Suriyan Por Chokchai has successfully defended his WBC super-flyweight title with an impressive unanimous victory over Nobuo Nashiro at the Nimibutr Gymnasium in Bangkok, Thailand Friday.
All three judges had Suriyan the winner although the scorecard of Thai judge Thawut Plumsamran who had his countryman winning 119-109 raised questions of fairness because ot meant the champion won eleven of the 12 rounds in stark contrast to the scorecards of Jae Bong Kim of Korea (116-113) and Hisatoshi Miyazaki of Japan (115-113).
It was Suriyan?s first defense of the title he won from Mexico's Tomas Rojas last August., Suriyan took a 115-113, 119-109, 116-113 win over his Japanese opponent at Nimibutr gymnasium.
The Bangkok Post reported that the Thai fighter ?showed a significant improvement in footwork and jabs throughout the fight but his poor defense often gave a chance for Nashiro to attack with powerful punches.?
In a post fight interview Suriyan said "It was a tough fight and it was more difficult than my previous fight against Rojas."
The 22 year old champion said Nashiro was powerful and his fighting style made it more difficult for him but he was confident he would retain his 115-pound belt after six rounds of the scheduled 12 rounder.
Suriyan told the Bangkok Post ?At the halfway stage, I was sure I was going to beat him."
For his part the 30 year old Nashiro conceded that he had been beaten by a better opponent and said it would be good if he was offered the chance of a rematch in Japan.
Suriyan improved his winning record to 20 with seven knockouts against four losses and one draw while Nashiro suffered the fourth loss of his career with 15 wins (9KOs) and one draw.
Suriyan's manager Suchart Wisitputthinan praised his boxer for a great fight even though he had to change his boxing style saying "He is a very smart boxer."
Suchart said he believes Suriyan has the potential to be a great athlete who will one day fight in the US but he warned that he will have to sharpen his skills before then.
The champion started off well working behind his jab to keep Nashiro at bay and led on the WBC open scoring system after four rounds 40-36, 40-36, 39-37 . However, his failure top defend himself well and an apparently loss of focus cost him over the next four rounds although he continued to lead at the end of round right 79-73, 80-72, 78-74.
With four rounds to go Nashiro who was making his third attempt to win the title and had nothing to lose went all out with both fighters looking exhausted at the end.
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