Thammanoon Niyomtrong retained his WBA strawweight title by the slimmest of margins.
The sport’s longest reigning active male titleholder rode two knockouts to a majority decision win over Alex Winwood. Niyomtrong won 114-112 on two cards and overcame a score of 113-113 on Saturday at the HBF Arena in Perth, Western Australia.
It should have been wider, but the real fighter won in the end,
Winwood was chasing to best Jeff Fenech’s Australian record of a version of the world title in less than seven fights. He fell short against the longest reigning title holder in the match.
33-year-old Niyomtrong, also known as Knockout CP Freshmart, was slow out of the gate. By the fourth round he was working his way into the fight.
A left hook from the Thai dropped the Indigenous Australian in the fifth. The sequence was deemed a slip, preserving Winwood’s early lead.
Niyomtrong, The Ring’s no. 4-rated strawweight, kept getting stronger as the rounds progressed. As Winwood was about to move left, he was caught with a right hand. As he moved to the right, the left hook did the damage.
Winwood had a better sixth round. He used his superior speed and athleticism to take down the seasoned veteran. A solid right hand to the jaw from Winwood landed just before the bell.
The momentum did not last long.
Niyomtrong landed a flush left hook that dropped Winwood to the canvas in the seventh. The local fighter fell hard. Winwood set up and needed a nine count to recover.
Somehow Winwood survived the round. At first glance, it seemed only a matter of time.
Winwood boxed carefully in the eighth, sticking out the ring around the ring and the jab. Niyomtrong put him under pressure, which reaped dividends in the ninth. A slick right hand by Niyomtrong early in the ninth provided the fight’s second takedown.
Niyomtrong stayed on top of his man from then on. He punched, he pressured, and he proved why he’s still a dangerous commodity in boxing’s smallest division.
The win raised Niyomtrong’s record to 25-0 (9 KOs), while Winwood fell to 4-1 (2 KOs).
Niyomtrong has now made twelve successful defenses of the WBA 105-pound title. His reign stretches back to his twelve-round victory over Byron Rojas in their June 2016 title consolidation match. Niyomtrong previously held the WBA ‘Regular’ title before the upgrade.
Saturday was the 33-year-old’s first fight since July 2022. The massive delay included several failed attempts to get Dominican Republic’s Erick Rosa in the ring.
In the end, the king remained king.
UNDERMAP RESULTS
Blake Minto (16-6-2, 4 KO’s) showed his big tank again when he outworked southpaw Steve Gago (14-3, 7 KO’s) over ten rounds.
The early baking of Minto paid off. The 31-year-old welterweight from New South Wales never let up in his midriff attack.
Perth’s Gago, 35, held his own, but he couldn’t keep up with the sheer physicality of Minto, who spent much of the fight backing up his opponent, outworking him and to tear on the inside.
Gago was given a point in the fifth round for holding and the fight weakened from there. Every time he managed to push Minto off of him, his opponent found room to strike before swarming him again.
Minto looked fresh as a daisy coming out for the sixth round. Gago looked in the corner in a world of hurt.
Painful body shots followed, and they were all from Minto, who stepped into his shots and got maximum purchase on his punches. The occasional left uppercut was not enough to sway the judges Gago’s way
The scores were 98-91, 99-90 and 97-92, all for Minto
Movement and angles were the stories of the night for Louisa ‘Bang Bang Lulu’ Hawton (12-2, 6 KOs) as she punched her way to a unanimous decision over Viviana Ruiz (8-2, 4 KOs).
The 39-year-old Perth native, who previously held the WBO junior flyweight title, moved up in weight to take on Ruiz, 41, in a 10-round flyweight contest.
Colombian-born Ruiz, who boxes out of Sydney, tried to impose her superior size on Hawton, but her naturally larger frame was taken out of the equation when Hawton dropped her early in the second round.
Hawton was cunning and clever after that. She circled left and right, parrying incoming punches effectively and parrying every charge from a determined but overwhelmed Ruiz.
When the dust settled, the scores were 97-92 and twice 95-94.
Australian boxing journalist Anthony Cocks has covered the sport for over 20 years for various print and online publications.
