By Kenneth Friedman: WBC minimumweight champion Wanheng Menayothin has changed his mind about retiring and has reportedly deleted his retirement notice on his Facebook account. This comes a day after the 34-year-old Menayothin (54-0, 18 KOs) came out of nowhere to say he’s walking away from the sport in a message on Facebook.
In September, Menayothin will be back in the ring to make a defense of his WBC title against an opponent still to be determined.
Menayothin choosing to continue his career is good news for boxing fans and bad for Floyd Mayweather Jr (50-0, 27 KOs), who will continue to be in second place as far as the most excellent record in the history of the sport.
It was Mayweather’s record that Menayothin surpassed in 2018 in registering his 51st victory. Menayothin has since created more distance between himself and Mayweather in winning three more times to bring his win total to 54.
WBC’s Asian Boxing Council revealed on Monday that Menayothin hasn’t retired, and he’ll be making another defense soon.
Menayothin to defend WBC title soon
“We are pleased to confirm that the current World Boxing Council minimum-weight world champion Wanheng Meenayothin has not retired from professional boxing.
The champ will look to make his next defense of his WBC world title in the coming months,” said the WBC Asian Boxing Council in a Facebook post.
Menayothin was supposed to be making his U.S debut this year, and a lot of boxing fans were looking forward to this. Whether that can still happen is unknown. With the pandemic going on, it might be a problem for Menayothin to get into the country to make a title defense of his WBC 105-pound strap.
Menayothin posted earlier today from Komthai.com that he hadn’t he’d made the retirement announcement without speaking to his camp leader. He added that he talked to his doctor about a medical problem, and he still needs to hear what his advice is about a nose problem that he has. The nose injury has impacted Menayothin’s breathing.
With Menayothin dealing with combined problems with his weight, training and the pandemic, it led to him deciding to retire. Before the virus situation hit, Menayothin had been planning on coming to the United States to defend his WBC title against #9 WBC Marco John Rementizo.
That would have been an excellent opportunity for the talented Menayothin to introduce himself to the American boxing fans. Menayothin vs. Rementizo was part of the Sergey Kovalev vs. Sullivan Barrera event, which ended up being canceled.