Three Punch Combo: Notes on Thailand’s Little Dynamo, IBHOF Oversights and More

THREE PUNCH COMBO: Last week was a very busy week in boxing, both inside and outside the ring. Here are a couple of random observations:

Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (47-4-1, 41 KO’s) returned in his native Thailand and successfully defended his 115-pound title belt with a wide unanimous decision over tough Iran Diaz (14-3-3, 6 KO’s). Sor Rungvisai’s performance showed what makes him so good as well as what makes him so vulnerable.

Sor Rungvisai (pictured in the yellow trunks) is an aggressive power punching machine and once again overwhelmed his opponent with this style. Against Diaz, he committed to working the body from the opening bell and took a lot of the fight from Diaz with this committed body assault. I think Sor Rungvisai is the most effective body puncher in boxing today.

But this style can have vulnerabilities. For one, I did not see one jab from Sor Rungvisai in this fight against Diaz. It was just plain and simple aggression. And going to the body so much can leave him open for counter rights. Sor Rungvisai was clocked by a few and even appeared to be stunned in round nine by a counter right from Diaz after attacking the body.

Sor Rungvisai is certainly fun to watch and his ultra-aggressive offensively minded style makes him a tough out for anyone. But those vulnerabilities, while making him all the more entertaining, will likely one day come back to haunt him.

On Friday, it was announced that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KO’s) would return to the ring on December 15^th at Madison Square Garden to face Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15 KO’s) in a 168-pound title bout. A lot of fans took to social media to announce their displeasure at the choice of opponent for Canelo following the announcement. My feelings are different.

We want our stars in this sport to be active. It helps to grow and promote the sport. In order to be active, they can’t always fight top level opposition. That would be terrible management.

I like that Canelo is returning so quick after the Golovkin fight and not just sitting back until May to fight again. There was a lot of positive momentum gained from that fight for boxing and the fact that Canelo is not waiting until May to fight again is a boost for the sport. Let’s appreciate the fact that he wants to fight again three months after a bruising war with Golovkin regardless of the opponent. Canelo will fight better opposition down the road. He has proven that he is willing to step up to any challenge. But let’s not beat him up for taking a step down in class from time to time in order to be more active.

HBO Do The Right Thing, Part Two

 Last week, I wrote that HBO needed to do the right thing and add the female featherweight title fight between Heather Hardy and Shelly Vincent to its October 27^th broadcast. The cable giant did in fact do the right thing, announcing mid-week that they would make the October 27^th broadcast a tripleheader by adding the Hardy-Vincent fight to the telecast.

Also, fight writer Mike Coppinger reported that HBO is considering at least one more card before saying so long to televising live boxing. The report stated that they are considering a card on December 8^th that will be headlined by 154-pound champion Jaime Munguia.

I am all for live boxing but get concerned when networks have their respective boxing cards compete with one another. Ultimately, everyone loses as eyeballs become split. Previously, Top Rank announced that on December 8^th Vasyl Lomachenko will return to face Jose Pedraza in a lightweight unification fight on ESPN.

Lomachenko vs. Pedraza is a big fight and now risks losing eyeballs if HBO goes ahead with a competing card. Further to my concern, if this is the last HBO card, then many may flip to the network away from the ESPN card for nostalgia purposes. My hope is if HBO is planning another card in December that they will take this event on ESPN under consideration when planning their own card so the two do not directly compete. Why hurt the sport of boxing by splitting eyeballs if your brand will no longer be covering the sport in future?

Hall Of Fame Ballot Omissions

The International Boxing Hall of Fame & Museum in Canastota, NY has mailed out the ballots for the class of 2019. I am not a voter but the ballots have been posted on social media. Though debate has begun as to whom belongs in the Hall of Fame class of 2019, I want to focus on fighters who 100% assuredly won’t be inducted because their names did not even make it on the ballot.

Here are three fighters with Hall of Fame credentials not on the 2019 ballot:

KEVIN KELLEY (60-10-2, 39 KO’s)

 Those who know me know that I have been beating the drum for Kelley for years. In my mind, the fact that he is not even on the ballot is borderline criminal. Kelley is a former featherweight champion and one of the great action fighters of his era. He had many memorable all-out wars including his fights against Troy Dorsey, Ricardo Rivera, Derrick Gainer and Naseem Hamed, just to name a few. There is a fighter with similar credentials from Kelley’s era, Arturo Gatti, who made the Hall of Fame the first year he was eligible. Kelley belongs in the Hall and at the very least should be on the ballot for voters to consider.

JUNIOR JONES (50-6, 28 KO’s)

Jones is a fighter whose Hall of Fame credentials I touched upon a few months ago and I think it is a crying shame that he did not even make it on this year’s ballot. He is a former two division champion with wins against some of the best fighters of his era. This includes two wins against Hall of Famer Marco Antonio Barrera and a win against another Hall of Famer, Orlando Canizales. His resume also includes wins against former champions Jorge Eliecer Julio, Tom Johnson and Tracy Harris Patterson. All told, Jones was 10-4 against fighters who held a world title at some point in their career. His resume speaks for itself .

VEERAPHOL SAHAPROM (66-4-2, 46 KO’s)

How can this guy not be on the ballot? Just take a look at his credentials. In 1995, in just his fourth pro fight, Sahaprom won a bantamweight title. Though he lost that title in his next fight to the much more seasoned Nana Yaw Konadu, Sahaprom would recapture a bantamweight title against Joichiro Tatsuyoshi a few years later in 1998 and would hold that title for over six years before finally losing the belt to Hozumi Hasegawa. Granted, the opposition wasn’t always the best but there are some solid victories on his resume including two against the aforementioned Tatsuyoshi as well as two against Toshiaki Nishioka. The long title reign mixed in with some high quality wins at the very least should have earned Sahaprom a place on the ballot.

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