By James Goyder

Reigning WBA minimumweight king Knockout CP Freshmart made a voluntary title defence in Korat this afternoon and comfortably outpointed Shin Ono. The Japanese challenger could not cope with the champion’s pressure and power and never looked like upsetting the undefeated champion.

Knockout tends to start slowly, using the opening rounds to size up his opponent and that was clearly the case here. Ono was on the back foot for the first six minutes as the Thai fighter moved forwards without ever looking to land more than the occasional punch.

In round three Knockout picked up the pace and started to find a home for the right hand, landing straight punches to the body and head of his southpaw opponent. In the fifth he started to employ his left hook and nearly knocked Ono down with a left hook on the break just before the bell.

In the sixth Ono switched tactics. Having failed to impose himself on the fight with a stick and move strategy he elected to stand his ground in the middle of the ring but after eating two straight right hands upstairs the Japanese fighter was back on his bicycle.

In round seven Knockout started to systematically break Ono down with straight right hands to the body. Once he had the challenger backing up the champion started to mix up his attacks and went all out for the finish with hard hooks to the body and head.

Ono looked in trouble but had enough composure to fire back and circle out. The onslaught might have taken its toll on Knockout who cruised through the next two rounds both of which featured plenty of clinching and in fighting but few clean punches.

The tenth brought more of the same until a straight right – left hook combo from Knockout sent Ono to the canvass for the first time in the fight. He took his time getting up and looked badly hurt but it was too late in the round for the Thai to capitalize and find the finish.

Ono spent the 11th round backtracking but there was no urgency from Knockout who knew by this stage that he had an unassailable lead on the scorecards. Ono started to attack more in the final three minutes but never looked likely to land anything significant enough to turn the fight around.

It was an impressive performance from Knockout. The Thai did take a few rounds off but showed how tactically astute he is by successfully employing several different strategies to control the fight from start to finish.

The scorecards read 118-109, 117-111 and 118-110 in favour of the champion who retains his WBA 105 lbs belt and improves to 14-0. Ono drops to 19-8-3 and has been unsuccessful in both his world title shots to date.

Another 105 lbs champion was in action although Wanheng Meenayothin (44-0) wasn’t defending his WBC strap. He beat Indonesian journeyman Silem Serang (7-9-1) by decision after six rounds in what could only be described as a very easy tune up bout.

There was also a decision win for flyweight Noknoi CPFreshmart (60-4) who beat China’s Weiming Zhou (0-2) after six rounds.

This article originally appeared on The Fight Nation.