PUNGLUANG SOR SINGYU TO MAKE FIRST TITLE DEFENSE IN NAMIBIA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 13 Feb 2013
Pungluang (2nd from left).
Thailand?s WBO bantamweight champion Pungluang Sor Singyu will make the first defense on the title he won from the Philippines AJ ?Bazooka? Banal against Paulos Ambunda in Namibia on March 2.
The Sowetan newspaper reports it will be the first WBO championship to take place in Namibia.
In 2009, former ring greats Nestor Tobias and Dingaan Thobela organised the WBA lightweight championship between Paulos "Hitman" Moses and Takehiro Shimada which Moses, from Namibia, defended successfully on points at the Windhoek Country Club.
Tobias and Thobela, former professional fighters and stable-mates under trainer Norman Hlabane, were also in charge when Moses lost the title to Miguel Acosta in Windhoek on May 29 2010.
The 24 year old Singyu from Thailand will defend his WBO bantamweight belt against the 30 year old Namibian Ambunda who holds the WBO international title.
Singyu from the huge OneSngchai Promotions in Bangkok won the title with a stunning ninth-round stoppage of Banal at the plush Mall of Asia in Manila on October 20 while "The Rock", as Ambunda is known, won the international strap against Brazilian William Prado on July 28. That fight was also staged by Tobias and Thobela.
Tobias told the Sowetan "The fight between Singyu and Ambunda is important for Namibia as well as Africa at large because it will give us the chance to show the world that we are capable of organizing big events."
He said "We are not organizing it just to make history but to produce our second world champ (Moses) and not Micky Mouse world chumps."
Moses will defend his WBO international lightweight title against former two-time IBF champion Mzonke "The Rose of Khayelitsha" Fana who once scored a controversial twelve round split decision over then OPBF champion Randy Suico of the Philippines in a title eliminator for a shot at WBA champion Marco Antonio Barrera.
Barrera blasted Fana in two rounds.
The winner of the Moses-Fana fight will face the winner of the WBO-IBF unification title fight between Ricky Burns, the WBO holder, and IBF titlist Miguel Vasquez, on March 3.
Vasquz successfully defended his title in a lackluster bout against previously undefeated Filipino southpaw Mercito ?No Mercy? Gesta on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas last December 8.
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