(Pictured: Pongsaklek Wonjongkam who successfully defended the lineal and WBC titles a record 17 times)


In Part III, we started in January 1975 with the crowning of lineal, Ring Magazine, and WBC champion Miguel Canto and finished with 2000, the year before Pongsaklek Wonjongkam, the man who would break Canto's record for most successful defenses by a flyweight champion, won the lineal and WBC titles.

We start Part IV with Wonjongkam challenging Malcolm Tunacao.

Tunacao was the first of the four flyweight champions to risk his title in 2001. On March 2, he faced Wonjongkam (AKA Sitkanongsak) in Phichit, Thailand and after 2 minutes and 42 seconds, he was an ex-champion.

Fernando Montiel was the next up and on March 7, stopped Germany-based Romanian Zoltan Lunka in the 7th round in the first of his three 2001 defenses. In the others, he knocked out former WBO junior flyweight champion Juan Domingo Cordoba in the first round on May 25 and won a unanimous decision over future WBO junior bantamweight champion Jose "Carita" Lopez on September 8. It was Lopez' fourth unsuccessful attempt to capture the WBO flyweight title.

Eric Morel only fought once in 2001. He retained the WBA title when badly beaten challenger Jose de Jesus Lopez of Venezuela, the reigning WBA Fedelatin champ, failed to come out for the ninth round.

Wonjongkam, who scored a non-title points win over Alvin Felicilda of the Philippines on May 8, made his first defense on July 15, stopping Japan's Hayato Asai in the 5th round. Asai had earned his title shot with a decision over former WBC title challenger Gabriel Mira. In 2001, Pongsaklek also successfully defended the lineal and WBC titles against Ghana's United States-based Alex "Ali" Baba and Argentina's perennial contender Luis Lazarte. On October 26, Wonjongkam won a unanimous 8-round technical decision over Baba, who owned a win over then Mexican champion Oscar Arciniega, a former WBC title challenger, and on December 6, the Thai southpaw stopped Lazarte in the second round.

Like Morel, IBF champion Irene Pacheco only fought once in 2001. He retained his belt with a 4th round TKO over Texan Mike Trejo on November 9.

Lineal champion Wonjongkam retained that designation as well as his WBC title with 3 defenses in 2002. On April 19, he took on a fighter with whom he would eventually have quite a rivalry, the then undefeated Daisuke Naito of Japan. Their first encounter gave no indication of the competitiveness of the later meetings. Wonjongkam scored the fastest knockout in a world flyweight title bout as Naito was counted out 34 seconds into the first round. In his next defense, on September 6, Wonjongkam won a one-sided decision over overmatched former WBC Continental Americas champion Jesus Martinez. Then, on November 26, he unanimously outpointed the 25-1 Hidenobu Honda of Japan, who came into the bout riding a 19-bout winning streak. Honda later challenged for the WBA super flyweight title, losing a decision to then champion Alexander Munoz.

WBA champ Morel fought twice, winning a decision over Baba in a non-title bout on January 11, and retaining his belt by stopping previously undefeated future WBA champion Denkaosan Kaovichit in the 11th round on October 12.

Nicaraguan Adonis Rivas, a former WBO junior bantamweight champion, won the interim version of the WBO flyweight title with a majority decision over Jair Jimenez of Mexico on May 4 and was upgraded to world champion when Fernando Montiel vacated the WBO flyweight title upon winning the WBO junior bantamweight championship from the ill-fated Pedro Alcazar on June 22. Rivas, in his first defense, lost the title to Omar Narvaez, an unbeaten but little known Argentinian, on July 13.

Narvaez made two defenses in 2002, winning when countryman Luis Lazarte was disqualified in the 10th round July 13 and by split decision over WBO Inter-Continental champion Andrea Sarritzu of Italy December 14.

Again, Pacheco only fought once- successfully defending the IBF title on November 29 with a unanimous decision over Mexican veteran Alejandro Felix Montiel, who had previously challenged for the same title in 1997.

In 2003, Wonjongkam's first defense of the year came against an old rival, Randy Mangubat, the reigning WBC International champion. Mangubat, of the Philippines, had been knocked out by Pongsaklek in 1996 but lost a spirited fight on points in their second meeting in 1999. A former PABA minimumweight champion, Mangubat won the WBC International flyweight title in 2000 and had successfully defended it three times. On June 5, he and Wonjongkam fought for the third time. The defending lineal and WBC champion won a unanimous decision by wide margins.

Two days later, WBO champion Narvaez made his first of the three 2003 defenses, TKOing former WBO and future WBC title challenger Everardo Morales in the 5th round.

Exactly three weeks later, on June 28, Morel retained the WBA title with a unanimous decision over former WBO champion Isidro Garcia.

The following month, on July 25, Wonjongkam and former lineal and WBC champion Chatchai Sasakul each fought on the undercard in support of up-and-coming future WBC strawweight champion Oleydong Sithsamerchai, who was defending his WBC Youth and Asian Boxing Council strawweight titles in the main event against Filipino Carlo Besares. Wonjongkam won his non-title bout against bantamweight Jaime Acerda of the Philippines by a 9th round knockout. Sasakul KOed another Pinoy, bantamweight Edgar Tahad, in the 2nd round while Sithsamerchai outpointed Besares over 10 rounds.

On August 9, Narvaez retained his belt by fighting to a draw with Sarritzu in their rematch.

Pacheco, again only fighting once during the year, obliterated former IBO and WBF flyweight champion Damaen Kelly in the 7th round of their September 27 IBF title bout. Kelly, who owned wins over former WBA flyweight and WBF super flyweight title challenger Alexander Mahmutov, former WBO flyweight champion Jose Lopez Bueno, and future IBO super flyweight titlist Zolile Mbityi, would go on to win the IBO title at 115 pounds with a decision over Jason Booth in 2004.

On November 14, both Wonjongkam and Narvaez defended their titles. Fighting in Bangkok, Pongsaklek met his mandatory challengr, then undefeated Hussein Hussein of Australia. The champion retained his lineal and WBC titles with a convincing unanimous decision win. Narvaez, fighting in Levallois-Perret, France, stopped Mahmutov, the former PABA and reigning two-time European flyweight champion, after 10 rounds.

In the last flyweight title bout of 2003, Morel dropped the WBA belt, losing to unbeaten Venezuelan Lorenzo Parra in Puerto Rico. Parra floored Morel in the third round and went on to post a unanimous points victory.

Wonjongkam fought 5 times in 2004 including twice with the lineal and WBC titles at stake. In the first of those title defenses, he won a unanimous decision over Japan's Trash Nakanuma on January 3. Nakunuma came into the bout of two consecutive close decision losses- one to future WBA champion Takefumi Sakata, whom he had previously beaten, and Noriyuki Komatsu, whom he would later defeat. Nakanuma also owned wins over Katsuhiko Iezumi, Panieng Poontarat, and Ryo Kitano and was, despite the losses to Sakata and Komatsu, a solid contender.

After an April 30 non-title knockout win over Filipino Ronnie Canete, Wonjongkam retained his titles with a TKO-5 over lightly regarded Luis Angel Martinez on July 15. In retrospect, Martinez' resume wasn't bad. He owned wins over fellow Mexican prospects who would later earn world rankings- Manuel Vargas (who is currently holds the WBO interim min-flyweight title), Abel Ochoa, Carlos Bouchan, and Franky Soto.

The lineal and WBC champ finished the year with two more non-title wins- a 10-round decision over old foe Randy Mangubat on October 8 on a card in which he shared billing with Sithsamerchai and Panomroonglek Kratingdaenggym and an 8-round decision over Mark Sales of the Philiipines on November 26 in support of a card headlined by Panomroonglek's defense of the WBC Asian Boxing Council flyweight title he had won on October 8.

Narvaez defended the WBO title once with a third round TKO over underqualified Brazilian Reginaldo Martins Carvalho on March 6 and won two non-title bouts, a TKO-10 over another Brazilian, former IBF mini-flyweight title challenger Wellington Vicente, on October 29, and a 5th round knockout of fellow Argentinian Marcos Ramon Obregon, the IBF Intercontinental junior bantamweight champ, on December 10.

WBA champion Parra further established himself as a force in the division with two impressive defenses. On June 4, he won a hard-fought, majority decision over the man who would eventually dethrone him, Takefumi Sakata, and on September 9, he unanimously outpointed former WBC light flyweight champion Yo Sam Choi.

The 30-0 Pacheco, for the fourth year in a row, only fought once. He put his IBF title on the line on December 16 against undefeated Armenian-born Australian Vic Darchinyan. Darchinyan's 21-0 record included two wins over former WBC strawweight champion Wandee Chor Chareon (later known as Wandee Singwancha) and victories over Argentine flyweight champion Raul Eliseo Medina and former IBA flyweight champion Alejandro Felix Montiel, who had twice challenged for the IBF title, including once against Pacheco. The battle of the unbeatens in which "someone's '0' would go" took place in Hollywood, Florida and it was Pacheco's "0" which went. The determined Darchinyan stopped the defending champion in the 11th round.

In 2005, although the lineal title remained with Wonjongkam, the overall title picture became hazier as an interim title was added to the mix during the year.

Parra was the first of the flyweight champs to defend during the new year. On January 3rd, he unanimously outpointed former WBC title challenger Trash Nakanuma, who had defeated Filipino Edgar Rodrigo and Komatsu since losing to Wonjongkam. Wonjongkam defended his title 26 days later. He took on Komatsu, who, besides splitting two fights with Nakanuma, owned wins over Rodrigo and the previously unbeaten Rolly Lunas (AKA Matsushita). Wonjongkam stopped the once beaten former OPBF champion in the 5th round.

Wonjongkam was then tentatively scheduled meet Jorge Arce, who had vacated the WBC light flyweight title earlier in the year, on March 19. Instead, Arce was matched with Hussein Hussein on that date and stopped the Australian in the 10th round of a thrilling WBC title eliminator. Arce was the now the mandatory challenger for Wonjongkam's title and both fighters' camps entered into serious negotiations for the two to meet.

Darchinyan made the first defense of his IBF belt on March 27, facing IBO champion Mzukisi Sikali of South Africa in a title unification bout. Sikali was a former WBU light flyweight champion (who had lost his title to Wonjongkam in 1997) and a former WBU super flyweight champion. He had defeated former WBU and WBO junior flyweight champ Masikule "Hawk" Makepula for the IBO title. Darchinyan halted Sikali in the 8th round.

WBO champion Narvaez made his first appearance of the year on April 8, again meeting Wellington "Kid Jofre" Vicente in a non-title bout. Narvaez knocked out the Brazilian in the seventh round.

Wonjongkam, staying active and tuning up for his scheduled defense against Arce, stopped Filipino Daniel Diolan in the 3rd round on April 29. Ecstatic that he was finally going to fight in the United States, Wonjongkam would soon have his joy turned to bitter disappointment. His bout with Arce, slated to take place as the featured bout on a card headlined by female legends Lucia Rijker and Christy Martin July 9 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, was scratched when the Rijker-Martin main event was postponed to July 30 and relocated to the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. A bout between WBC light flyweight champion Eric Ortiz and Filipino-American challenger Brian Viloria was slated to be the semi-final at the new site. However, after Rijker suffered a injury in training on July 20, the card fell apart. Eventually, Vilora did get to fight Ortiz, stopping him in one round, on September 10.

Pongsaklek, to keep active, ended up fighting a non-title six-rounder on July 29 in Thailand in support of Medgoen Singsurat's WBC Asian Boxing Council super flyweight title defense. Wonjongkam won a unanimous decision over old foe Mark Sales and Singsurat stopped Rodel Orais in 3.

The very next day, Arce, who, like Wonjongkam, was booked as soon as it was certain their fight had gone down with the postponement of the Rijker-Martin card, fought for the interim version of the WBC title. He was matched with Colombian Angel Antonio Priolo. The 30-2 Priolo came into the bout off a seventh-round knockout loss to Viloria and was dispatched in the third round by Arce.

On August 24, Darchinyan defended his IBF and IBO titles against another Colombian Jair Jimenez. Vic was victorious, stopping Jimenez in the 5th round.

The following month, on September 19, Parra retained his WBA title with a 12-round, majority decision over Sakata in the second of what would be a three-fight series.

The two WBC titles were on the line in October. On the 8th, Arce retained the interim version by stopping Hussein in the second round of their rematch and, two days later, lineal champ Wonjongkam retained the "full" title with a unanimous technical decision over Daisuke Naito when their bout was stopped in the latter part of the seventh round. Naito had won eight straight since suffering his embarrassing 34-second loss to Wonjongkam in 2002

Parra and Narvaez shared a bill in Bercy, France on December 5, each taking on a previously unbeaten French challenger. The WBA champion retained his title with a unanimous decision over 2000 Olympic gold medalist Brahim Asloum, who would go on to unsuccessfully challenge Narvaez in 2007 and win the WBA light flyweight title from Juan Carlos Reveco later that year while WBO kingpin Narvaez stopped future European champion Bernard Inom in the 11th round.

Arce made the second defense of his interim title on December 16. He stopped former WBO junior bantamweight and flyweight champion Adonis Rivas in the 10th round.

Arce-Rivas was the last flyweight title bout of the year but Wonjongkam was the last flyweight champion to see action. On December 23, he won a 5-round technical decision over Isidro Balabat of the Philippines. His scheduled non-title 10-rounder was the main support underneath Oleydong Sithsamerchai's defense of the WBC Youth straweight title. In that defense, the future WBC world strawweight champion won a 10-round, unanimous decision over Alex Aroy, also of the Philippines.

Wonjongkam and Arce continued to go there separate ways in 2006 when there were no offers that even remotely resembled what had been promise to them for their eventualy canceled 2005 bout. Wonjongkam's people were content to keep him in Thailand in pursuit of the Hall of Famer Miguel Canto's record for successful title defenses while Arce's management pursued the "dream" bout Arce craved- a showdown with former WBA minimumweight and light flyweight champion Rosendo Alvarez, the WBC's no. 1 ranked flyweight contender. Alvarez was responsible for the only blemish on Mexican great Ricardo "Finito" Lopez' phenomenal 51-0-1 record- an 8-round technical draw.

Arce was the first of the 112-pound beltholders to answer the bell in '06. He defended the WBC interim title in a rematch with Rivas on January 28 and scored a 6th round TKO.

Lineal and WBC champion Wonjongkam was up next. On February 16, fighting in Chainart, Thailand, he defended his belt for the 13th time, posting an easy, unanimous 12-round decision over former WBA flyweight title challenger and then reigning WBC Continental Americas light flyweight champion Gilberto Keb Baas. It should be noted that Keb Baas' best win, a split decision over former WBC light flyweight champion and former WBO junior flyweight champion Melchor Cob Castro, had taken place six years earlier. The win over Castro was followed by an unsuccessful shot at then WBA champion Eric Morel. Since the points loss to Morel, Castro was 8-5. He won decisions over Francisco Garcia and Oscar Andrade in 2001 but his other 6 victories after that came against non-descript competitors. The most recent of those wins had brought him the WBC regional title at 108 pounds and, ranked in the WBC's top 15 at 112 pounds, Keb Baas was riding a modest 4-bout winning streak.

Darchinyan defended his IBF and IBO titles next. He gradually wore down a competitive Diosdado Gabi and stopped the Filipino challenger in the 8th round.

Arce got his wish with a bout against Alvarez on April 8. The bout wasn't held as the main event in a Mexican bullfighting ring as Arce had once envisioned it but instead took place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada on the undercard the Zab Judah-Floyd Mayweather, Jr. bout for Judah's IBF and the vacant IBO welterweight titles, a bout Mayweather would win by unanimous decision. Alvarez failed to get down to the flyweight limit. He weighed in at 115 pounds. It wasn't surprising. The last time he weighed less than 114 pounds was when he beat Beibis Mendoza in October of 2004. He weighed 111 1/2 for that bout. The problem was he was scheduled to defend his WBA light flyweight title that night. He forfeited his title on the scales and when he defeated Mendoza for the third time in four meetings, the title remained vacant.

He and Arce, who weighed in precisely at 112, went on with their bout and Arce knocked out the 35-year-old Nicaraguan in the 6th round. It was Arce's last bout as a flyweight. He voluntarily relinquished the WBC interim title to campaign as a super flyweight.

Narvaez made his first 2006 appearance on April 21, scoring a 6th round TKO over veteran bantamweight Feliciano Dario Azuaga Ledesma of Paraguay in a non-title bout.

Wonjongkam then tied Canto's record in his next defense. On May 1, in Bangkok, Pongsaklek scored a 12-round, unanimous decision over Japanese challenger Daigo Nakahiro. Nakahiro owned an early career win over Kohei Kono, a second-round knockout of Samransak Singmanassak, and a unanimous, 10-round decision over Satoshi Takahashi but would had given credence to his status as a contender was his closely contested, 10-round split decision loss to Daisuke Naito. Since losing to Wonjongkam, Nakahiro has moved up to the super flyweight class, has beaten Masayuki Arinaga, Singmanassak for a second time, Kenji Yoshida, and has won the Japanese national title at that weight.

On June 3, Darchinyan made the 4th defense of his IBF title and the 3rd of his IBO belt. The highly ranked Mexican contender Luis Maldonado was his opponent. Maldonado came into the bout with a 31-1-1 record and sported victories over Gilberto Keb Baas, Franky Soto, Ruben Sanchez Leon, Oscar Arciniega, Francisco Garcia, and Tomas Rojas. In his bout prior to challenging Darchinyan, Maldonado fought to a draw in a WBC super flyweight title eliminator with future WBC-WBA super flyweight champion Cristian Mijares, a fighter Darchinyan would upset in 2008 to unify the IBF, WBC, and WBA titles at 115 pounds.

As for the Darchinyan-Maldonado bout, Darchinyan dominated until the bout was mercifully halted in the 8th round.

Wonjongkam, again fighting in Bangkok, broke Canto's mark on June 30. He defended his WBC title and the lineal title, one which traced back to Canto's January 8, 1975 win over Shoji Oguma, against two-time (1997, 2003) WBO flyweight title challenger and reigning WBC Continental Americas champion Everardo Morales. The Thai southpaw achieved his 15th successful title defense by stopping Morales in the 4th round.

Narvaez, in his second bout of the year, made his eighth defense of his reign as WBO champ on August 5. Fighting at home in Cordoba, Argentina, Omar scored a one-sided, unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Rexon Flores of the Philippines.

On October 7, Darchinyan retained his IBF and IBO straps with a brutal 6-round, unanimous technical decision over California-based Filipino, Glenn Donaire. Accidentally butted and the recipient of an accidental elbow, Donaire suffered a broken jaw in the third round. He was floored in the following stanza. After the bout was stopped during the sixth round because of Donaire's jaw injury, the scorecards were tallied and all had Darchinyan ahead, 60-53.

A week later, Narvaez made defense #9, winning a 12-round, unanimous decision decision over Colombian Walberto Ramos. Ramos had vacated the WBO Latino junior flyweight title to fight for the flyweight championship and had won a non-title "stay active" bout as a mini-flyweight in his fight prior to his title shot at 112 pounds.

The management of lineal and WBC champion Wonjongkam, now that their man was the proud owner of the record for most successful defenses by a flyweight champion, turned their attention to WBC mandatory challenger Monelisi Mhikiza "Showtime" Myekeni of South Africa. Myekeni, a former IBO junior flyweight champion, owned wins over Jose Garcia Bernal, Wyndel Janiola, and Sonny Boy Jaro, and had held the WBC International flywight title since beating Jaro in April of 2005. The bout was originally expected to be held in South Africa but when Myekeni's promoters entered a very low purse bid, Wonjongkam's promoters won the rights to the fight.

Fighting in Thailand on November 17th, after flooring Myekeni in the first round, Wonjongkam cruised to a convincing 12-round, unanimous decision.

WBA champion Parra was sidelined by injury and was inactive the entire year. His scheduled October 14 defense against former WBA light flyweight champion Roberto Vasquez had to be canceled. As a result, the WBA had Vasquez and Takefumi Sakata fight for the sanctioning body's vacant interim title. On December 2, Vasquez won that belt by eking out a split decision win over Sakata in Bercy, France.

Article By: Ken Pollitt