WORLD Boxing Council (WBC) flyweight champion Pongsaklek Wonjongkam of Thailand expressed his willingness to defend his crown against fellow titleholder Nonito Donaire Jr. in the Philippines.
The Thai champion’s manager, Piyarat Vachirarattanawongse, told the Bangkok Post that a lucrative offer may lure Wonjongkam to fight outside of Thailand and challenge the General Santos City-born Donaire in a unification bout.
‘’If they offer us a very lucrative deal we would want the fight,’’ said Piyarat. “Pongsaklek can fight anyone and anywhere in the world, it just depends on the offer.”
The 24-year-old Donaire scored perhaps this year’s biggest upset last weekend when he knocked out the seemingly invincible Armenia-born Vic Darchinyan of Australia in the fifth round of their title encounter in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
A huge underdog going into the fight, Donaire bludgeoned Darchinyan with a well-timed, knockout-of-the-year candidate left hook to finally silence the brassy Aussie and take the International Boxing Federation flyweight crown.
Despite the devastating win, Piyarat remains unperturbed about a possible repeat performance of Donaire against his much-maligned and cloistered ward, even on foreign soil.
“I think Pongsaklek is better than Donaire, so it is up to Donaire to challenge us,” disclosed Piyarat. ‘’We are ready to fly to the Philippines if they pay Pongsaklek a handsome purse.’’
A 29-year-old southpaw, Wonjongkam (65-2, 34 KOs), holds the record for the most number of title defenses as well as the fastest knockout win scored in the flyweight division.
Wonjongkam, who won the title on March 2, 2001 from Filipino Malcolm Tu?acao, has since defended the title 17 times, one of which was a 34-second knockout win over Japanese Daisuke Naito in April 2002.
Wonjongkam is being criticized by experts for defending his crown almost exclusively in Thailand. However, he staked his crown five times in Japan.
‘’Boxing abroad is not easy at all,’’ said Piyarat.
Wonjongkam is expected to gain more criticism especially for his scheduled 18th defense next week in Japan against Naito, the same fighter he stopped in 34 seconds back in 2002.
‘’Naito is more committed than before and anything can happen,’’ said Piyarat.
For the Naito fight, Pongsaklek will reportedly get $100,000.
Piyarat said they received a $250,000 offer for a US bout with Darchinyan. The deal, however, is considered off after Darchinyan’s shocking loss to Donaire.
Donaire’s father, Nonito Sr., recently told BusinessMirror about their desire to meet the Thai champion in a highly anticipated unification battle.
“Nonito’s comfortable in the flyweight [class] at the moment. Now that we own a piece of the flyweight division, we might as well go for another crown,” said Donaire Sr. before they traveled back home to California.
In a radio interview, Donaire said his dream is to unify all three belts in the 112-pound division before doing the same thing in the superflyweight category.
“Weight is definitely not an issue for me right now, as I feel comfortable making the flyweight limit,” Donaire said a week before his compelling conquest of Darchinyan.
