(Pictured: three-time World Flyweight Champion Pone Kingpetch)

In Part I, we examined the flyweight division from the time Benny Lynch defeated Small Montana to unify the title way back in January of 1937 until Pascual Perez was about to defend the title against Thailand's Pone Kingpetch.

We continue with that bout.

Perez' defense against Kingpetch took place in Thailand and although he lost by split decision, Perez wasn't victimized by a hometown decision. The Ring's venerable founder and editor-in-chief Nat Fleischer served as one of the judges and scored it 146-140 for the Thai challenger, who, with the win, became his country's first world champion.

Kingpetch proved his victory wasn't a fluke when, in his first defense, he gave the great Perez a rematch and stopped him in 8 rounds at the famed Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, California.

After 15-round decisions over Mitsunori Seki and Kyo Noguchi, Kingpetch made his third consecutive defense against a Japanese challnger. On Ocober 10, 1962, future Hall of Famer Fighting Harada knocked out the defending champion in the 11th round.

Kingpetch proved to be resilient. In their rematch, he regained the title with a 15-round majority decision. Fleischer, who also served as a judge at the pair's first bout, having Harada ahead 49-41 at the time of the knockout, saw Kingpetch winning the return bout 71-67.

In his next defense, the first of his second reign, Kingpetch was again knocked out, this time in the first round by Hiroyuki Ebihara. Amazingly, the tough Thai won the title a third time by outpointing Ebihara over 15 rounds on January 23, 1964.

Kingpetch's third and final reign came to an end when he was outpointed by Italy's Salvatore Burruni on April 23, 1965.

In November of 1965, the WBA stripped Burruni of his title for failing to defend against Horacio Accavallo to whom he had lost a non-title bout. The WBC which had been sanctioning flyweight title bouts since the first Kingpetch-Ebihara match continued to recognize Burruni as did The Ring.

Burruni successfully defended the world title by knocking out Rocky Gattelari in the 13th round of their December 2, 1965 bout.

Accavallo won the vacant WBA title on March 1, 1966 with a 15-round split decision over Katsuyoshi Takayama, who had also beaten Burruni in a non-title contest.

On June 14, 1966, Burruni lost the title by an upset decision to Walter McGowan of Scotland.

Accavallo made 3 title defenses, sandwiching a decision over future WBHOF inductee Efren "Alacran" Torres of Mexico between two points verdicts over Ebihara. On October 1, 1967, less than two months after his second win over Ebihara, a split decision, Accavallo called it a career, leaving the sport with a remarkable 75-2-6 record.

On the WBC-Ring Magazine front, lineal champion McGowan lost his belt(s) in his first defense to Thailand's Chartchai Chionoi on December 30, 1966. Chionoi racked up successful defenses against fellow Thai Puntip Keosuriya, McGowan, Torres, and Fiipino Bernabe Villacampo until he was stopped in 9 rounds by Torres on February 23, 1969.

A liitle over a month later, the WBA finally filled its vacant title when Ebihara, who owned 1964 annd 1965 victories over Torres, outpointed Brazilian Jose Severino.

Ebihara's second reign, like his first, was not a long one. He lost the title by decision to Villacampo on October 19, 1969.

Torres kept his belt with a decision over Susumu Hanagata of Japan in November of 1969 but lost it back to Chionoi on points on March 20, 1970. Seventeen days later, Villacampo lost his title by split decision to Berkerk Chartvanchai. Before the year was over, both Thais were dethroned. On October 22, Japan's Masao Ohba knocked out Chartvanchai in the 13th round and on December 7, Erbito Salavarria of the Philippines stopped Chionoi in 2.

In 1971, Ohba retained his title with decisions over Venezuela's Betulio Gonzalez and Filipino Fernando Cabanella. Salavarria retained the lineal, WBC, and Ring titles with a decision over Hanagata but then fought to a controversial draw with Gonzalez. The champ's water bottle was seized and traces of amphetamines were found in it. The WBC stripped Salavarria and decreed that a bout between Gonzalez and Filipino Socrates Batolo would be for the vacant title.

Before that bout was held, Ohba, on March 4, 1972, successfully defended his WBA title by outpointing Hanagata, avenging a 1968 defeat. Two months later, on June 3, Gonzalez KOed Batolo in 4 to become the new WBC champion. At that point, according to some historians, Ohba became the new lineal champion, having already beaten Gonzalez in a bout contested for a version of the world title. Other historians, including those at Ring Magazine, still recognized Salavarria, despite the discovery of amphetamines in his "sugar water", on the basis that he had not been beaten in the ring.

Ohba retained the WBA title and one group of historians' "lineal" title by knocking out Panamanian Orlando Amores in the fifth round of their June 20, 1972 bout but Gonzalez was not so fortunate. He lost the WBC title to Thailand's Venice Borkorsor via a 10th round TKO on September 29.

In 1973, whether you subscribed to the idea that Ohba was the lineal champ or that Salavarria was, you would soon find the lineal title to be vacant again.

On January 2, Ohba made his fifth successful defense, knocking out Chionoi in the 12th round. Twenty-two days later, the 23-year-old champ was dead, killed in a tragic car accident.

On February 9, Borkorsor successfully defended the WBC title with a unanimous, 15-round decision over Salavarria, thus gaining the lineal title according to those who claimed Salavarria was still the legitimate champion. However, Borkorsor voluntarily relinquished his WBC title, and with it, his Ring and "lineal" championships as well, to campaign as a bantamweight.

Later in the year, the former two-time WBC and lineal champion Chionoi and former WBC champ Gonzalez won the vacant WBA and vacant WBC titles respectively. Chionoi succeeded the late Masao Ohba when Switzerland's Fritz Chervet was not allowed to come out for the 5th round of their May 17 encounter and Gonzalez succeeded Borkorsor when he outpointed Mexico's Miguel Canto, the future record-setting champion and Hall of Famer, on August 4.

Gonzalez made two successful defense before losing the WBC diadem. He stopped Mexican Alberto Morales in 11 and Italian Franco Udella, who would later win the inaugural WBC light flyweight title bout, in 10. On October 1, 1974, Gonzalez was dethroned by Japan's Shoji Oguma, whom Gonzalez had outpointed in an earlier non-title ten-rounder, on a 15-round, split decision.

Chionoi also made two successful defenses, decision wins over Hanagata and Chervet, before losing the title on the scales prior to being stopped in 6 by Hanagata on October 18, 1974 in the latter's 5th and, finally successful, attempt to win a world title.

1974 ended the way 1973 did, with the lineal flyweight championship vacant, but with one major difference. Canto, who had won 6 straight since losing by majority verdict to Gonzalez, and Oguma were generally recognized as the world's two top flyweights and were signed to meet each other in early 1975. Barring a draw, the lineal vacancy would be filled.

Article By: Ken Pollitt