Boxing News Boxing News
WBC flyweight ruler Pongsaklek Wonjongkam was pushed hard tonight in a title defense at Muang Arena in Srisaket, Thailand by challenger Suriyan Por Chokchai.
Chokchai came into the bout as a largely unknown commodity but the Bangkok man was the reigning Asian Boxing Council titlist and at just 21 years of age, had plenty of energy.
The challenger put that stamina to good use during the first half of the bout, using good footwork and fast counter punching to win rounds by keep the forward moving Wonjongkam off balance and ineffective.
But the 33 year old champion’s tremendous edge in big fight experience began to show as the contest wore on and Wonjongkam was able to close distance with Chokchai.
Chokchai suffered what would prove to be a big setback in the eighth as he lost a point from a clash of heads but to make matter worse, the champion’s greater skills began to make a big difference as he simply outboxed his younger rival.
Wonjongkam tired during the last two frames but Chokchai was never able to land convincingly as time ran out on his title challenge.
After 12 rounds, Wonjongkam retains the WBC belt for the first time during his second reign as champion while Chokchai sees the end of a six bout win streak via scores of 115-112, 115-114 and 114-113.
Wonjongkam now stands at 77-3-1 (40), while Chokchai drops to 14-5-1 (4).
