Zou Shiming's world title dream in tatters after shock defeat by Amnat Ruenroeng
Thai fighter Amnat retains his crown as China's golden boy puts on a lacklustre show
Zou Shiming's aura of invincibility was shattered last night when he was defeated for the first time as a professional, blowing his hopes of a world title as he lost to Thai rival Amnat Ruenroeng.
Zou and Amnat met for the fourth time in their careers, with Zou leading 2-1 in amateur bouts, but the Thai champion levelled the score in the best possible way as he retained his International Boxing Federation (IBF) world flyweight title at the Macao Venetian Cotai Arena in the Showdown at Sands bill.
"This is just awesome, just awesome. We beat the Chinese boxer on his own doorstep," said Stanley Beard, one of Amnat's trainers after the fight. "We thought we would win by a bigger margin. He fought a great fight."
Earlier, Hong Kong star Rex Tso Sing-yu described his less-than-convincing unanimous points victory against Filipino surprise package Michael Enriquez as the most exhausting of his life as he earned a world title fight on the undercard.
The Tso camp breathed a collected sigh of relief when the announcement came that he had won before a sell-out crowd of 8,000. The 23-year-old Filipino brought a tremendous fight to Tso, who despite being given his toughest fight, improved his record to 16-0-0 with nine KOs. The Filipino youngster dropped to 10-3-1, six KOs.
The fight was much closer than the scorecard suggested. Judges had it 95-94, 95-94, 96-93 in favour of Tso, giving the undefeated southpaw his 16th straight professional victory and guaranteeing him a world title shot for the WBA (World Boxing Association) title held by Japan's Kohei Kono. That fight will take place at the same venue in July.
"I didn't expect to be lured into a brawl. I couldn't land my usual punches because it was hard to get underneath him. It was the most exhausting fight I had to endure," said the 27-year-old Tso, who could now become Hong Kong's first world boxing champion.
"I hope people from overseas can see that there's not only Bruce Lee, but Rex Tso as well," he added.
China's Yang Lianhua, who is known as Ik Yang, gave a much more convincing display as he won his IBF lightweight title eliminator against Thailand's Patomsuk Pathompothong. The crowd-pleasing Yang, who hails from Dalian, scored a brilliant sixth-round TKO after a barrage of punches proved too much for his Thai opponent.