Kratingdaenggym Cruises To Decision Win Over Zhuravskiy
By James Goyder
Teerachai Kratingdaenggym extended his perfect professional record after comfortably outpointing Alexandr Zhuravskiy over 12 rounds Thursday afternoon in Samut Sakhon.
Scores were 117-112, 117-111 and 116-112 in what was an underwhelming performance from the undefeated Thai, who seemed content to cruise to a decision victory.
Teerachai's PABA 147 lbs title was on the line and he made a fast start, subjecting the Kazakh southpaw to a barrage of right hands to the body and head in the opening round, interspersed with the fast jab that is his trademark.
In round two Teerachai began to get on the inside and land some hooks to the body while easily evading the wild, looping shots which Zhuravskiy fired back in return. In round three Zhuravskiy started to presss forwards but he looked short of ideas and his knees were briefly buckled by a smart left hook from the Thai.
At this stage Teerachai seemed to make a conscientious decision to start conserving energy and he spent the next two rounds on the back foot, keeping a high guard and easily soaking up what little offence the Kazakh had to offer.
In round six Teerachi came out swinging and landed some hard right hands to the body and head but once he realized Zhuravskiy was going to weather the storm he took his foot off the gas and started to back off again.
This pattern continued for the remainder of the fight with Zhuravskiy sneaking a couple of left hooks through but otherwise looking totally bereft of ideas. Teerachai started the eighth with five straight right hands to the body in quick succession but if they had any effect on the Kazakh he didn't let it show.
By the end of the fight Zhuravskiy's hands were hanging by his waist but Teerachai was able to easily evade his telegraphed punches while keeping the Kazakh at bay with the occasional jab. It wasn't the type of performance to make the big names in the welterweight division stand up and take notice but it did take Teerachai's record to 33-0 as he defended the PABA 147 lbs belt for the 20th time.
Zhuravskiy drops to 10-2 after suffering a second successive decision loss.
