October 2, 2010
October 2, 2010
TOKYO, JAPAN
Unheralded underdog Retsuri Lee (AKA Ryol-Li Lee; 17-1-1, 8 KOs) (right), 121.75, astoundingly captured the WBA super-bantam belt as he was awarded a unanimous decision over highly regarded defending champ Poonsawat Kratingdaeng-gym (41-2, 29 KOs) (left), 122, over twelve upset rounds on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan.
The official tallies were as follows: Jean-Francois Toupin (France) 115-114, Pinit Prayadsab (Thailand) 115-113 and Derek Milham (Australia) 118-110, all in favor of Lee. The referee was Kazunobu Asao (Japan). The WBA supervisor was Gualtiero Becchetti (Italy).
Lee, a Japan-born Korean, kept moving and countering the aggressive champ who kept stalking the elusive target all the way. Poonsawat, making his fourth defense, failed to catch the Fancy Dan although he threw twice or thrice as many punches as the counterpunching challenger.
It was an unbelievable upset since Poonsawat who had lost just once in forty-two bouts was a prohibitive favorite. His sole setback was tasted by the Thailander, then the WBA interim bantam titlist, who lost a decision to Wladimir Sidorenko in Germany in 2006. The short but sturdy champ scored seventeen wins straight since his one and only defeat, including a fine triumph by demolishing Bernard Dunn in just three rounds in Dublin, Ireland, last September. Poonsawat had gained the world belts in the bantam and super-bantam divisions to his credit.
Who is Lee? Even Japanese fans donft know him well and he is never a household name in our boxing fraternity. Having registered a mediocre 47-8 amateur mark, Lee, a third generation of Japan-based Korean, entered the paid ranks in 2005. Since then, he scored good, if not excellent, credentials, and recently decked an upset victory over world-rated ex-OPBF (Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation) feather champ Hiroyuki Enoki to enter the WBA top ten in July of the previous year.
Lee then acquired the vacant national 126-pund throne by defeating Kazunori Takayama on points in February, and made his initial defense by a unanimous but not so impressive decision over Mitsuru Amagasa this June. Lee was regarded only as a tricky, puzzling and fast-moving counterpuncher. Then, he moved down to 122 pounds to have an ambitious crack at the WBA super-bantam ruler Poonsawat who had impressively defeated our top ring men Satoshi Hosono and Shoji Kimura.
It was a bizarre fight in a sense. The hard-working champ kept stalking the retreating and circling challenger, who mostly remained so lazy that he looked only content to avert Poonsawatfs incessant attacks?nearly perfectly?and countered with a few glighth right uppercut-left hook combinations and gpowerlessh right crosses. Lee, a year his junior at 28, cleverly piled up points only by a comparison of effectiveness (because Poonsawat, who threw much more leathers, couldnft catch the target with precision). The champ always appeared strong, while Lee looked negative, sly and clever, if not manly or courageous. Probably it might be only the way for Lee to defeat such a powerful champ as Poonsawat. If mixing it up in the close range, it would have been over within five rounds, of course, in favor of Poonsawat. Lee, a soft-punching speedster with good reflexes, must have solved a puzzle by his own way, if not impressive and if not well-received by the crowd.
The confident-looking Poonsawat quickly took the leadoff and dominated the first round as he began to maintain the pressure on the cautious footworker, threw good jabs and landed some straight rights to the belly. He looked sharp and fast. He also appeared to enjoy a good and easy payday this night.
Lee, however, took the second as he unleashed quick right uppercuts to the onrushing champ, which werenft strong but sharp enough to surprise Poonsawat, shorter by four inches. Lee was never a hard-puncher whose blows might not be able to break hard eggs, but he occasionally scored with good shots with unexpected timing by the opponent.
The third was taken by Poonsawat who put on the pressure to the footworker with a flurry of punches with not-so-good precision. Lee, in round four, economically won a point as Poonsawat kept inaccurately attacking him almost entierely for three minutes, but the challenger smartly scored a few right uppercut-left hook combos.
The fifth witnessed Poonsawat sustain a nasty cut over the left eyebrow caused by a legal shot of Lee, though the Thailander energetically kept boring in and throwing punches with less satisfactory precision. But it was the champfs round.
Lee seemed to dominate the sixth through ninth rounds each by a small margin as Poonsawat, always the aggressor, became more and more monotonous, if emphatically aggressive. Lee, a clever and cunning counterpuncher, already solved the champfs strategy to overpower him with his full strength, so he definitely refused to exchange punches toe-to-toe with him.
It was unfortunate that the champ had another gash over the right eyebrow midway in the eighth, which became a nuisance in stalking the fast-running dodger. The eighth was the best Lee showed as he effectively connected with accurate right crosses and right uppercuts to the shorter infighter.
In the last four sessions, Poonsawat gained a point only in the tenth with his superior aggression, while Lee was in command with better counters in other rounds.
Japan is a country where aggressiveness has been traditionally highly respected. It might be strange that, in such a country as Japan, we saw such a negative but clever counterpuncher eventually gain the belt against peoplefs expectations.
Lee, standing 5f8h, used to be a lanky and tall 126-pounder, who managed to reduce to 122 pounds so smoothly that he maintained his excellent footwork, brainwork and handwork (counterpunching). Reviewing ring history, there happened such contests as hard-hitting aggressive champs lost to clever footworkers. Gene Tunney outlegged and outsped Jack Dempsey. Johnny Kilbane outsmarted Abe Attell to end his eleven-year reign. Willie Pastrano upset Harold Johnson by making good use of his excellent footwork.
Should you give this reporter a day, more than fifty examples would be counted as for footworkers having overcome powerpunchers. But time is limited in this writing after we had a new world champion at night at the Korakuen Hall. Of course, there was a sort of excitement among Leefs adherents and supporters, but this observer just wonders how general fans felt such a Tom-and-Jerry game. We, in a sense, might sympathize with such a game and gallant loser as Poonsawat after continually missing the elusive and negative target so diligently all night.
WBA#9/WBC#11 Takashi Miura (20-1-2, 16 KOs), 130, kept his national 130-pound belt by dropping top contender Takashi Inagaki (12-9-1, 5 KOs), 130, three times, each once in the second, third and fatal ninth, en route to a lopsided TKO victory at 1:21 of the ninth canto. Miura, Leefs stablemate, registered his fourth defense, but had better improve his timing and defense more properly, though we appreciated his southpaw power-punching.
Promoter: Yokohama Hikari Promotions.
Matchmaker: Joe Koizumi (as for the Poonsawat-Lee title bout).
(10-2-2010)