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

There was no need for a rematch. Magri lost to McKenzie the following year and Duke was due to fight Sot, but injury ruled Chitalada out. McKenzie fought Herrera that night, my Dad fumed as we had come to see this brilliant Thai. Although there was a near riot, when two gypsys fought and arguably the ref stopped it too soon, and was duly hit by Bobby Frankham, who was chucked out the sport for his actions.

 

I think at that point in his career Magri could have fought Sot 100 times and lost 100 times. He would probably have been all wrong for Magri at any point in his career, but by the time this fight came around he was a fading force.

Magri would have been better suited to 105 or 108, which still aren't recognised by the BBBoC. He normally seemed the smaller man in the ring, and his chin was "consistently inconsistent" even in his prime. These issues may have been less prevalent at a lower weight.

 

I remember watching this one. Sot came with a great reputation and was trained by Liverpool's Charles Atkinson jnr. Other talk about Sot was how big he was and the extremes he'd gone to make flyweight. Funny that Momus mentioned Charlie's size because there had been talk about him going up to bantam at one point to fight Johnny Owen. He'd beaten Johnny in the amateurs, I think he stopped him. I think the corner felt Charlie wasn't getting anywhere and it was a last hurrah shot at the bigtime.

 

Good post Al. I knew it was a scouser who trained Chitalada but couldn't think of his name. Didn't Chitalada used to shift over a couple of stone to make the weight? He was basically like a lightweight. Remarkable that he could make the weight for so long and use his legs so much in Ali-esque fashion.

I think you're right that Magri's corner just pulled him out before he started taking too much of a pasting. He'd never have beaten Sot even at his peak imo, like Momus said.

 

Proper underrated win for Johnny, this. God bless him. Ferreri was a really good fighter.

 

Also, Laciar beat Charlie going away I thought and got jobbed.

 

Yes I think he trained the Galaxies as well. Most of those Thai fighters were battling the scales big time. In the Khaokor Galaxy Luisiti Espinoza fihght it looked like Galaxy fainted. I've wondered if that was anything to do with the weight.

 

Ferreri was a good fighter. Zarate said he was the smartest fighter he fought. I was lucky enough to meet him a few years and I asked him about the Venice Borkorsor fight. He said he didn't have any trouble with him. He also beat Rolando Navarette. Johnny Owen's win over him was a good win. I saw the fight on tv back in the day and thought John controlled it. By the way I was quite surprised reading about Magri fighting Johnny Owen. I recently read it in Magri's biography but I don't remember hearing anything about it back at the time.