One of the things we've strangely not featured many of in this series, so far, have been brutal body shots. Thankfully that changes today as we get to share a truly horrific body shot KO scored by a man who was fighting in his second professional bout, but would later go on to become a true legend of the sport. This was nasty, and rewatching it can genuinely make you feel sorry for the recipient, who just know was pissing blood for a week afterwards. Joichiro Tatsuyoshi (1-0, 1) Vs Chucherd Eausampan (7-2, 4) When he turned professional in 1989 Joichiro Tatsuyoshi was already a big deal. He was only a teenager but the Osakan press had covered him for a while, he had been a destructive amateur and had even battered future world title challenger Azael Moran in sparring 1987, whilst still an amateur. Following his his sparring session with Moran, which instantly went down in Japanese folklore, the press had followed Tatsuyoshi. He wasn't just a press figure however and his enigmatic charisma and confidence had grabbed the attention of the Japanese fans as well. When Tatsuyoshi debuted in September 1989 he had made light work of Korean Sang Myun Choi and he returned to the ring in February 1990 to take on Thai foe Chucherd Eausampan, with the bout coming on the under-card of Mike Tyson's bout with Buster Douglas. On paper this was a massive step up in class for Tatsuyoshi, but one that he was expected to pass with no issues. That wouldn't actually be the case, but more about that a little bit later. Although Eausampan isn't too well known he would distinguish himself as a genuinely notable journeyman on the Asian scene. Prior to travelling to Japan for this bout he had won the Thai Bantamweight title, before losing first defense against future world champion Daorung Chuwatana. As well as the loss to Daorung his only other set back had come in Indonesia to Wongso Indrajit, with both of those losses being 10 round decision losses. On paper few expected Tatsuyoshi to lose, but they did expect him to need to go rounds, and have his stamina tested against a tough, but somewhat limited, Thai. In the first round Tatsuyoshi was surprisingly dropped, being put down by a huge left hook from the Thai. Prior to the knockdown Tatsuyoshi was in control, but the knockdown instantly gave Eausampan a huge boost in confidence. Tatsuyoshi wasn't particularly hurt but was embarrassed. Coming out for the second round Tatsuyoshi came out with a point to prove, whilst Eausampan looked to strike, thinking the Japanese youngster was a bit chinny. The aggression of the Thai left him taking risks, and left him open. Tatsuyoshi would find a home for his uppercuts to the mid-section and with just over 2 minutes of the second gone he would land the perfect body shot. The finishing shot was a left uppercut to the body. It left Eausampan rolling on the canvas and Tatsuyoshi walked over his man, waving at him as he did so. It was as if Tatsuyoshi wanted him to get back up and take more punishment, they knew there was no chance of anyone getting back up after the shot. After this bout Tatsuyoshi would go on to have a legendary career and become the face of Japanese boxing for much of the 1990's. Even now, well after his last fight, he's a figure of admiration and named as an inspiration as to why youngsters take up the sport. The effect of his career in the current Japanese boxing scene really cannot be over-stated and his still a huge influence in the sport. Sadly for the Thai this began a massive downturn in his career and he would only pick up a single win after this loss. He would prove his toughness, hearing the final bell against the likes of Kiyoshi Hatanaka, Daorung Chuwatana, twice, but punishment did accumulate and he ended up being stopped a number of times later in his career.
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Between 1979 and 1989 Korean fighter Seung Soon Lee (31-4, 23) managed to have a solid career, winning 31 of his 35 career bouts. During his days in the ring he notably won the South Korean Welterweight title, as well as the OPBF Welterweight title, he scored a win on US soil, stopping Sergio Sanchez, and even ended up landing a world title fight in 1989.
Sadly Lee's career is best remembered internationally for his penultimate bout, a quick loss to Mark Breland, but prior to that he had had a distinguished career in the East. Today we plan to shine a light on Lee's career as we bring you 5 Mid Week Facts about Seung Soon Lee, as we remember the often forgotten Korean fighter. 1-On December 7th 1980 Lee won the Korean Rookie of the Year, beating Taek Jong Jung in 3 rounds. 2-Lee's 10 year career, spanning from 1979 to 1989 was a strange one in a number of ways, one of which was his activity level. Given he fought 35 times in his career it would be fair to assume that he was fairly busy through his career. After all an average of 3.5 fights a year would make sense. Instead however he squeezed in more than 25% of his total career bouts in 1980 alone, with 9 bouts from January 1st 1980 to December 31st 1980. This was a stark comparison to 1988, when he fought just once, or 1986 and 1989, years where he fought twice. Similar, in some ways, is the fact that Lee's losses are also not evenly distributed through his career. He lost on his debut, before reeling off 29 straight wins, then finished his career with 3 losses in 5 bouts. 3-Staying on the subject of his losses Lee actually beat everyone he faced other than Mark Breland and Hyung Duk Choi, his debut opponent. His second loss came to Young Kil Jung, who he had beaten twice earlier in his career, and his final loss came to Jun Suk Hwang, who he had also beaten earlier in his career, in fact he had stopped Hwang in 1987. 4-Going into his 1989 bout with Mark Breland for the Welterweight title, Lee was ranked #2 by the WBA, a ranking that like we see now a days made absolutely no sense at all. Some things never changed. Amazingly Lee was also paid a reported $60,000 for the bout. Given it lasted 54 seconds he was essentially paid $60,000 for less than a minutes work! Nice! 5-For those interesting Lee does actually hold a world record! At the time of writing, his 54 second loss to Breland is the shortest ever bout for the WBA Welterweight title. In fact it's one of only two bouts for the belt to have been stopped in the opening round, the other was Donald Curry's win over Roger Stafford in 1983. That bout lasted 48 seconds longer than Lee's with Breland. We've all heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and we've decided to put our spin on things with "Six degrees of separation" looking to connect Asian fighters you may never have assumed were connected! Today we connect former Korean world title challenger Seung Soon Lee to former Kazakh amateur stand out Ivan Dychko.
Just as ground rules, we're not doing the more basic "A beat B who beat C who beat D" type of thing, but instead we want to link fighters in different ways. As a result we will limit A fought B connections, and try to get more varied connections together, as you'll see here! We also know there are often shorter routes to connect fighters, but that's not always the most interesting way to connect them. 1-During his career Seung Soon Lee won two titles, the most distinguished of those was the OPBF Welterweight title, which he won in 1987 when he stopped Jun Suk Hwang. Lee's reign only lasted a matter of weeks, with him winning the title on February 15th and losing it on March 29th, in his first defense. On the same day that Lee lost the title Japan's Takuya Muguruma won the WBA Bantamweight title over in Japan. 2-Although not too well remembered now a days Takuya Mugurma, dubbed the "Endless Fighter", was one of the most exciting Japanese fighters of the 1980's. His world title reign was a short one, losing in his first defense, but he was an all action fighter who had sensational bouts with Chan Yung Park and Wilfredo Vazquez. Despite that fans may have seen Muguruma in recent years as he has been working alongside second generation fighter Juiki Tatsuyoshi, helping train and develop Tatsuyoshi. 3-The heavy handed Juiki Tatsuyoshi made his debut on April 16th 2015 at the Prefectural Gymnasium in Osaka, a venue that is now known as the EDION Arena Osaka. The main event of the card that featured Tatsuyoshi's debut saw Shinsuke Yamanaka retain the WBC Bantamweight title with a 7th round KO win against Diego Ricardo Santillan. 4-Before winning the WBC Bantamweight title Shinsuke Yamanaka had previously held the Japanese Bantamweight title, winning that title in June 2010. As the Japanese national champion he made just a single defense, stopping Ryosuke Iwasa in an incredible battle in in the 2011 Champion Carnival. 5-In 2021 Ryosuke Iwasa attempted to become a 2-time IBF Super Bantamweight champion, though fell short when he lost by TKO to Murodjon Akhmadaliev at the Humo Arena in Tashkent. 6-Whilst Murodjon Akhmadaliev's rise through the professional ranks has been incredible it needs to known that he was an excellent amateur who achieved a lot of success in the unpaid ranks, including winning a silver medal at the 2015 AIBA World Championships. Another man who won silver at that very same tournament was Kazakh Super Heavyweight Ivan Dychko. Between 2006 and 2017 Japan's Kentaro Masuda (27-9, 15) made for some brilliant fights as an under-reated, heavy handed and rugged Super Bantamweight and Bantamweight. Although never a world beaten Masuda was a 2-time Japanese national champion who scored notable wins against the likes of Yu Kawaguchi, Konosuke Tomiyama, Tatsuya Takahashi and Yushi Tanaka. Sadly for Masuda having 9 losses on his record standsout as and leaves many to suspect he wasn't a good fighter. The reality however is that he had to learn on the job, and he lost 2 od his first 3 bouts, and 3 of his first 6. He also came across a number of solid fighters, such as Hidenori Otake, Ryosuke Iwasa, Shohei Omori, Mark John Yap and Takuma Inoue, and as a result suffered losses to very good fighters. Although his name won't come up regularly in conversation he is someone we are big fans of, and with that in mind let us bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Kentaro Masuda, as well as sharing one of his fights at the end of the article. 1-Before becoming a professional boxer Masuda competed in Kyokushin, which is a full contact martial art. He was actually genuinely impressive at Kyokushin and came third in Japan at an All Japan competition. 2-In a June 2012 interview with Boxmob Masuda stated that Ryosuke Iwasa was going to be a world champion in the "near future". Although it took a bit of time for this to actually happen his prediction did come true, in 2017 when Iwasa stopped Yukinori Oguni to win the IBF Super Bantamweight title. 3-During his 36 fight career Masuda never competed in January. That was the only month during his 11 year career that he never fought in. A big reason for that is likely due to the fact he fought in December on 8 different occasions, meaning that that without fighting in back to back months, he was rarely available for a January bout. 4-After retirement Masuda has remained involved in the sport and became a trainer. He has been teaching both Karate and boxing. He has worked at Akifumi Shimoda's gym ad Yuichi Kasai's, done personal training and helped with the development of Miyo Yoshida, who he knew before she became a boxer, and taught Karata. He also opened up his own boxing in 2021, called RAD Boxing, which is focused on teaching kids from 4 years old to 6th grade. 5-Masuda shares his birthday with American actor Brian Michael Smith, American world champion rower Cara Stawicki, country singer Eric Paslay, controversial Chinese weight lifter Liu Chunhong, Jewish animator Adam Bizanski and and American actor Max Goldblatt. In recent years the 4 world title bodies have all be open to massive amounts of criticism for they do things. The willingness of the WBA and WBC to create new titles, the IBF's strict following of their own rules and the WBO's links to Bob Arum and Frank Warren. Way back in the early days of the IBF, when they were struggling to get recognition they put together some awful bouts, that left a lot to the imagination. One of the clearest examples of how bad the IBF's early champions were came at Super Flyweight, where the first champion, and most of his early challenger, were very poor. Despite the limited ability of some of the fighters in those early title bouts we did manage to get a number of big KO's and today we look at one of those in the latest "Reliving the Finish" Ju Do Chun (15-1-3, 6) vs Diego De Villa (15-12-6, 3) So, for those unaware, the first ever IBF Super Flyweight champion was Korean fighter Ju Do Chun, who had won the title in Japan in 1983 when he stopped Ken Kasaugai. After making a good defense against under-rated Thai Prayurasak Muangsurin, in what was a legitimately solid match up, Chun then took on Filipino foe Diego De Villa in the third ever bout for the title. Chun had made his debut in 1981, scoring a win, but had then struggled to make an impact, and after 4 bouts he was 1-1-2. Following that he had gone 14-0-1 claimed the Korean title and then the IBF title. Given that there were other very Super Flyweights around at the time, such as Rafael Orono, Payao Poontarat and Jiro Watanabe, Chun wasn't really regarded that highly and his title win wasn't against a notable opponent. Whilst Chun was a champion looking for respect his second challenger, Diego De Villa, was a real unknown challenger from the Philippines. He had won the Philippines national title, but that was about the best you could say or him. His record may not be fully complete but what we do know is he had double digit losses, and had been stopped a number of times before clashing with Chun for the IBF title. There really was nothing on his record to suggest he deserved a shot, or that he had any chance. In fairness to De Villa no one seemed to tell him he had no chance of winning, or of becoming a world champion. Or if they had he didn't care. He came out fighting from the opening seconds, and pressed the action from the off. He seemed to think that his big chance was jumping on Chun and pressing the action. For around 2 minutes that aggression and come forward fighting worked well for De Viilla. But he then slowed and around 150 seconds in we got the finish. Almost out of nowhere Chun landed a perfect right hand, landing flush on De Villa as he he came forward. The Filipino hit the canvas face first. He was down and out, lying almost motionless as the referee raised Chun's arm. This is certainly an obscure KO, a rather under-seen one, but a brutal, vicious one that deserves to be seen over, and over. This was genuine out of the blue, it was a thunder bolt of a shot, a single punch KO and one of those ones where the recipient was completely gone. After this De La Villa fought twice, losing both bouts. Chun would go on to make 3 more defenses, all by stoppage against very poor challengers, before he was dethroned in 1985 by Ellyas Pical, in what was another brutal KO. After that loss Chun would never be the same, going 1-2 before ending his career with a 20-4-3 (11) record. He may have been the first IBF Super Flyweight champion but he is certainly not a well remembered one. Thankfully for him he did score this truly brutal KO! We've all heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and we've decided to put our spin on things with "Six degrees of separation" looking to connect Asian fighters you may never have assumed were connected! Today we connect former world champion Hi Yong Choi to former Korean world title challenger Seung Soon Lee.
Just as ground rules, we're not doing the more basic "A beat B who beat C who beat D" type of thing, but instead we want to link fighters in different ways. As a result we will limit A fought B connections, and try to get more varied connections together, as you'll see here! We also know there are often shorter routes to connect fighters, but that's not always the most interesting way to connect them. 1-In January 1991 Hi Yong Choi won the WBA Minimumweight title, defeating fellow Korean Bong Jun Kim to win the belt. In his first defense he defeated limited, but tough, Filipino challenger Sugar Ray Mike, in what would be Mike's biggest fight, by far. 2-Of course Sugar Ray Mike isn't the only "Sugar Ray" in boxing history. There's been a host, including the legendary pairing of Sugar Ray Robinson and Sugar Ray Leonard. One other Sugar Ray who, like Mike, was from the Philippines was Sugar Ray Hynes, another very obscure Sugar Ray, but one who fought a number of top Asian fighter in the 1990's. 3-One of the notable opponents of Sugar Ray Hynes was future WBA Super Flyweight champion Hyung Chul Lee, who scored a 10th round KO win over Hynes in 1992 to move his own record to 12-4 (9) and take his next step towards getting a world title fight. 4-On February 25th 1995 Hyung Chul Lee made his only successful defense of the WBA Super Flyweight title, defeating Tomonori Tamura in Busan via 12th round TKO. The win was Lee's first bout since stopping Katsuya Onizuka for the title in September 1994, and he fought the bout with a damaged hand, having had a pain killing shot before the first bell. On the very same day Englishman Lloyd Honeyghan, former Welterweight world champion, fought for the final time, losing in 3 rounds to the then unbeaten Adrian Dodson in Millwall, England. 5-In July 1988 Lloyd Honeyghan defended his WBC Welterweight title against Korean challenger Young Kil Jung, doing so in a bout that was marred with controversy at the end with Honeyghan winning the bout on the back of a low blow against Jung. The Korean seemed to try to over-sell the low blow, and was ruled to have been unfit to continue by referee Tony Orlando. It was a strange ending to the fight, but it's fair to say that Honeyghan was bossing things against the usually durable and tough, though technically limited, Korean challenger. 6-Whilst Young Kil Jung's performance against Lloyd Honeyghan was rather embarrassing in the end, even if he did feel aggrieved to have been counted out following a ball shot, he was generally regarded as a tough, rugged fighter back home in Korea. He would also show his toughness when he returned to the US and battled Marlon Starling, lasting 12 rounds with the fantastic American. Back in Korea however it was his trilogy of bouts with Seung Soon Lee that really helped him make his name. The two men fought in 1983, 1984 and 1987 in three hotly contested and tough bouts, with Lee winning the first two and Jung winning the third. After the third bout between Chung and Lee, lee himself would get a world title bout, against Mark Breland, where he was subsequently stopped within a minute. In May 2019 we saw Japan's Ryuichi Funai (31-8, 22) fight for the final time as he faced off IBF Super Flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas. The bout was a one sided beating for Funai, who lacked the speed, tenacity and work rate to get to the Filipino, who was too quick, too sharp and far too good. Following that bout Funai retired from the sport, having achieved one of his dreams of fighting in the US.
Sadly Funai is probably better remembered for that loss than anything else in his career, but the very likeable, friendly and rather quite Funai was in fact a very solid fighter. During his 39 fight career he reached the East Japan Rookie of the Year final, won the Japanese Super Flyweight title, beat the likes of Gakuya Furuhashi, Teppei Kikui, Kenta Nakagawa, Takayuki Okumoto, Warlito Parrenas and Victor Emmanuel Olivo. In the ring Funai's style was basic, he lacked world class tools, but he still managed to earn a world title fight, a big fight in the US and a chance to fight for a world title before ending his career. Today we want to shine a light on Funai and his career as we bring you 5 Midweek Facts about Ryuichi Funai 1-Prior to taking up boxing Funai placed basketball at Junior High School, and didn't begin boxing until he was High School and visited the Watanabe gym. Soon afters he began to train as an amateur fighter and managed to run up a 4-4 (2) record, a less than stellar start to his career, but one that gave him something of an under-standing of the ring and how to box, before he began his professional journey in 2005. 2-Like many fighters from Tokyo, Funai spent almost his entire career fighting at the Korakuen Hall. From his 39 professional bouts, 34 took place at the Japanese "Holy Land" of boxing. The other 5 took place at the Super Arena in Saitama, the Sangyo Hall in Kanazawa, the EDION Arena Osaka, the The Ota-City General Gymnasium and the Stockton Area 3-In 2017 Funai beat Kenta Nakagawa in 7 rounds to claim the Japanese Super Flyweight title. Despite the fact the men fought each other they were actually very good, long term friends who had gone to high school together, Tokyo Metropolitan Port Technical High School, and had set up a boxing club together. Interestingly after their 2017 fight the two had agreed to go to a Ramen shop together, with the loser paying for a meal together. Unfortunately the one they had agreed to go to was closed on the day they went 4-Following his retirement from boxing Funai began to "MR. CHICKEN Chicken Restaurant", where he sold Singaporean chicken rice meals. Since then he has left that job and set up his own business, selling curry from a mobile restaurant. His specialities are "Futara Shoten" and "Keema Curry". Funai getting into the food industry really isn't much of a surprise and in 2020 he revealed that he was debating going to cooking school instead of becoming a professional boxer. He also revealed that he had trained to be a chef early in his boxing career and had a part time job in a kitchen whilst he was fighting. 5-As well as selling curry Funai is also a boxing trainer, working 3 times a week, at 3 different gyms, including the "SOETE" gym of former Watanabe Gym stable mate Akio Shibata. We've all heard of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, and we've decided to put our spin on things with "Six degrees of separation" looking to connect Asian fighters you may never have assumed were connected! Today we connect former modern day Thai icon Srisaket Sor Rungvisai to former 2-weight Korean world champion Hi Yong Choi.
Just as ground rules, we're not doing the more basic "A beat B who beat C who beat D" type of thing, but instead we want to link fighters in different ways. As a result we will limit A fought B connections, and try to get more varied connections together, as you'll see here! We also know there are often shorter routes to connect fighters, but that's not always the most interesting way to connect them. 1-We've all seen Srisaket Sor Rungvisai become a genuine international boxing star in recent years whilst facing some of the best Super Flyweights on the planet. Sadly much of his early career was badly handled, and he suffered a number of early when he was thrown in very deep very early on, but his development to become a multi-time world champion was incredible. As a professional he has fought out of the Nakornluang Boxing Camp and unsurprisingly he's not the only notable fighter out of the camp. Other notable fighters from the gym have included Napapol Sor Rungvisai, Suriyan Sor Rungvisai and most notably of all Veeraphol Sahaprom. 2-The career of "Death mask" Veeraphol Sahaprom was an amazing one. He was a 2-time Bantamweight champion, competed in 10 world title fights and scored notable wins over the likes of Daorung Chuwatana, Rolando Pascua, Joichiro Tatsuyoshi and Toshiaki Nishioka. Sadly for him his legendary reign as the WBC Bantamweight champion, which saw him rack up 14 defenses, came to an end in 2005 after he won the title in 1998. His conqueror was the then unheralded Hozumi Hasegawa. 3-At the time of his title win Hozumi Hasegawa seemed to have been a little bit lucky, taking a razor close decision over the legendary Thai. Following that title win however he established himself as a genuine legend of the lower weights and for Japanese boxing, becoming a 3 weight world champion and recording 10 defenses of the WBC Bantamweight title. One of his most notable defenses was his victory over South African fighter Simpiwe Vetyeka. 4-When Simpiwe Vetyeka fought Hozumi Hasegawa he was 16-0 and relatively unknown, but proved what he could do as he gave Hasegawa one of his toughest bouts. In the years that followed that bout Vetyeka would go on to become a thorn in the side of Indonesian boxing beating Daud Yordan and then later ending the long reign of Indonesian legend Chris John, stopping John in Australia to claim the WBA Featherweight title. 5-From 1998 to 2013 Chris John was pretty much the face of Indonesian boxing, and was regarded as the WBA's premier champion at Featherweight for a good chunk of his career, even if the WBA did make some very odd decisions during his reign. Interestingly John was only the third Asian fighter to hold the WBA Featherweight title, following Japan's Shozo Saijo and South Korea's Young Kyun Park. 6-The all action Young Kyun Park, dubbed the "Bulldozer" in Korea, was one of the most exciting fighters of the early to mid 1990's. He was never the most technical fighter but was always an entertaining warrior who came forward and looked to force a war on his opponents. Sadly for Park he lost the WBA Featherweight title on December 4th 1993, on a show that also featured former world champion Hi Yong Choi, who claimed his 15th win by stopping Nilo Anosa. Through the history of the sport we have seen so many fighters being regarded as a sure thing, and as the next big star of the sport, but their career failed to pan out in the way many had expected. One of the most notable examples of such a fighter from Japan was Satoshi Koguchi (11-7-1, 10) who was regarded as one of the nations brightest ever talents when he turned professional in the late 1970's.
Sadly however Koguchi never delivered on his talent when he needed to, and despite turning professional with huge expectations on his shoulders he finished his career with an under-whelming record and little of note to show for his 6 years in the pro ranks. Instead his career serves as a clear reminder that no one in this sport is a sure thing, no matter how talented they are. For those who don't know much about Koguchi we're looking to change that here as we bring you 5 Midweek Factsab out Satoshi Koguchi! 1-As an amateur Koguchi was a standout fighter who recorded a then Japanese record 61 straight wins in the amateurs, a record that stood for more than 30 years and wasn't broken until Kuntae Lee in 2013, when Kuntae Lee scored a 62nd straight win in his brilliant amateur career. As an amateur Koguchi would win two national high school championships and fight at the 1978 World Amateur Championships, but was eliminated in the first round. 2-Koguchi's decision to turn professional was due to the failure of his parent's business, and the need to earn money. 3-There was real controversy over Koguchi's professional standing when he turned professional, which hindered his career. He had signed contracts with both the International Boxing Gym and the Sasazaki Boxing Gym. Which left both feeling feeling they had promotional rights to him. Sadly the contractual issues saw him having his debut delayed by around two years, in what is regarded as the "boxing version of the Egawa Incident", mirroring issues with baseball star Suguru Egawa. It seemed, when he did turn professional, some of his desire for the sport had waned. 4-When he did finally make his debut he did so with special training from former Japanese world champion Shozo Saijo and he even sparred with Carlos Zarate before making his professional debut. Sadly however he neglected road work, and reportedly lacked the attitude to become a boxing star, a preferring to smoke, drink and enjoy the company of females, rather than focusing on his boxing career. Rather interestingly his inability to focus on the sport saw him never winning any form of professional title, though he did fight for Japanese titles 3 times and scored wins over 3 future Japanese champions Tsutomu Itokazu, Tatsunari Hisahiro and Noboru Godai. 5-Following his retirement, in 1985 after losing to Takuya Muguruma, Koguchi became a trainer at the Kyoei Gym, helping train Katsuya Onizuka. He would win the Best Trainer Award in 1992 before transferring gyms in 1994 and helping Shinji Takehara to a world title. He would then go on to open up his own gym in 1996 and later lead Shingo Wake to a world title fight. Bonus Fact - Koguchi's newphew is Manabu Koguchi, the man who gave Hidenori Otake his first loss. One thing about great fights and great knockouts is that they don't need to feature the best fighters or the biggest names. In fact many of the great knockouts feature fighters who perhaps aren't well known at all. Today we get to talk about one such knockout from 2014, in fact it was one of the fights we mentioned back in 2014 as being among out KO's of the year, and it certainly wasn't a high profile KO but was still a gorgeous knockout. Kongfah CP Freshmart (7-0, 3) Vs Saengthong Chor Pakdee (0-0) In one corner was the then rising Kongfah CP Freshmart, also known as Jakkrawut Majoogoen. Kongfah was a genuinely promising young Thai, but was being matched relatively softly. He had won the WBC Youth Light Flyweight title very early in his career and made a defense of that belt, but was still very much taking on novices and local opponents to pad his record and allow him to develop his experience in the ring. On the other hand Saengthong Chor Pakdee was a total unknown, and was seemingly making his debut. Very little information is available in regards to Saengthong, and this not only appears to be his debut, but also his only professional bout. And there's a good reason for that. The first two rounds saw Kongfah taking control and like we see with many Thai prospects he looked several levels better than his foe, who was "giving it a go" but really looked over matched. Saenthong was playing his part in getting Kongfah some ring time and forced the hopeful to stay aware of shots coming back. That was until round 3 when Kongfah put his foot on the gas and began fighting with more intensity. Midway through the round Kongfah landed a gorgeous left uppercut. The shot didn't look like a big one, but Saengthong instant dropped to his knees and then flat on his face. It was as if the shot just turned the lights off on Saengthong and someone pressed the reset button. Thankfully Saengthong did sit up under his own power but looked very confused when he came to. Whilst Saengthong never fought against Kongfah is now 32-1 (16) with his only loss coming by stoppage Daigo Higa, and he is very much on the fringes of a world title fight. Enjoy one of the most under-looked, and yet visually appealing KO's of recent years.
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With this site being pretty successful so far we've decided to open up about our own views and start what could be considered effectively an editorial style opinion column dubbed "Thinking Out East" (T.O.E). Archives
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