BOXING / WBC STRAWWEIGHT TITLE BOUT
EDWARD THANGARAJAH
Oledong was awarded the title with the scores 115-114, 115-113 and 117-112 all in his favour. |
Oledong Sithsamerchai is the new WBC world strawweight champion. He registered a unanimous points victory over Eagle Den Janlapan, also a Thai but based in Japan, in a well-contested 12-round title fight yesterday at the 11th Infantry Boxing arena in Bangkhen.
Witnessed by a large crowd of fans Oledong said he was very happy to have won the world title as it is part of His Majesty the King's 80th birthday celebrations.
The first boxer from the south, Trang, to have won a world title Oledong said the people in his province will be very happy as many didn't think he had a chance against the hard-punching Eagle.
It was Eagle who entered the ring heavily favoured to retain his title and on two judges scorecards he won the first round, while Brian McMohan of Australia scored it as a 10-10 tie.
But later, Oledong got into his stride, using his magnificent footwork and started to bob and weave, making Eagle miss many punches.
Eagle was smiling during the first four rounds as Oledong danced and moved out of trouble and threw some well-timed left jabs and hooks and mixed it up with some good combinations. But Oledong won both the second and third rounds on all three judges scorecards.
In the fourth, Eagle tried hard to make a comeback. The smile vanished as he tried hard to take control of the contest. But Oledong bounced back with changed tactics and moving fast on his feet, he threw some tidy, accurate punches.With brilliant bobbing and weaving. Oledong won the next three rounds comfortably.
From the eighth stanza, Eagle tried in desperation to corner Oledong, but the young Thai, moved beautifully out of trouble. Though Australia's McMohan scored the next three rounds in favour of Eagle the other two judges differed. Gerald Ritter gave two rounds to the champion and Ferdinan Esrtrella gave them to Oledong.
The eleventh and 12th rounds were shared by the two protagonists and in the end Brian McMohan of Australia had Oledong win 115-114, Gerald Ritter of the US picked Oledong 115-113 and Ferdinan Estrella of the Philippines picked Oledong victor by 117-112.
The 22-year-old was the former WBC strawweight youth champion, who defended his title 16 times before he graduated to the WBC championship ranks. He beat Puerto Rico's Omar Soto in a title-qualifier before taking on Eagle.
His promoter and boxing developer, Virat Vachiraratanawong said after yesterday's fight, that he plans to give him a title defence in his home province.
''I am sure the people of Trang will be very pleased with their fighter's performance and will want to see him.''
Eagle's manager R.Suzuki said it will be up to his boxer to decide whether he is going to continue with his career. But his promoter, Joe Kozumi said he plans to bring Eagle to Thailand to give him another fight against Oledong.
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