Asian Boxing

Boxing in Thailand is still happening. The problem is that the records increasingly fail to reflect what is happening in the ring. I’ve been following this situation closely and have been vocal about it because I work with fighters whose careers are directly affected. Missing results and disappearing profiles have consequences for their opportunities, their livelihoods and how people assess them. Dekang Wang is one example of how an incomplete record can shape the wider narrative. A Boxing News article described him as inactive ahead of his fight with Yoshiki Takei. Yet he had fought four times in the intervening period, all for the WBA Asia title. One of those fights was against Giuliano Fantone, a boxer I was managing. We travelled to China for that contest, but it was not recorded on BoxRec. Those bouts were documented on FightFax. Wang’s BoxRec profile subsequently became active again after he faced Takei, while the missing fights left an incomplete picture of his activity. That matters beyond a database. When journalists, promoters and matchmakers rely on an incomplete record, a fighter who has been competing can be presented as someone who has been sitting out. Here in Thailand, it has now reached the point where managers are sending FightFax profiles to show a fuller picture of their fighters’ records. Yes, there are questionable matchups and mismatches here. Those deserve scrutiny. But there are also plenty of good, competitive fights. The FCC show that wasn’t uploaded had some terrific fights on the card. Those fighters put in the work, took the punches and earned their results. Their efforts deserve to be acknowledged. I’m not here for politics. I would simply like a clear way forward: transparent guidelines, consistently applied, with a practical route for legitimate shows and results to be recorded. If that cannot be achieved, then an alternative database becomes an increasingly necessary part of the conversation. The shows are still going on in Thailand. Leaving fights off a record does not stop them happening; it leaves fighters carrying records that do not tell their full story. I’ll go deeper into this in a piece for my website later this week, including the missing fights, the consequences for fighters and what a workable way forward could look like. The sport needs accurate records and clear standards. The people getting into the ring deserve both.

Good to be involved with a professional team putting the work in behind the scenes. I’ve handled the matchmaking for the October 10th show in Phuket, and today the team headed to Bangtao to shoot some promotional content. Looking forward to putting on a great night of boxing in Phuket.