PONGSAKLEK DEFENDS WBC TITLE IN OBVIOUS MISMATCH
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 23 Dec 2011
Thai veteran Pongsaklek Wonjongkam defends his WBC flyweight title in what on paper appears to be an obvious mismatch against Japan?s Hirofumi Mukai at the 11th Infantry Regiment headquarters in Bangkok today.
The 34 year old Pongsaklek has an impressive record of 83-3-1 with 45 knockouts while his 26 year old challenger Mukai has only 5 wins with 1 loss to his name and no knockouts.
The mismatch is accentuated by the fact that the Thai world champion has fought a total of 572 riunds while the challenger has only gone a total of 50 rounds raising serious questions on how such a fight was sanctioned.
Both fighters are southpaws.
WBO flyweight champion Brian Viloria told the Manila Standard after his smashing 8th round TKO victory over former light flyweight champion Giovanni Segura who was ranked No. 9 in the Ring Magazine pound for pound list last December 11 that he was looking forward to a unification bout against Pongsaklek or WBA champion Hernan Marquez in the first quarter of 2012.
Viloria told us ?what I really want to do is a unification with one of the champions. Hopefully that will happen but I?m not sure who is going to be up next.?
Viloria indicated ?we are looking at (Hernan) Marquez and (Pongsaklek) Wonjongkam .? He also said ?I don?t know how big its going to be but a possible match with Ivan Calderon. Whatever will make sense.?
Pongsaklek is the 34 year old Thai southpaw with a record of 83-3-1 with 44 knockouts. He won the title with a stunning 1st round TKO over the Philippines Malcolm Tunacao on March 2, 2011 and had 17 successful title defenses before losing to Japan?s Daisuke Naito on July 18, 2007 in Tokyo.
Pongsaklek regained the interim title with a win over Julio Cesar ?Pingo? Miranda on April 24, 2009. Miranda is the same fighter from whom Viloria won the title at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu last July 16. In his last title defense Pongsaklek won a twelve round unanimous decision over former champion and one time Viloria conqueror Edgar Sosa, last October 21.
The Bangkok Post reported that in the fourth defense of his 112-pound belt since winning it from Japan's Koki Kameda last March, Pongsaklek is a heavy favorite against the inexperienced Japanese challenger who is ranked No. 15 in the flyweight division of the WBC.
Last August 20 in Osaka, Mukai tasted the first defeat of his professional career when he lost by a lopsided twelve round unanimous decision to Rocky Fuentes of the Philippines in an OPBF championship bout.
Several Filipino fighters are rated much higher than Mukai including Fuentes who is ranked No.4, Milan Melindo No. 6, Froilan ?The Sniper? Saludar No. 10, Richie Mepranum No. 11 and Sonny Boy Jaro No. 12.
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