Pone Kingpetch (, , ), born Mana Seedokbuab (, , ; February 12, 1935 – March 31, 1982), was a Thai professional

boxer Boxer most commonly refers to: *Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing * Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

and three time Undisputed World Flyweight Champion.

Early life

Pone Kingpetch (born Mana Sidokbuap) was the seventh of nine children born to Hoi and Riew Sidokbuap in the

Hua Hin district Hua Hin (, ) is one of eight districts (''amphoe'') of Prachuap Khiri Khan province in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula in Thailand. Its seat of government, also named Hua Hin, is a beach resort town. The district's population was estim ...

. He attended Sathukarn Secondary School until the fourth grade before transferring to the Hua Hin District School, where he completed his ninth-grade studies. Kingpetch completed his secondary school education at Hua Hin Wittayalai School. Kingpetch was extensively involved in many sports. But his favorite sport was always boxing, going on to tell his friends he would become the first boxing world champion from Thailand. At the time,

Chamroen Songkitrat Chamroen Songkitrat (Thai: จำเริญ ทรงกิตรัตน์), born as Samroeng Srimadi, was a Thai boxer and policeman. Songkitrat was a champion Muay Thai fighter in Thailand with over 50 fights before becoming an orthodox box ...

had unsuccessfully challenged for the world bantamweight championship three times from 1954 to 1955.

Boxing career

Early career

Pone Kingpetch turned to professional boxing and won the Thai flyweight title with a TKO victory over Kunoi Vithichai in April 1956. He defended the Thai title against Vithichai on October of that same year. In January 1957, Pone Kingpetch defeated Danny Kid in Bangkok to win the

OPBF The Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) is a professional boxing organization that sanctions title fights in the Asian and Pacific region. History Oriental boxing started in the Philippines in 1946 after the Spanish-American War. Whi ...

flyweight title. He made one title defense of the OPBF belt against Hitoshi Misako in September 1957.

World flyweight champion

He became

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

's first world boxing champion on April 16, 1960, when he defeated Pascual Pérez of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

at Lumphini Boxing Stadium in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

for the world flyweight championship. In his fourth title defense, he lost the title to Fighting Harada of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

via 11th-round knockout on October 10, 1962. Pone Kingpetch regained the world championship after outpointing Harada in a rematch on January 12, 1963. However, his second reign proved to be short, as

Hiroyuki Ebihara was a Japanese former professional boxer who competed from 1959 to 1969. He held the WBA, WBC, and '' The Ring'' flyweight titles from 1963 to 1964 and the WBA flyweight title again in 1969. Yuri Arbachakov used the ring name Yuri Ebihara in h ...

knocked Pone out in the first round to become the new world flyweight champion. In On February 14, 1963, with the creation of the

World Boxing Council The World Boxing Council (WBC) is an international professional boxing organization. It is among the four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), International Boxing Federation ...

, Kingpetch was named the inaugural

WBC flyweight champion This is a list of world flyweight boxing champions, as recognized by the four major sanctioning organizations in boxing: * The World Boxing Association (WBA), established in 1921 as the National Boxing Association (NBA). The WBA often recognize up ...

. Several other champions had been named in some divisions while in others, the reigning champions fought for the inaugural title. In his final title win he defeated Ebihara in a rematch on January 23, 1964, to become a three-time world flyweight champion. After the win in Japan, he travelled to Italy to defend his title against Salvatore Burruni and lost a 15-round decision to the Italian in his final world title fight. He retired from the sport altogether in 1966 at the age of 31.

Later life and death

After retiring, the money he earned from his boxing career was invested into other businesses. However, the Manawitthaya School, which was built in his hometown during his career, had to be sold. His attempts at running other businesses resulted in financial losses, as Kingpetch proved inadept in the many aspects of business and trade. Kingpetch was also afflicted with a chronic illness:

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

. While having a family meal at home, he choked on his food, which got stuck in his

windpipe The trachea (: tracheae or tracheas), also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all animals' lungs. The trachea extends from ...

. This resulted in rotting and

blood poisoning Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is compo ...

, leading to Kingpetch's health deteriorating significantly as he was already suffering from both a

cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjectivity, subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute t ...

and

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

. He was admitted to Ramathibodi Hospital, although his condition did not improve. Kingpetch died on March 31, 1982, from pneumonia and heart failure, He was 47. Pone Kingpetch was inducted into the

International Boxing Hall of Fame The International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, right next to exit 34 of the New York State Thruway, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected on ballots cre ...

(IBHOF) in 2023.

Professional boxing record

Titles in boxing

Major world titles

* NBA (WBA) flyweight champion (112 lbs) (3×) *

(112 lbs) (2×)

''The Ring'' magazine titles

* ''The Ring'' flyweight champion (112 lbs) (3×)

Undisputed titles

* Undisputed flyweight champion (3×)

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

*
Pone Kingpetch - CBZ Profile

National Boxing Association's Quarterly Ratings: 1960 - BoxRec

National Boxing Association's Quarterly Ratings: 1961 - BoxRec

National Boxing Association's Quarterly Ratings: 1962 - BoxRec
, - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Kingpetch, Pone 1935 births 1982 deaths Flyweight boxers World flyweight boxing champions World Boxing Association champions World Boxing Council champions The Ring (magazine) champions Pone Kingpetch Pone Kingpetch

International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...