October 8, 2006
TOKYO, JAPAN
Following an infamous incident of Diego Corrales having lost his WBC lightweight belt on the scale, WBC interim 108-pound champ Wandee Singwangcha of Thailand also failed to make the weight and disgracefully forfeited his belt on Sunday afternoon in Tokyo, Japan. Wandee arrived at the weigh-in place about an hour before and realized he was 1.7 kilogram (3.75 pounds) over the 108-pound light-flyweight limit, and attempted to reduce his weight by skipping rope at a garage of the Korakuen Hall. At the official weigh-in time, 3 pm, the Thailander scaled in still 1.2 kilogram (2.75 pounds) over the limit, while Japanese challenger Munekatsu Kayo successfully made the weight within the limit. The champ was given a two-hour allowance to make the weight. At 4:30 pm, Wandee, already exhausted, then checked the weight again, but was as heavy as he had scaled, still 1.2 kilogram over. He finally declared to give up reducing the weight any more. It means Wandee couldn’t or didn’t make more effort to reduce any poundage for 90 minutes to conserve his energy to fight tomorrow. We hope Wandee will not show a lackluster performance to insult the crowd just in order to get his purse in a non-title affair, where Kayo will be crowned provided that he wins and the WBC interim belt will become vacant in case of Wandee’s victory.
(10-8-06)