[yt]tsu2-koCoM8[/yt] [yt]Dbmt3ZANpjw[/yt] [yt]w51u3bkNUCk[/yt] [yt]u4S_k06J_dY[/yt] edit: new media embed formatting per forum upgrade to xenforo This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected They both may be Siamese, but these cats ain't twins! Everything about them, in fact was opposite. Southpaw ...and orthodox. Tall and short. Chinny-ish, jab-forward boxer-puncher ...and slugger with a jaw of titanium. One from Khelang Nakhon (called Lampang nowadays), a middle-class tourist-destination (often referred to as "paradisiacal") city in Northern Thailand ...and the other residing in nearby Sakon Nakhon but originally hailing from Khok Phu, a rural southern Muslim-majority province with a very different climate (hot & buggy) and culture. One bearing a serious, even austere (and maybe slightly nervous), look whenever photographed ...and the other with an irrepressible smile, always combining with his squatness of stature to make him look just this side of impish. Perhaps the most important distinction: one is a "1 hit wonder", a curious footnote in the sport's annals, immortalized by participation (and indeed, victory!) in a Ring Magazine FOTY, but outside that one snapshot in time a complete unknown to at least 99% of fans ...and the other spent the bulk of his dozen-year professional campaign (which technically was 3 years shorter than his compatriot's) in the international spotlight to some degree - whether directly illuminated (as during his WBA interim world bantamweight championship reign) or caught in the diffusive flood when on the periphery of world title contention. Now, let it be said, while that "1 hit wonder" perception is applicable to him in the grand scheme, Somsak had, quietly, made a simply ludicrous and (regardless of the quality or records of every unique challenger) more than respectable 21 defenses of the PABA super bantamweight title - making Udomna's own subsequent couples of reigns - 11 defenses from 2006-2009, and four in his second (deemed a ~ Super Championship ~, but for all intents & purposes the same title) from 2011-2012 - seem paltry by comparison, but drawing little attention from beyond the "Land of Smiles" (a name which Udomna by far can be said to live up to more than Sithchatchawal). His biggest victory, by far, however, came against someone that few -outside die-hard fans of the still then obscure corner of the boxing world that encompassed the lighter weights in Greater Asia - had ever heard of nor talked about beyond the contest of this one fight of theirs - Persian slugger Mahyar "Little Tyson" Manshipour Kermani. This was despite Manshipour having come in with five world title defenses under his belt already, with a brief EBU reign directly before that! Udomna, despite his fewer PABA defenses, and having thus far only capturied an "interim" world title down at 118 pounds (whereas Sithchatchawal's own fleetingly held WBA title, in spite of being hot potato'ed, was the real McCoy) - and despite never having been in a consensus or Ring Mag designated FOTY - was and remains the more well-known commodity, at least abroad. Traveling a bit usually helps Thai boxers to build a profile, but even in that department Sithchatchawal has a slight edge: fighting beyond his nation's borders 5x in 68 bouts, whereas Udomna did so four times (batting .500) in 50. You certainly wouldn't call Somsak a bore to watch, either, so it can't be attributed to Prakorb's style being the more crowd-pleasing. In fact, if anything, his comparative vulnerability gave his fights more of a tense, unpredictable air. :conf Just a matter of right place @ the right time for Udomna then, I guess. Thus crumbleth the cookie. Speaking of crumbling, it was patently the hope of the "Little Tank" for his obstacle to a world title shot to be - indeed, seemed almost certain that it would be (as Somsak's reputation preceded him, with stoppage losses to arguably lesser hitters) - reduced to rubble in short order. He came in with every intention of hitting the showers early, and fought like it. "Poonsawat", if not gunning for a matter-of-minutes blitz necessarily, had clearly predetermined that he didn't want to let his rival see the final bell. He swept the first three with a dispensation of violence calling to mind the confidence of Johnnie Cochran effectively wrapping up a case - and wrapping the jury around his finger - in his opening statement (although not without some weighty filibustering arguments from the southpaw) in a from-the-jump salvo of aggressive intensity never otherwise seen in his career - and that's saying a mouthful! (as knows anyone familiar with his positive savaging of Bernard Dunne a year and a half later...in the very world title opportunity that Poonsawat had earned here in a WBA super bantamweight eliminator, versus Sithchatchawal...) This fight is the sort that one can easily be mesmerized by, corralled into the mental trap of thinking it has grown monotonous or dull, just because of the consistently high pace of exhilarating action set early and sustained throughout - but make no mistake, this is downright INSANELY entertaining stuff, from start to finish. The second round in particular is bananas - with both landing more than a handful of what ought to be not just KO but KTFO blows... The fourth was the most fiercely contested and, to start out, the most competitive, but cracks - slight fissures but widening - had begun to show in the gutsy lefty's "Diamond Mind", and the man with the sobriquet "Nạk-Chk Cıphechr" in their native tongue was dropped in dramatic fashion (only to get up and rally just as dramatically) shortly before the bell, with a leaping headlong catapult of an overhand right from Poon. To his credit, he shook it off and composed himself admirably...not just in the immediate moments but the rounds to follow. The fifth, to wit, became a terse give & take, with Sithchatchawal braving the interior apparently in the hopes of beginning to even up the score (figuratively and literally) with a perfect counter southpaw 1-2 down the pipe meant to put Udomna himself down. It wasn't to be, as the happy little gremlin kept melting off to either side and reemerging up on his toes slinging powerfully at the spheroid prize hanging betwixt his lankier opponent's shoulders. By the sixth it had become less a two-way rumble and more Sithchatchawal just ganging way, laying down a couple of blasts where he could but mainly focusing on staying the hell away from the diminutive juggernaut with his implacable and unsettling rictus. In the second half, Udomna's over the top, raking right hand began to emerge as the most dominant weapon in either man's arsenal. It became a proxy for a jab, used to find range, keep aim true, and set up the rest of his offense, which included some mighty hooks that Sith did well to stand up to, never mind that he kept on retaliating. Round eight, Sithchatchawal down hard off a spearing leap-in right hand lead after hanging suspended in the air for a pregnant moment after having been stunned by a previous Udomna power flurry. Now looking dispirited, the southpaw defiantly made clear his intentions to at the very least survive this battle, executing quick twists and matador turns in order to make Udomna miss and countering only with perfunctory 1-2s on the move. Udomna kept up an insane number of repetitions with that same lead right in the ninth, but Sithchatchawal refused to lay down for him, and even dared a number of forward steps, although nothing remained on his own shots. As the fight reached the double-digit mark in rounds (a small victory for Sithchatchawal, first having tasted canvas six rounds earlier and once again since) became a fencing duel, as Udomna wanted to prove he could outbox the boxer - and he did so, exhibiting some very nice, sneaky lateral movement and still using that RH like a jab, landing it at various altitudes from multiple angles. Sithchatchawal had some fine moments of his own, standing up tall and utilizing the long right jab, but when he pressed in and tried hacking down with lefts, made clumsy by fatigue, he missed badly and was countered. Then, ironically, the penultimate round would draw the proceedings to a close, although Udomna would not fire a SINGLE right after the bell rang. Instead he dashed in with a triple left hook to head/body/head and Sithchatchawal - keeping such careful watch for the other arm - never saw the first coming, and may not have been awake to feel the last. Thus ended the last stand of a forgotten warrior ...as the ascendant rival cleared a minor hurdle on his path to a championship, picking up maybe his 3rd highest-profile victory to date; one that would be overshadowed by several yet to come. The real shame here is that hardly anybody ever does a deep-dive on Sithchatchawal's career, usually just accepting the Monshipour fight as this strange anomalous fleeting instant of notability - and if anything, noting that he lost in his other two "important" world-level fights, against Celestino "Pelenchín" Caballero and Poonsawat, and write him off as just a chinny one hit wonder. As for Poonsawat, even hardcore Thai boxing aficionados probably have firsthand knowledge of anywhere from half a dozen to a baker's dozen of his bouts...most likely not including this one. That's a shame, because while it became increasingly less competitive and for one party more a struggle for survival than a winnable fight, it definitely remains worth a watch, especially the fast-paced and torrid first ⅓, and the rest is a noble display of both Sithchatchawal's courage & poise, and Udomna's sustained ferocity and finishing prowess - all of which is done a disservice by the obscurity into which this one has fallen. :verysad
most thai fighters we see around these parts are just bums flown in as enhancement , for prospects...that aren't even really prospects.
Alright, well, neither of these guys is losing to pretty much any Aussie that has ever fought in their general weight range, save these: Famechon, Rose, Carruthers, Fenech and Darchinyan... and Vic is technically Armenian so boom, there, I've numbered them all on one hand with an extra finger left over. :fu: :yep