A BULLETIN flashed on the television screen during a round break noted that the defending Thai world flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng served time in a hometown jail by training and improving his boxing skills.
It hardly looked that way inside the Hua Mark Indoor stadium in Bangkok Saturday night where Ruenroeng, a silver medalist in the 2012 London Olympics, outperformed the American referee Larry Dogget in degrading the sport of boxing.
There was practically no Ruenroeng boxing skills to speak of as the grizzled 35-year-old Thai champ fought and wrestled with criminal intent, while the American referee looked the other way, all night long.
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The result, naturally, was an abominable garbage of a boxing bout.
“It was one of the most unwatchable spectacles in recent recall,” wrote Cliff Rold, managing editor of Boxing Scene.
“It was a foul fest largely initiated by Ruenroeng and allowed far too much leniency by what appeared an absentee officiating from American Larry Dogget,” said Rold, a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America.
He singled out a wild variety of shoves, blatant holds, head locks and takedowns inflicted by the Thai on Johnriel Casimero, meek and baffled Filipino former world junior flyweight champ, the mandatory International Boxing Federation (IBF) challenger.
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The bout, made available worldwide through a Thai television website, was shown in Manila on Sunday afternoon.
There was a visible knockdown by Casimero who landed a left hook and sent Ruenroeng down, his gloves touching the floor, in the riotous third round. It was ruled a slip, and the referee next allowed the Thai to tie Casimero up with a vicious arm lock for over a minute against the ropes.
A couple of knockdowns were credited on Ruenroeng in the second and seventh rounds .
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After five limp warnings, referee Dogget, who looked and functioned like a retired overfed Thai police general, finally deducted a point against the Thai champ in the 11th round, when Ruenroeng had scooted beyond reach through all available dirty tactics.
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There would be a resounding outcry, but nowhere near the fight site, peopled by hysterical hometown fans.
What would become clear was that Filipino boxing manager and matchmaker Aljoe Jaro of Binangonan, Rizal, worked in the opposite corner in his capacity as manager of Ruenroeng.
Yesterday, Jaro was quoted as defending Ruenroeng as smart and “not dirty.”
Shouldn’t he be at least summoned by local boxing authorities for some clarification?