Saensak Muangsurin

[oldgringo]

Was this guy the ultimate flash in the pan or what? Did he have more professional fights than are officially recorded or did he just make a great transition from kickboxing? He won the Light Welterweight title in his THIRD fight for ****s sake.

Can anybody recall this fighter? I have only seen his high profile loss to Tommy Hearns. Man tommy pummeled him. I wish I could see some of his other high profile matches like the Monroe Brooks fight and the Mamby split.

Anyone have anything for me? Any accounts of the Brooks or Mamby fights?

RIP btw. He died very recently. Sad...he was too young to go.

[TheGreatA]

Was this guy the ultimate flash in the pan or what? Did he have more professional fights than are officially recorded or did he just make a great transition from kickboxing? He won the Light Welterweight title in his THIRD fight for ****s sake.

Can anybody recall this fighter? I have only seen his high profile loss to Tommy Hearns. Man tommy pummeled him. I wish I could see some of his other high profile matches like the Monroe Brooks fight and the Mamby split.

Anyone have anything for me? Any accounts of the Brooks or Mamby fights?

RIP btw. He died very recently. Sad...he was too young to go.

He was a highly regarded Muay Thai kickboxer who could succeed so well and so early in boxing because of an iron chin, great punching power and an awkward style (he actually used a southpaw Muay Thai stance).

Kickboxing:





Boxing:





It's doubtful that his record will ever be broken.

[Southpaw16BF]

Was this guy the ultimate flash in the pan or what? Did he have more professional fights than are officially recorded or did he just make a great transition from kickboxing? He won the Light Welterweight title in his THIRD fight for ****s sake.

Can anybody recall this fighter? I have only seen his high profile loss to Tommy Hearns. Man tommy pummeled him. I wish I could see some of his other high profile matches like the Monroe Brooks fight and the Mamby split.

Anyone have anything for me? Any accounts of the Brooks or Mamby fights?

RIP btw. He died very recently. Sad...he was too young to go.

It is very unlikely that his record will be broken, but never say never. Muangsurin in his prime was a good fighter, and made the switch over from Kickboxing/Thai Boxing well, as most Thailand fighters do Khaosai Galaxy also made the switch from a Thai boxing background and went on have a brillant boxing career.

I belive he he had 20 fights all in all in boxing winning 14, and losing 6. he knocked out 11 and was knocked out twice.

What he done after only 3 fights do was a specail achievement, defeating WBC light welterweight champion Perico Fernandez, Fernandez was on his 48th bout. Muangsurin stopped him in 8, a very impresssive win, he would the same 2 years later.

He was a two time world champion (WBC) and his second reign was his best making 7 defences oh his Title before losing it to Sang Hyun Kim.

After this is went downhill for him, in his next 6 fights he won only #1 before retireing in 81.

May He R.I.P.......

[Southpaw16BF]

Thomas Hearns vs. Saensak Muangsurin Oct, 1979

[BennyST]

What about the great unknown Thai fighter Veerhapol Sahaprom? In his first ever pro fight, no amateur or anything, he won the WBC International Title and in his fourth he won the WBA Ordinary World Title.

Like Muangsurin, he just made a great transition to boxing from kickboxing. Difference being that Sahaprom is, in my opinion anyway, without doubt one of the greatest bantamweights of all time. He was truly an amazing fighter. The other amazing thing is that he didn't take up boxing until he was 29! He went on to dominate a great era of bantamweights winning the title twice, again after losing it in his fifth pro fight to two time world champion Nana Konadu (he basically lost due to his inexperience as he had Konadu beat and hurt already and just went charging into a huge punch. Konadu was a very big puncher luckily), regaining it soon after and holding it for many, many years making fourteen defenses of it and beating a lot of great fighters.

I think he may have been one of the true ATG's if he had started earlier. He had incredible defense, was super quick, very powerful and was all aggression. He was one of the great offensive machines that also had a great defense.

Some people may have seen him against Hasegawa when he was a shell of himself, slow, plodding, didn't have the second gear anymore, and had no defense either and yet still managed to very nearly beat him only losing by very close UD from memory. I believe he is still fighting today sadly.

Anyway, one of the other great Thai fighters, only behind Galaxy for me. If you don't know this guy, do yourself a favor and check him out. One of the greatest of our generation and most wouldn't have a clue about him.

One of the other interesting things is that the only reason he came to boxing was because he had become one of the great Muay Thai fighters and had won the main national championship three times already and decided he wanted another challenge.

So, at the age of 29 he took up boxing and became one of the greats in that as well. He is revered in Thailand as an absolute fighting legend. I can't even imagine how good he could have become if he had started boxing at the same age as he did Thai fighting. He didn't really have any proper learning curve, just jumped straight in and went for it. It also meant he had hardly any time physically to mature as he had matured through Muay Thai and really could only have gone downhill after he started boxing especially due to the torturous nature of the Muay Thai fighting on the body.

Very fierce face as well. I think he is nicknamed 'The Deathmask' because of his scary face that never changes even while he is punching.

[wmute]

What about the great unknown Thai fighter Veerhapol Sahaprom? In his first ever pro fight, no amateur or anything, he won the WBC International Title and in his fourth he won the WBA Ordinary World Title.

Like Muangsurin, he just made a great transition to boxing from kickboxing. Difference being that Sahaprom is, in my opinion anyway, without doubt one of the greatest bantamweights of all time. He was truly an amazing fighter. The other amazing thing is that he didn't take up boxing until he was 29! He went on to dominate a great era of bantamweights winning the title twice, again after losing it in his fifth pro fight to two time world champion Nana Konadu, regaining it soon after and holding it for many, many years making fourteen defenses of it and beating a lot of great fighters.

I think he may have been one of the true ATG's if he had started earlier. He had incredible defense, was super quick, very powerful and was all aggression. He was one of the great offensive machines that also had a great defense.

Some people may have seen him against Hasegawa when he was a shell of himself, slow, plodding, didn't have the second gear anymore, and had no defense either and yet still managed to very nearly beat him only losing by very close UD from memory. I believe he is still fighting today sadly.

Anyway, one of the other great Thai fighters, only behind Galaxy for me. If you don't know this guy, do yourself a favor and check him out. One of the greatest of our generation and most wouldn't have a clue about him.

One of the other interesting things is that the only reason he came to boxing was because he had become one of the great Muay Thai fighters and had won the main national championship three times already and decided he wanted another challenge. So, at the age of 29 he took up boxing and became one of the greats in that as well. He is revered in Thailand as an absolute fighting legend. I can't even imagine how good he could have become if he had started boxing at the same age as he did Thai fighting. He didn't really have any proper learning curve, just jumped straight in and went for it. It also meant he had hardly any time physically to mature as he had matured through Muay Thai and really could only have gone downhill after he started boxing especially due to the torturous nature of the Muay Thai fighting on the body.

Very fierce face as well. I think he is nicknamed 'The Deathmask' because of his scary face that never changes even while he is punching.

Are you sure he only picked up boxing so late? I am asking because I actually watched him fight some Thai-boxing fights, and I thought this guy has *amazing* footwork/rin generalsup, better than pretty much any other muay thai fighter I had seen. I am not super expert, so if some muay thai expert wants to bash me for the comment, I will stand corrected.

[BennyST]

Are you sure he only picked up boxing so late? I am asking because I actually watched him fight some Thai-boxing fights, and I thought this guy has *amazing* footwork/rin generalsup, better than pretty much any other muay thai fighter I had seen. I am not super expert, so if some muay thai expert wants to bash me for the comment, I will stand corrected.

Yep, positive. From Sahaprom's mouth itself in an interview. He felt he had done everything in Muay Thai so he just decided to try boxing and was just a natural I guess. Amazing fighter though!

He had never fought as a boxer or even trained as a boxer. It had all been Muay Thai. Incredible huh?