I'm starting to get familiar with the lighter weight divisions, but I haven't focused too much attention at 112 lbs yet, so to anybody here familiar with the division or just Pongsaklek, do you think he deserves to be p4p material? Or is he just a great fighter, but not yet the elite? Thanks, much appreciation, peace brothers.
Macehualli Moquexquitzahuiani
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Considering how easily he deposed of the WBC champ, Kameda Koki, yes, I do feel that he does deserved to be on the top ten p4p list.
Wonjongkam is one of the most underrated fighters of this era. This is a guy who won the WBC flyweight title on a first round KO, and woudl go on to defend the titl 17 times! He's beaten Hussein Hussein, Trash Nakamura, Daisuke Naito (Twice. In fact here's a clip of the first fight between them, it lasts just 34 seconds so don't blink)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4jHC0payOg
and has won a total of 75 fights, 39 of these by KO. Wonjongkam fights a lot of tune up fights between his defenses, as you can see if you check his record. He's a very hard hitter, though he prefers to box and does so expertly, has only been KO'd once very early in his career, and is still a very good fighter at 32.
I feel that if the rumored 5th fight between Wonjongkam and Naito Daisuke does happen, and Pongsaklek wins it, you have to put him in the top 10 p4p. Naito is Pongsaklek's rival, it would be perfectly fitting for them to fight again. Think of an Asian Vasquez-Marquez rivalry, but with far less blood.
Great fighter, great question!
Anonymous
Wonjongkam is one of the best boxers from 2000-2010. It is injustice that he was taken a few years ago when he was upset by Daisuke Naito. He was in the Ring Magazine's top p4p fighter from 2005-2006, now he's back after 4 years of absence. Wonjongkam is one of Asia's best, he beat a young and undefeated lineal champion in Koki Kameda. Wonjongkam has a total of 75 wins with only 3 losses. He had a 56 fight winning streak, one of the longest winning streak in boxing history. He defended his WBC title 26 times, one of the longest title defense in boxing history. He is well deserving of the top 10, that is why Ring Magazine also ranked him in the top 20 best boxers of the decade.
Mark-Andrew M 2
I disagree with The Ring Magazine ranking Pongsaklek Wonjongkam in the top 10 pound for pound fighters in the world- he is the current flyweight champion and he is unquestionably an elite fighter (with 17 title defenses, being a 2-time champion and over 70 wins, I think he HAS to be considered elite even if you don't like him) but I just don't think that he's done enough recently to warrant a spot in the top 10.
Wonjongkam currently holds the record for most successful title defenses at flyweight but the majority of his defenses were against unworthy opposition and after he lost his 3rd fight as well as his title to Daisuke Naito (he was previously 2-0 against Naito), he challenged him again and fought to a draw with him in their fourth fight. After the draw to Naito in which he failed to regain the title, he continued to fight and eventually won the interim title but he waited until Naito lost the title to Koki Kameda before he challenged for the title again- as you obviously know, he defeated Kameda to regain the title as well as win the vacant Ring Magazine title. It was undoubtedly a good win but it simply wasn't enough to convince me to put him in the top 10 pound for pound because Kameda himself was not all that established- he beat Juan Landaeta to win a world title at junior flyweight in a controversial decision and then won the rematch convincingly and then he moved up in weight to flyweight and decisioned Naito to win the title in that weight class- those are good accomplishments but there weren't ENOUGH of those accomplishments to make him be considered a a great fighter or anything like that which would make the person who beats him be considered a top 10 pound for pounder.
I think that if Wonjongkam faces his rival, Naito again and defeats him, proving that he is truly the better fighter currently and then if perhaps unifies the title with Koki's brother, Daiki Kameda (WBA titlist) or Moruti Mthlane (IBF titlist), then I think he would warrant a top 10 ranking but at the moment, I don't think the win over Kameda was enough to catapult him into a top 10 spot and as previously stated- most of his title defenses were against unworthy opposition and at the moment, it looks like Naito had the upper hand on him even though Wonjongkam leads the series 2-1-1.
Personally, I think that The Ring jumped the gun by taking Bernard Hopkins out of the top 10- yes, the performance over Roy Jones was a bit underwhelming but he still won the fight clearly and he still has way more quality wins and accomplishments than Wonjongkam has, plus the lopsided win over Kelly Pavlik was not all that long ago, so I think the strength of that performance should keep him in the top 10: if Hopkins stays inactive though or he doesn't fight a top opponent in his next fight, then I think that he should be dropped but for the time being, I would put him in the top 10 over someone like Wonjongkam. I also think that guys like Timothy Bradley, Andre Ward, Lucian Bute, and Chris John are more deserving of a pound for pound spot than Wonjongkan- I would probably put him in the top 20 somewhere but definitely not the top 10.
EDIT: Wonjongkam did not defend the title 26 times, he defended it 17 times (against mostly dubious opposition but it's still the record for the flyweight division).