By Allan Fox: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai battles former WBA minimumweight champion Kwanthai Sithmorseng in a 10-round stay busy fight this Saturday in search of his 50th career win.
At Friday’s weigh-in, Rungvisai weighed 114 3/4 lbs, while his opponent Kwanthai came in at 115 lbs.
If Rungvisai wins, as he’s fully expected to, he’ll be taking on the winner of the Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez in his next fight.
The former two-time WBC super flyweight champion Rungvisai (49-5-1, 42 KOs) is WBC 115-lb champion Roman Gonzalez’s mandatory and will be the next opponent for him or Estrada (41-3, 28 KOs), depending on which of the two world champions have their hand raised on Saturday in their rematch at the American Airlines Center, in Dallas, Texas.
WBC champion Chocolatito (50-2, 41 KOs) and WBA 115-lb champion ‘El Gallo’ Estrada are headlining live on DAZN on Saturday, March 13th.
For his part, Rungvisai, 34, has the easier job, facing 38-year-old Kwanthai (50-7-1, 27 KOs) on Saturday at the Workpoint Studio, in Bang Phun, Thailand.
Although Kwanthai was once an excellent fighter a decade ago, he’s older now and well past his prime. Indeed, he’s been knocked out in four out of his last seven fights since 2015, with one of his stoppage losses coming against a 6-3 fighter in Wulan Tuolehazi.
“I am not only preparing to fight Kwanthai [Songnui] but also preparing to fight the winner of Estrada vs. Chocolatito,” said Rungvisai to Matchroom Boxing about his fight this Saturday night.
I am not overlooking Kwanthai, but I am confident that I will beat him impressively. I am confident that my 50th win will be impressive, and also in my next fight [against Estrada vs. Chocolatito winner] with my 51st win, I will become a three-time world champion.
Rungvisai has victories over both Estrada and Chocolatito, and he could potentially beat the winner of that fight. With Rungvisai’s two victories over Chocolatito in 2017, he has his number in a big way.
Rungvisai’s formidable punching power and size are all wrong for Chocolatito, who has never used boxing skills to win his fights.
Estrada lost to Rungvisai in 2018 in a 12 round majority decision, but he did beat him by a 12 round decision victory in 2019. You could tell from watching that fight that Rungvisai was more than capable of beating Estrada if he went on the attack early.
That match-up was similar to the Vasily Lomachenko vs. Teofimo Lopez fight last October.
In that fight, Lomachenko didn’t let his hands go in the first half of the contest, and he fell far behind. But when Loma did go on the attack in the second half, he was the better fighter and finished strong.
Rungvisai didn’t let his hands go in the first half against Estrada in their rematch, but in the second, it was a completely different person with he took control of the fight and looked strong at the end.
In that fight, Rungvisai looked uncomfortable with the huge amount of support that Estrada had from the pro-Estrada fans at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
The fans were screaming each time Estrada threw anything, and it seemed to bother Rungvisai, putting him off his game. In the second half of the fight, Rungvisai looked like he made up his mind, ‘The heck with the fans, I’m going to beat this guy.’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To1tGYPGKSU
That’s when Rungvisai took over the fight and began punishing Estrada with powerful punches to the head and body, as he’d done in their first fight in 2018.
This Saturday, you can expect a quick knockout win for Rungivsai against the smaller, weaker, and older Kwanthai. This fight likely won’t last more than three rounds at the most.