Thailand’s Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym who will challenge WBA bantamweight champion Bernard Dunne in Dublin on September 26 has met with the local media and reportedly impressed them by showing muaythai “flying knees and kicks”, while saying he will try to beat Dunne with a knockout.

In the afternoon of September 23, the Thai challenger, who arrived in Dublin days earlier, appeared at a local gym to meet the press and some crowd. Poonsawat sparred with his boxing partner for three rounds, but it was the afterward muaythai show-off that really excited the crowd and drew cheers and applause as he performed some “flying knees and kicks”.

Thailand’s Lumpini Stadium is finally reverting back its rules to allow certain traditional grappling and kneeing techniques after an experimenting period with the ban on the muaythai moves that were seen as unexciting.

Lumpini was initially praised when it issued banning on certain grappling and kneeing techniques common in muaythai matches. The stadium believed it should come up with a written rule against the techniques that were abused by the fighters to stall the bout.

However, various parties in the sport, including the muaythai gym managers and other stadiums, have pointed out that such decision whether the fighters are stalling the game should be left to judgment of individual referees rather than codified rules by the stadiums.

Some also claimed Lumpini’s rules were destroying the traditional style of muaythai, while leaving the shorter fighters in disadvantage as they tend to rely more on engaging the opponents with grappling.

Usanakorn Kokietgym’s trainer says his new protégé will use the favored strategy of boxing legend Khaosai Galaxy to defeat WBC female bantamweight title holder Galina Koleva Ivanova at the match in Thailand in early October.

The WBC female title match of Thai challenger Usanakorn and Bulgarian world champion Ivanova will be the highlight of the event to honor revered Thai monk Luang Por Koon at Ban Rai School in Nakorn Ratchasima on October 5. The bout will be televised by the Channel Three network from 2.30 p.m. onward.

Usanakorn’s trainer Pong “Go Hong” Tawornwiwatbut, who is best known as the trainer responsible for the rising of Thai boxing legend Khaosai Galaxy, said Usanakorn will focus on heavy assaults to Ivanova’s body, which was the favored strategy of Khaosai.

Thailand’s Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym who is scheduled to challenge WBA bantamweight champion Bernard Dunne in Dublin on September 26 is nine pounds over the limit of his weight category, while the Irish title holder is reportedly in a mourning period for the death of fellow Irish boxer Darren Sutherland.

Poonsawat was six pounds over when he first arrived to Dublin, but after a large dinner that included a whole salmon and a piece of steak, the Thai challenger shocked his manager for reaching 131 pounds, over the limit by nine pounds.

His trainer, however, pointed out that Poonsawat had not been exercising for two days due to the long journey to Ireland, and should be able to lose weight once his normal practice schedule has been resumed.

Thailand’s promoter Kokiet Panichayarom is suggesting WBA minimumweight champion Etsuko Tada should relinquish her title before fighting WBC light flyweight champion Naomi Togashi, which may allow his own boxer Yani Kokietgym to bid for the title again.

Kokiet said it is not likely that the rivaling WBC and WBA would both allow the two Japanese female world champions to fight each other, but he suggested Tada to drop her title in order to fight in the WBC match against Togashi. In such scheme, he hopes that Yani may have a chance to fight Panama’s Ibeth Zamora Silva for Tada’s title.

“I do not believe the Japanese boxers would try to boot the other out of her champion title, but if such case is true, Tada must drop her title first to allow Yani to fight with interim title holder Zamora,” said the promoter.

Thailand’s Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym has arrived in Ireland to challenge WBA bantamweight champion Bernard Dunne in Dublin on September 26, but the Thai boxer who is reportedly “stunned” by the cold weather will still have to lose six pounds before the match.

The interim title holder Poonsawat, together with his manager Niwat Laosuwannawat and the staff team as well as a sport reporter, arrived in Dublin after a 20-hour long travel and was greeted at the airport by a large group of Thai fans, some whom performed a traditional drum parade to welcome the boxer.

Poonsawat appeared to be happy too see the unexpected support from the Thai people in Dublin but was “stunned” by the cold weather at about 14 Celsius. The pugilist said he was lucky to arrive in Ireland one week before the match, so he would have enough time to adjust to the local weather, which he said was windy and “shivering cold” unlike the climate in Germany where he visited earlier.

The WBC International featherweight match of Thai title holder Rachamongkol Sor Pleonchit and Filipino challenger Ray Bautista scheduled in the Philippines in the next month has been cancelled, and may be replaced with a fight for an interim title.

Thailand’s promoter Kokiet Panichayarom cited Rachamongkol’s neck injury as the reason to cancel the title match on October 16 in Cebu City against Bautista, who once held the WBO Intercontinental junior featherweight title.

Kokiet, however, is requesting the WBC to instead allow Kongfah Singwangcha, another of his boxers, to fight in the Philippines for the interim title.

Thai amateur boxing chief General Taweep Jantararoj is again raising issues of transparency at the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA), while his court case against the association will be ruled on October 8.

According to the earlier reports, General Taweep, who is the president of the Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand (ABAT) and an executive committee member of AIBA, earlier filed a petition to the Lausanne Civil Court when he was “suspended” from his post at AIBA, following his criticisms on the neutrality of the association’s judges and officials at the Beijing Games in 2008.

The court has so far ordered AIBA to lift its suspension on the Thai boxing chief and is expected to give a ruling on the case on October 8, while General Taweep was recently reported by Khao Sod newspaper as saying that AIBA is receiving a number of complaints and protests on its judges. He also said some are requesting AIBA to review the results of matches at its recent boxing events and launch probes on certain officials.

The future Lumpini-Ratchadamnern cross-stadium events may no longer be able to recruit many top muaythai fighters, as the stadiums are reportedly looking to choose another promoter rather than allowing veteran Songchai Ratanasuban to continue as event organizer, says a Muay Siam newspaper writer. 

The two cross-stadium events in the recent past have turned out to be tremendously popular and have given a much-needed boost to the declining muaythai sport in Thailand.

The executives of the two stadiums are reportedly very happy with the turnout, as well as the handsome income. They quickly promised to continue the series, but some insiders pointed out that the famous Songchai would not be selected as event organizer on Ratchadamnern’s part, and the position may instead be granted to Chucharoen Rawee-aramwong, who is seen as having much less bargaining power than Songchai.

Thailand’s Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo will challenge WBC featherweight belt holder Elio Rojas of the Dominican Republic in early 2010, says his promoter.

Promoter Songchai Ratanasuban said Chonlatarn, who knocked out Edgar Gabijan earlier this month to defend his WBC Asia title, is a promising boxer who has never lost to anyone since he joined the Onesongchai camp five years ago. He also said Chonlatarn has continuously showed better performance in each successive fight, while his skills and power should be ready for the world title bid.

Songchai is confident Chonlatarn would be able to beat the WBC title holder “anytime” as the match has been rescheduled from December this month to the beginning of the next year. Rojas is expected to defend his title in Thailand.