Thammanoon Niyomtrong retained his WBA strawweight title by the slimmest of margins.
The sport’s longest reigning active male titleholder rode two knockdowns to a majority decision win over Alex Winwood. Niyomtrong won 114-112 on two cards, overruling a 113-113 score Saturday at HBF Arena in Perth, Western Australia
It should have been wider, but the right fighter won in the end,
Winwood was angling to best Jeff Fenech’s Australian record of winning a version of the world title in less than seven fights. He came up short against the longest-reigning titleholder in the game.
The 33-year-old Niyomtrong, also known as Knockout CP Freshmart, was slow out of the gate. By the fourth round, he had worked his way into the fight.
A left hook from the Thai dropped the Indigenous Australian in the fifth. The sequence was ruled a slip, which preserved Winwood’s early lead.
Niyomtrong, The Ring’s No. 4-rated strawweight, continued to get stronger as the rounds progressed. When Winwood would move left, he was caught with a right hand. When he moved right, the left hook did the damage.
Winwood had a better sixth round. He used his superior speed and athleticism to pick off the seasoned veteran. A solid right hand to the jaw from Winwood landed just before the bell.
The momentum didn’t last for long.
Niyomtrong landed a flush left hook that deposited Winwood to the canvas in the seventh. The local fighter went down hard. Winwood made it to his feet and needed a nine-count to recover.
Somehow, Winwood survived the round. At first glance, it only looked like a matter of time.
Winwood boxed cautiously in the eighth, circling the ring and sticking out the jab. Niyomtrong pressured him, which reaped dividends in the ninth. A sneaky right-hand by Niyomtrong early in the ninth produced the bout’s second knockdown.
Niyomtrong stayed on top of his man from then on out. He punched, he pressured, and he proved why he is still a dangerous commodity in boxing’s tiniest division.
The win advanced Niyomtrong’s record to 25-0 (9 knockouts), while Winwood fell to 4-1 (2 KOs).
Niyomtrong has now made twelve successful defenses of the WBA 105-pound title. His reign extends back to his twelve-round win over Byron Rojas in their June 2016 title consolidation bout. Niyomtrong previously held the WBA ‘Regular’ Title before the upgrade.
Saturday marked the 33-year-old’s first fight since July 2022. The massive delay included multiple failed attempts to get Dominican Republic’s Erick Rosa in the ring.
In the end, the king stayed the king.
UNDERCARD RESULTS
Blake Minto (16-6-2, 4 KOs) once again showed his big tank as he outworked southpaw Steve Gago (14-3, 7 KOs) over ten rounds.
The early bodywork 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 in spots, but he couldn’t hang with the sheer physicality of Minto, who spent much of the fight backing up his opponent, outworking him and mauling him on the inside.
Gago was docked a point for holding in the fifth round and the fight got scrappy from there. Any time he managed to push Minto off him, his opponent found room to punch before swarming him again.
Minto looked fresh as a daisy coming out for the sixth round. Gago looked in a world of hurt in the corner.
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 juked and jived her way to a unanimous decision win over Viviana Ruiz (8-2, 4 KOs).
The 39-year-old Perth native, who previously held the WBO junior flyweight title, was moving up in weight to face Ruiz, 41, in a 10-round flyweight contest.
Colombian-born Ruiz, who boxes out of Sydney, tried to impose her superior size onto Hawton, but her naturally bigger frame was taken out of the equation when Hawton dropped her early in the second round.
Hawton was crafty and clever after that. She circled left and right, effectively parried incoming blows and picked off every charge from a determined but outgunned Ruiz.
When the dust settled, the scores were 97-92 and 95-94 twice.
Australian-based boxing journalist Anthony Cocks has been covering the sport for over 20 years for various print and online publications.
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