Sot Chitalada vs Charlie Magri (Great mid 80's flyweight clash)

This was during a time frame when the WBC Flyweight title changed hands like a hot potato.

BTW: Charlie Magri does you tube comments on videos of his fights.

 

I think it was the last option.

But, Chitalada put an end to that and had a solid reign

 

What I recall most about Sot Chitalda was the merciless time he had making weight and why they didn't move him up a division or two. Sot would walk around at 135 and when it came time for a defense of his flyweight title he would boil and boil the weight off. Charles Atkinson was his trainer and said he would get down to around 114, but those last two pounds were a killer to get off because there was nothing left to boil off. Amazing how successful he was when one would imagine he had to be like the walking dead at fight time. Remember, this was same-day weigh-ins.

 

Seems it was really starting to get going as well. Thank you for sharing. Would appreciate you sharing any other good fights.

 

A lot of Thai fighters have been been big weight cutters, I think, especially for same day weigh-ins. Scar beat me to it with Chitalada, it was remarkable that he made the weight for so long and managed to stay sharp and retain his stamina, especially for someone who relied a lot on continual lateral and peripheral movement.

Kittikasem like you say. Payakaroon, Borkhorsor, Chionoi, the Galaxy brothers, Kingpetch were all massive and strong for their divisions, to name but a few.

Ali was a good comparison for Chitalada btw, who was clearly very heavily influenced by him and one of the few of many subsequent clones who managed to carry the style off. Great bouncy movement and control of distance with a tremendous jab and long, lashing straight right as well as a good left hook. Not much of an inside fighter though imo, very dependent on pushing the other guys head down like you mentioned.

He was a horrible match up for Charlie by that point who was already on his way down from his brief peak. Cracking, clubbing was Magri with a relentless approach and bucketloads of heart. Just a poor defence and not the best chin. He could show good head movement at times and seemed like he was improving but would then very quickly revert to type when hit. Massively popular over here in his heyday but allowed himself to get diddled financially, sadly. He was struggling last I heard; his pub/bar went bust I think and he was cleaning windows to make ends meet but struggling with arthritis. He's a vocal presence on twitter and his own youtube vids like Saad says. Very likeable bloke by all accounts.

 

I was at that fight.Might be in the video. No Fly really stood out.
Magri was a good puncher ,he hopped into range like a little crow,he didn't have great whiskers unfortunately.I saw Frank Cedeno who was pretty average beat him.Charlie had Duff ,Lawless and Astaire behind him so he got several bites of the cherry.Chitalada was very strong not particularly skilful but rugged.

 

I used to go to the Albert Hall, Wembley Stadium, and Wembley Conference Centre ,and also Manor Place Baths on a monthly basis.The atmosphere was always terrific and at Manor Place Baths, often tribally electric.
Magri always came to fight but sometimes forgot about his defence.

 

Mc, did you see him vs Laciar, out of interest? I thought he was lucky to get the decision in that one, very lucky in fact. It was impressive to me though with hindsight that he was competitive with Laciar at all, who was a great underrated fighter imo.

 

Yes I did ,like you I thought he was fortunate to win that. Laciar was unknown to me then,he turned out to be pretty good didn't he?.