By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The head of the WBO Asia Pacific region, Leon Panoncillo, has accused Thai fighter Sanatanong Paiwan of impersonating the approved opponent of undefeated WBO Asia Pacific welterweight champion Steve Wills identified as Denkamol Kiatchanachai.
Panoncillo also accused Paiwan’s Thai matchmaker/Agent Tassanu Assawaphop of fabricating documents which claimed that Paiwan and Kiatchanachai were one and the same person.
Panoncillo called insidesports.ph to strongly protest a story which was based on a story by Ray Wheatley, an IBF official who reported that Wills who had a record of 14-0 with 8 knockouts scored a 2nd round knockout over Thai challenger Sanatanong Paiwan who was making his professional debut in the Queensland fight card.
Wheatley reported it was obvious from the opening round that the Thai boxer was overmatched and the result was a mere formality. Wills dropped the unknown Thai challenger once in the first round and twice in the second before referee Cyril Cairns stopped the one-sided bout at 1:55 of the second round.
In an email to us Panoncillo said the defense of Wills was “ sanctioned and approved against an opponent by the name of Denkamol Kiatchanachai who has a record of 11wins - 1 loss with 5 knockouts.”
The WBO official said the fight was scheduled at Challenge Stadium, Mt Claremont, Western Australia, Australia on October 30, 2010 and “there was no indication of any wrong doing until after the fight when boxrec informed me that the so called Sanatanong Paiwan AKA Denkamol Kiatchanchai was not the fighter.”
Panoncillo told us “ I would never approve a fighter by the name of Sanatanong Paiwan who has no record at all that fits the criteria for approval on a championship fight. Who in the right mind would approve a fighter with no record? I am sure the commission will never allow it also.”
He said that if the commission had told him earlier or “anyone brought to my attention that the documents provided by the Thai matchmaker was fabricated, I would never have this specific bout continue on. There was no indication at all and everyone including the commission was convinced that the fighter is the boxer presented on that specific Thai Boxing Commission letter.”
In the past we have often questioned the authenticity of similar documents and fake fight records provided by unscrupulous Thais who often bring certified bums who get knocked out in one or two rounds by Filipino boxers.
(We wish to apologize to Mr. Panoncillo for the damage to the reputation of the WBO as well as himself because of the article which also brings up the serious issue of an IBF official - Ray Wheatley - who often acts as a supervisor in regional title fights, writing stories that are detrimental to another world organization.
We raised this issue in the past with the IBF and received no definitive answer on the issue of a clear conflict of interest. We trust that this latest episode will spur the IBF into instituting some remedial measures to be fair to other world boxing organizations.)
