By James Goyder
Nawaphon Por Chokchai was recently named as the mandatory challenger to Roman Gonzalez by the WBC. An April encounter with the pound-for-pound king awaited if he could overcome Heri Amol this afternoon - and the undefeated Thai made no mistake, scoring a sixth round stoppage win in Ratchaburi.
Nawaphon was making the 16th defence of the WBC Asian Boxing Council flyweight title he won in 2011 but with a lucrative fight with Gonzalez on the line the stakes were high as he took on an opponent with 27 wins to his name, although Amol does have a terrible track record in Thailand.
Amol is a tough veteran who always comes to fight but was at a significant disadvantage in terms of both size and reach. In the opening round Nawaphon used his jab to keep the Indonesian at bay, with a one-two combination finding the mark and bringing a shake of the head from the challenger.
In the second stanza Nawaphon started to find a home for an overhand right which repeatedly had Amol complaining that it connected with the back of his head. This seemed to spur the Indonesian into life and for the first time in the fight he got on the inside and started to throw power punches, none of which breached the tight guard of the Thai.
Nawaphon showed a willingness to stand still and absorb his opponent’s shots and in round four Amol started to go to work with four, five and even six punch combinations. The undefeated champion responded with a couple of right hands to the body of his own but most of the offence was coming from the Indonesian.
At his stage Amol might have been disappointed to discover that the judges had only given him one of the four rounds, with the WBC open scoring in effect. In round five Nawaphon seized control of the fight and began strafing his opponent with jabs and straight right hands to the body and head, with a right uppercut stopping the Indonesian in his tracks.
Amol did respond with a couple of left hooks at the end of the round but the momentum was all with the Thai and in the sixth he started to go to work on the inside, firing off hooks to the body and head. The challenger was under serious pressure and when Nawaphon backed him into the corner and landed two right hands to the body in quick succession he took a knee.
The referee decided that Amol was in no fit state to continue and called off the contest. With the win Nawaphon improves to 32-0, setting up an April encounter with Gonzalez. Amol drops to 37-28-5 having lost 14 of his last 16 fights.
Srisaket Sor Rungvisai is slowly working his way back into contention for a remach with current WBC 115 lbs title holder Carlos Cuadras. Earlier in the afternoon he stopped Arega Yunian with body shots in the fourth round, moving up to 38-4-1 with the outmatched Indonesian dropping to 3-6.
This article originally appeared on The Fight Nation.
