Boxing News Boxing News
Today at the Sun Plaza Hall in Hiroshima, Japan, Thailand’s Denkaosan Kaovichit shook off the world title jinx by knocking out reigning champion Takefumi Sakata in the second round to win the WBA Flyweight belt.
The 32 year old Kaovichit held the PABA crown from his first professional bout in 1996 and made an amazing 32 defenses over two reigns, losing only a WBA title contest to Eric Morel in 2002 and drawing with Sakata for the same belt a year ago.
But this time the native of Samui, Thailand took it out of the Japanese judges’ hands by producing a shattering result, crushing the seasoned Tokyo based champion at 2:55 of the second.
Sakata himself came up the hard way, holding the Japanese title through two defenses before losing it to Trash Nakanuma by majority decision in 2002.
Sakata regained the crown in a rematch a year later and after two more defenses narrowly missed knocking off WBA Champ Lorenzo Parra, losing a majority decision in 2004 and again in 2005.
In 2006, Sakata was decked in the fifth before losing a split decision to Roberto Vasquez for the interim WBA crown but finally struck gold in a third bout with Parra, who couldn’t make the weight and was stopped in the third, earning Sakata the elusive WBA throne.
The 28 year old gained revenge on Vasquez in 2007 before drawing with Kaovichit and then defending the belt twice more in 2008 against the domestic duo of Shingo Yamaguchi and Hiroyuki Hisataka.
During their rematch today in Hiroshima, Kaovichit cut through Sakata’s defense in shocking fashion, nailing the champion with full blooded right hands that twice sent the Japanese stylist to the canvas before referee Roberto Ramirez had seen enough.
Sakata had never been stopped before and this dominant victory puts Kaovichit in line for a lucrative unification match with Japan’s WBC kingpin Daisuke Naito or perhaps a long awaited Thai showdown with longtime former WBC champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, who has only lost once in the last 12 years.
