December fourteenth in Phuket. WBA super world minimumweight title at stake, Niyomtrong's second defense. Paradero is ranked WBA #10. He is coming fresh off a challenge for the organization's vacant regular title, losing to countryman Victorio Saludar III by SD - his lone professional defeat. Niyomtrong is coming off a TKO3 over his own countryman, Siridech Deebook, a couple of months ago. It was a crushing victory and seemed to herald a long-awaited return to form and renewed sense of urgency.
Paradero is very good, but I think Knockout gets this one by clear UD. Also, this is his tenth defense, no? He didn't hold the regular title, just the "WBA title", which was already the primary title.
2nd. (or 3rd, depending on how you look at it) He no longer holds the regular belt; Andales was his final defense of that before the WBA elevated him. When he fought Norihito Tanaka it was for the "Super" version of the belt - so I guess it depends on whether the WBA had elevated him prior to fighting Tanaka (it had been promoted early on as being his eighth defense of the regular title) or whether beating Tanaka was the bar he needed to clear to achieve that elevation, in which case he "captured" it then and defended it for the first time versus Deebook/Sithdabnij. You can say this will be his 15th consecutive match for some form or another of the WBA championship at 105lbs (starting with three defenses of the interim claimed in Buitrago I, up through Buitrago II, and then elevation to regular versus Rojas with seven defenses up through Andales) but this isn't technically a continuation of the same reign. He was interim champ 2014-2016, regular 2016-2020 and now super. Prior to creation of a Super championship in a division, the WBA considers the regular to be "the" championship.
