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In one of the few times a foreign fighter has gone into Thailand against a defending Thai world champion and upset the applecart, unheralded ‘Sonny Boy’ Villaluz Jaro knocked out Pongsaklek Wongjongkam in Chanburi, Thailand on Friday, March 2, 2012, to win the WBC Flyweight title in the biggest upset of the year thus far.
Jaro, 29, now 34-10-5 with 24 kayos, Binangonan Rizal, Phillipines, dropped aging Wonjongkam in the first and third rounds, and knocked him out for the count in the sixth, disposing of the ‘fighter of the decade’. Jaro also holds the IBF Pan Pacific Light Flyweight title.
Wonjongkam, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand,now 83-4-2, 44 kayos, a southpaw who is primarily an accurate technical fighter, was kayoed only once before, by durable Filipino veteran Jerry Pahayhay in the fifth round of a bout in July 1996, who also decisioned him over eight rounds in December 1995.
The hard punching Jaro needed a knock out to win the WBC title in Thailand, and by winning, will fight a mandatory defense next in 2012 against Japan’s Toshiyuki Igarashi which was a precondition of the bout set by WBC President Jose Sulaiman.
Exactly 11 years ago, Wonjongkam won the WBC Flyweight title by flooring unbeaten Malcolm Tunacao on March 2, 2001. He figured into 28 WBC title bouts. His only two title bouts outside of Thailand, in Japan, resulted in a loss and a draw to Daisuke Naito. In his last outing against Hurofumi Mukai on December 23, 2011, a technical draw resulted after 47 seconds due to an accidental clash of heads rendering Mukai unable to continue.
