Former junior bantamweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai had a very light job in Thailand, stopping Kwanthai Sithmorseng after three rounds of unilateral action, preparing to face the winner of the Estrada-Chocolatito 2 fight on Saturday night later this year.
Rungvisai (50-5-1, 43 KO) did not seem to be trying very hard here, and even the commentary noted that he was not playing much with 50 percent power. It looked, in all honesty, like the “tough fight” we heard about from the California commission last fall before Tyson-Jones; it was not an exhibition, mind you, but neither did it appear that Sithmorseng (50-8-1, 27 KO) was legitimately trying to win. He threw back, but Rungvisai just kept his hands moving and dominated everything.
But a victory is a victory, and it’s not like it’s the most unusual thing in the world. It is also not so good to watch boxing matches, but it is probably a much bigger fight. Both Estrada-Rungvisai and Chocolatito-Rungvisai would be a trilogy fight, and that was Eddie Hearn’s plan all the time, so they all worked on the same weekend.
Undercard Results
- Chainoi Worawut UD-10 Pungluang Sor Singyu: Much like the main event, if we’re being completely honest, it didn’t look like the underdog was really trying so hard to win. “Rock Man” Chainoi (14-0-1, 12 KO) had some push in Thai boxing, but veteran Pungluang (54-10, 36 KO) scored constantly, so he basically refused to really keep up. The scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 98-92.
- Phongsaphon Panyakum UD-10 Karoon Jarupianlerd: Panyakum lost his professional debut in 2017, but won 12 straight and is now 12-1 (6 KO’s), a solid victory over Jarupianlerd (44-11, 20 KO’s), who challenged Naoya Inoue for the world title in 2016 and obviously lost . Jarupianlerd made a good effort, but Panyakum consistently outperformed him. Panyakum has a lot he could improve on – defense, notably – and some things he probably can’t do much about, like not having a lot of hand speed. But he is as hard as the devil, he made some good and well placed shots of the veteran in this fight and just ate them, mainly. You can get on well with determination and a tough head. The scores were 97-93, 98-92 and 98-92, which seems correct.
- Danai Ngiabphukhiaw TKO-3 Wichet Sengprakhon: A rematch of a December 5 fight, which Ngiabphukhiaw won by knockout in the first round. Sengprakhon felt that Ngiabphukhiaw had landed a lucky punch and wanted to hit it. Ngiabphukhiaw (8-2, 4 KO) landed many lucky punches in this, releasing Sengprakhon (11-10, 6 KO) in the second and twice in the third, and it should have been twice in the second, but the referee did not call a knockdown when he was thrown on the ropes with a punch, clearly held against his body’s will. Effective work was a one-sided action here, but Sengprakhon went entirely to him in the third, throwing everything he had at Ngiabphukhiaw. It wasn’t enough, but he tried hard and it was a fun fight on TV.