MORE GAB APPROVED MISMATCHES IN THAILAND
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 15 Jul 2007
The Games and Amusements Board appears once again to be guilty of approving two obvious mismatches following the partial lifting of the ban on Filipino boxers fighting in Thailand under what chairman Eric Buhain announced would be a "case-to-case basis."
The ban was imposed by Buhain following the untimely death of Lito Sisnorio following brain surgery after he suffered a brutal fourth round knockout at the hands of former world champion Chatchai Sasakul in a mismatch last March 30. It was subsequently partially lifted by Buhain during a meeting with boxing promoters and managers at which he announced that the GAB would check the records of the fighters involved before approving the fights to make sure there were no mismatches.
However, Buhain's pronouncements were obviously not followed in two instances last Friday in Ratchaburi, Thailand. Filipino super bantamweight Eduardo Apa-ap suffered a second round TKO in a WBO Asia Pacific title fight against Thai champion Sod Looknongyangtoy while in another obvious mismatch on the same card comparative unknown Rey Anton Olarte lost a six round bout against former WBA super bantamweight champion Somsak Sithchatchawal.
Olarte had a record of 3-2 with no knockouts while Somsak had a record of 51-2-1 with 41 knockouts and figured in last year’s “Fight of the Year” against Mahyar Monshipour when he won the world title by a tenth round TKO. A well-known boxing writer who attended the fights informed Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today that while Olarte "hung in there he should not have been in the same ring with a fighter like Somsak."
On the other hand a check with boxrec.com clearly indicated that Sod Looknongyangtoy was far more experienced and decidedly too good for Apa-ap who had a record of 6-3, 1 knockout as against the Thai champion’s record of 30-2 with 11 knockouts.
What was even more telling was that Sod had defeated no less than 18 Filipino fighters, many of whom were better than Apa-ap and the second round TKO came as no surprise.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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