems, is just a recipe for disaster.

 

Bump. Saving this for later.

 

Mamby was apparently moved from WBC #3 to #1 after the fight, so likely a robbery. It was at Muangsurin's yard no less.

Very weird fighter this guy. Super unorthodox even for unorthodox fighters. Very relaxed, point punching style. Love his nickname: World collapsing southpaw.