Teerachai’s title bid ends in heartbreak
LOS ANGELES: Thailand’s Teerachai Sithmorseng suffered the first defeat of his career when he was knocked out by Argentina’s Lucas Matthysse at The Forum in Inglewood, California yesterday morning (Thai time).
Matthysse stopped Teerachai, whose real name is Tewa Kiram, in the eighth round to win the vacant WBA welterweight title.
Teerachai, 25, dropped to 38 wins (28 KOs) and one loss, while Matthysse, 35, has now won 39 fights (36 KOs) with four defeats.
It was the first world title shot for the Thai, formerly Teerachai Kratingdaenggym.
Thailand currently has only three world champions — WBC super-flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai, WBA minimumweight title-holder Knockout CP Freshmart and WBC minimumweight king Wanheng Menayothin.
On the same card yesterday, Jorge Linares retained his WBA lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Filipino fighter Mercito Gesta in a 12-round bout.
The 32-year-old Linares, of Venezuela, made the third defence of his title and extended his win streak to 14 straight fights. Linares improved to 44-3 with 27 KOs. He landed the cleaner punches throughout, winning almost every round on the judges’ scorecards. Two judges scored it 118-110 and the other at 117-111.
“I didn’t really feel his power, though I hurt my hand in the fourth or fifth round,” said Linares. “There wasn’t a knockout because he was well prepared.”
Linares is hoping this victory puts him in line for a unification fight against Mikey Garcia or a battle with Ukrainian champion and 2017 fighter of the year Vasyl Lomachenko.
The 30-year-old Gesta dropped to 31-22. This was his second title fight following a 2012 loss to Miguel Vazquez.
Gesta played the showman early in the fight, smiling widely whenever Linares landed a hard punch to the head, but the grin turned to grimaces in later rounds as the punches piled up.
“I fought against a world champion,” said Gesta. “He adjusted well to my style after the first couple of rounds.”