WBO REPLACES TWO TITLE CHALLENGERS WITH DUBIOUS RECORDS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 26 Jul 2007
WBO Asia Pacific chairman Leon Panoncillo has acted swiftly on a complaint by Viva Sports over two Thai fighters with dubious ring records who were scheduled to fight WBO Intercontinental light flyweight champion Rexon Flores and WBO Asia Pacific flyweight champion Draian Francisco on August 4 at the Elorde Sports Center.
Panoncillo, in an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, said he acted on our complaint since Viva Sports planned to pull-out of its planned telecast of the fights on its top-rated weekly boxing show “The Main Event” because of the questionable records of the Thai boxers.
The fight record of Salt Phetchinda which was reported as 9-4-1 with 2 knockouts had been removed from the boxrec.com site on suspicion that the results were fake or included Muay Thai fights. Panoncillo replaced Phetchinda with a credible opponent in Sarikalek Eakarin, a 23 year old with a record of 23-3 with 8 knockouts including wins over Filipinos Federico Catubay, Arman de la Cruz and Rey Orais among others.
Earlier, Panoncillo replaced flyweight challenger Paiton Ploysakda whose record was allegedly 16-4-2 wuth 4 knockouts but was discovered to be a mere 3-3 with no KO’s, once again raising the ugly reality of fake results.
The WBO executive said he had replaced the questioned fighter with Wanmeechok Singwangcha whose record was verified as 16-5 with 11 knockouts. A well-known boxing writer in Thailand informed Viva Sports that he had seen some of Wanmeechok’s fights and from what he has seen he is “as legitimate as can be.”
Viva Sports/Manila Standard is working closely with other journalists in Thailand in an effort to try and cleanse fight records and ensure that no fake results are posted which often lead to terrible mismatches.
With the replacements, Gabriel “Bebot” Elorde’s WBO bannered fight card is certain to be a blockbuster and the two Filipino champions Flores and Francisco will be tested by worthy opponents.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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