By Jim Maltzman: After 13 years as a pro, previously unbeaten Wanheng Menayothin (54-1, 18 KOs) suffered his first defeat in losing his WBC minimumweight title to #3 WBC Panya Pradabsri (35-1, 24 KOs) by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision on Friday at the City Hall Ground in Nakhon Sawan Thailand.
Menayothin, AKA Chayaphon Moonsri, had held the World Boxing Council strawweight title since 2014 and had defended it successfully 12 times going into Friday’s match against the young lion Pradabsri.
The judges scored the fight 15-113, 115-113, and 115-113. Boxing News 24 had Menayothin winning 115-113 based on his harder shots and the relentless pressure he put on the younger 29-year-old Pradabsri throughout the contest.
The judges seemed more impressed with the jabs and boxing skills of Pradabsri, who was landing a lot of lighter punches that caught the more powerful Menayothin when he was coming forward.
A light like this might have been scored much differently had it been staged in a different country like the U.S, where the emphasis on the harder, cleaner shots being weighted by the judges.
(Photo credit: World Boxing Council)
Ideally, one would have liked to have seen a decisive outcome with the Menayothin-Pradabsri, with it a clearcut victory either way.
Unfortunately, what we saw was a subjective outcome. The judges were more impressed with the fencing-type of style fighting from Pradabsri rather than the more powerful shots coming from Menayothin.
Pradabsri was fighting like he was using a sword with the way he was shooting out his punches and getting out of the way of Menayothin’s powerful return fire.
If Menayothin were ever going to lose a fight, it would be to a fighter like Pradabsri that used an amateur style of fighting to outwork and outland him, which we saw with this fight. Again, this is a fight that would likely have been scored dramatically different if it took place in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In the later rounds of the fight, Pradabsri was more effective in landing many nice shots, but they still lacked the power that we saw coming from the 35-year-old Menayothin.
But clearly, Pradabsri was at his best during the championship rounds when there some fatigue showing with the champion Menayothin.
With the loss, Menayothin no longer has the best record in boxing, and Floyd Mayweather Jr (50-0, 27 KOs) is now once again the top dog. It doesn’t matter that Mayweather has two fights on his record that many boxing fans felt that he lost against Jose Luis Castillo and Marcos Maidana. He still has the best record in the sport.
Two years ago, Menayothin broke Mayweather’s record of 49-0 by picking up his 50th win. In 2017, Mayweather broke the late Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record in a controversial manner by defeating UFC fighter Conor McGregor, who was making his pro debut in boxing.
A lot of fans saw that as a weak way for Mayweather to break Marciano’s longstanding record. However, the Nevada State Athletic Commission still sanctioned the fight despite McGregor’s never having boxed before.