Poonsawat targets knockout blow

THAILAND’S Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym came face to face with WBA World Super Bantamweight title holder Bernard Dunne, for the first time yesterday and promised that Saturday night’s meeting at the O2 will not be as cordial.

The stocky challenger did all his talking through an interpreter but his demeanour did not call for any clarification and even Dunne, himself, admitted that he was a man of substance and power.

His record speaks for itself — 38 wins, 27 by KO, from 39 fights — and the only loss of his career was dubious in that it was a fight in Hamburg back in 2006 when the three judges unashamedly and overwhelmingly rowed in behind Wladimir Sidorenko.

While he was disappointed at what remains the only blemish on his record the 28-year-old Thai insisted yesterday that he gleaned experience from that fight that will benefit him on Saturday night when the atmosphere at the O2 will be intimidating if not downright hostile — ask Ricardo Cordoba.

“I lost and it was an experience,” said Poonsawat.

“It was my first time in Germany and there was a lot of shouting and screaming from the audience.

“I will not be intimidated by the atmosphere here in Dublin. I want to win this fight and bring the title back to Thailand, not just for myself but for our nation but I will have to finish him and not let it go to points.”

He, too, has a win over Cordoba, but neither he nor Dunne wanted to dwell on that when they met yesterday.

“Don’t try to compare me with Cordoba, Poonsawat is a much better fighter than Cordoba,” he said. “This is going to be a very good fight.”

And while it will go down as one of the most memorable occasions in Irish sporting history, the fight in which Dunne stripped Cordoba of his world title last March no longer interests the Dubliner.

“The Cordoba fight is history now — that’s a completely separate affair,” Dunne insisted.

“It’s in the past and it’s not going to do anything for me when I step in the ring with Poonsawat. When I step into the ring with him it is a completely different moment in time and I have got to make sure that whatever he brings to the table I bring a little bit more.

“He (Poonsawat) will be different. He will come forward. He is going to be in range a lot for me to hit him. For him to attack me he will have to take that extra step forward and there is going to be that split second before I can even be in reach for him to touch me.”

And Dunne’s trainer, Harry Hawkins, was oozing confidence in advance of the fight, insisting that the Dubliner could not be better prepared.

“Bernard is 25% better than he was for the Cordoba fight,” he said. “The training regime we had for the Cordoba fight — that was a benchmark we set ourselves — we decided we were going to go better than that.

“Michael McGurn upped his work by up to 30% and certainly as far as sparring went we certainly upped that with the class and calibre of the spars we brought in — a world class operator and then we brought in the Olympic silver medallist just to toughen him up a little bit.

“As far as the training camp would go I would say it’s at least 25% tougher than it was for Cordoba. I am totally confident.

“This kid is a totally different style of fighter to Cordoba. If you look at his fight with Cordoba I certainly would have given Cordoba the decision. Cordoba fought a fantastic fight.”

With all the hard work behind him, Dunne has taken time out to watch DVDs of Poonsawat’s fights and he was impressed with what he saw, admitting that the Thai is worthy of his ranking.

“I have seen the Cordoba fight but Cordoba is a southpaw so you are looking at different tactics,” Dunne said. “I definitely punch harder than Cordoba so he is not going to be able to walk straight through. Coming to me he is going to hit fire.

“At the level we are at now we have got to accept that every fight is going to be a tough fight. There is no doubt about it that Poonsawat has proven throughout the years — with the calibre of fighter he has fought and with his rating and with his record which speaks for itself — this is a guy who can fight, box, punch, everything. We all know what I can do and the lengths that I will go to retain my belt.”

On the advice of a Buddhist monk, Poonsawat has changed his name by deed poll for the sake of his boxing career and from here on will be known as Chalermwong Udomna. ‘Chalermwong’ translates to ‘honour for family’ and the monk promised him that his new name would increase his chances of bringing the world title back to his family and an expectant public in Thailand.