By Sammy Rozenberg
It was warfare between two countries and on this night, Mexico triumphed over the fighters from Thailand, but every single fighter gave his all. An idea created by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, which pits two countries against each other in order to battle it out for a prestigious world cup trophy. The event was held in the Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson, Arizona, before a crowd of screaming Mexican fans that cheered for every big blow their countrymen landed.
While the idea drew criticism from boxing circles when it was first announced, it proved to be a very entertaining event. The type of event that could lead to future world cup trophy competitions. One day we might see the fighters of Puerto Rico face the fighters of Mexico or how about the fighters of Mexico taking on the best of the Philippines with Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Manny Pacquiao in the main event. Why stop with just two? How about an event where three or more countries are involved.
The televised bouts consisted of four WBO world title fights between fighters with evenly matched records.
The main event saw WBO super flyweight champion Fernando Montiel (32-1) of Mexico decision unbeaten Pramuansak Posuwan (29-1-1). The two fighters landed plenty of leather, but Montiel was able to outwork the unbeaten Thai fighter to win several close rounds on the judges scorecards. The right eye of Montiel was nearly swollen shut, while the right side of Posuwan's face, near the eye, was grotesquely swollen.
All three judges saw the fight for Montiel with scores of 114-112, 114-112, 115-112.
Jhonny Gonzalez (31-4) stopped Ratanachai Sor Vorapin (65-9) to win the WBO bantamweight title. It was apparent from the early going that Gonzalez was the much stronger fighter and was able to take a better punch than his Thai opponent. Gonzalez came close to stopping Sor Vorapin in the second round after he put him down twice from very hard punches. Sor Vorapin was badly hurt, but the second knockdown came at the bell and saved him from potentially being knocked out.
Gonzalez caught up with him again in the sixth round and dropped him from another series of hard punches. Sor Vorapin was able to make it our of the round, but was unable to fully recover as Gonzalez mauled him in the seventh until the referee Robert Byrd saved him from further punishment.
Daniel Ponce De Leon (27-1) scored a unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Sod Looknongyangtoy (25-1) to win the vacant WBO jr. featherweight crown. It appeared like the Thai fighter would be off to a fast start by dropping De Leon in the second round, but the Mexican fighter came back to outwork his opponent in the ten remaining rounds of their championship bout. It appeared as if the Thai fighter was physically spent by the late rounds from trying to keep up with the work rate of De Leon. The scores were 115-112, 115-112 and 118-109.
The opener saw Hugo Cazarez (22-3) retain his WBO jr. flyweight championship in the most exciting fight of the night, by scoring a sixth round KO over Kaicho Sor Vorapin (17-7). In an awesome sixth round, Cazarez was put down on the seat of his pants and appeared to be shaken as he got back on his feet. As Sor Vorapin went on the offensive and tried to put his opponent away, he was caught from a monster shot and fell to the canvas like a ton of bricks. Sor Vorapin tried in vain to regain to his feet, but crumbled back down to the floor as the referee called a halt to the action.
