Pungluang Sor Singyu Crushes Jilo Merlin in One

By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Super flyweight Jilo Merlin of the Philippines has suffered a bad first round knockout at the hands of former WBC Youth bantamweight champion Pungluang Sor Singyu in Chonburi, Thailand.

The Thai fighter’s annihilation of Merlin enabled him to grab the vacant WBO Asia Pacific youth bantamweight title.

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Thai media reported that Pungkluang quickly jumped on Merlin and destroyed the Filipino with a solid left hook followed by a hard right that sent him crashing to the canvas flat on h is back to be counted out almost midway in the opening round.

Pungkluang who lost his WBC Youth title in a controversial decision to Stephane Jamoye last May 9 is reportedly targeting the WBO bantamweight crown following his one round annihilation of Merlin.

WBO Asia Pacific head Leon Panonicllo defended the match-up in response to questions from BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports about a possible mismatch. Panonicllo said “everything was in order in this matchup” pointing out that contrary to the boxrec.com record which showed that Merlin had a 1-3-1, no knockouts record, the Filipino actually had a record of 7-4-1 with 1 knockout.

However, Pungluang had a record of 24-1 with 15 knockouts entering the bout even as Panoncillo admitted that “the knockout happened because the other fighter (Pungluang) was plainly better than Merlin.”

The WBO top executive in the region said the fight was approved because Merlin had “all the criteria to participate as a Youth participant for this title.” He said the records of the Games and Amusements Board showed that the Filipino fighter was “more than qualified to challenge for a Youth title” and had won a ten-round majority decision over Rey Sumapig last August 29 and is in the age bracket of 23 years old and under.

Panoncillo said the GAB had granted Merlin an authorization letter to participate which he added was always the WBO criteria before sanctioning a bout claiming that he would never jeopardize the organization especially because of the WBO’s reported popularity in the region.