WBC strawweight champion Panya Pradabsri (38-1, 23 KOs) scored a twelve round unanimous decision over former long time champion Wanheng Menayothin (55-2, 19 KOs) in their rematch on Tuesday at the City Hall Ground in Nakhon Sawan, Thailand. The bout was a slugfest. 36-year-old Wanheng was very aggressive and Pradabsri, 31, was willing to trade. After four rounds, WBC open scoring showed 39-37 Wanheng, 38-38, 38-38. The back and forth action continued with Pradabsri pulling ahead 77-75, 78-74, 78-74 after eight. Wanheng drove Pradabsri into the ropes in round nine, not called a knockdown. Wanheng desperately tried to make up the gap down the stretch but came up short. Scores were 117-111 across the board.
The 36-year-old Menayothin, also known as Chayaphon Moonsri, ran his ledger to 54-0 to best Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 career mark only to relinquish the record for an unbeaten career back to Floyd by losing to Pradabsri in November 2020.
I never saw any of Moonsri’s fights. Although they’ve probably available on YouTube. But I enjoyed following his unbeaten streak and title defenses. It was somewhat humorous to see him making numerous defenses against guys with 12-2 records.
Seriously though, stayed active , handled his mandatoroes and was consistent and in all honesty light fly and minimum weight divisions aren’t all that deep with talent outside of the top 5.
He was 54-0 and a long time champion. No he’s not Mayweather but for a long time he was more than good enough.
Talent would be deeper if flyweight wasn’t split into three divisions.
Menayothin had a fine career. He actually retired a couple of years ago and then decided to comeback. He even did better in this fight than I thought he would. Always hoped he would fight Niyomtrong, but supposedly they were very good friends and with Niyomtrong and Pradabsri both using that “Freshmart” name, I can’t imagine they’ll be in a hurry to fight each other either.