Srisaket Sor Rungvisai elected to fight from an orthodox stance in the rematch with Juan Estrada and this tactic clearly didn’t pay dividends. In the tenth round he reverted to his normal southpaw stance but by that time the Mexican had amassed an insurmountable lead.
Srisaket had put in a sub par performance against Iran Diaz in a voluntary title defence last October, and there was more cause for concern for his corner when the Thai fighter made a sluggish start to this fight.
By contrast Estrada looked totally at ease against an orthodox opponent, despite having previously gone 12 rounds against the southpaw version of Srisaket.
In the opening rounds Srisaket looked to double on up on jabs and left hooks to the body, while loading up on the right hand. He didn’t succeed in driving Estrada backwards though which was key to his previous victory.
Sluggish start
Estrada looked lighter on his feet and was constantly finding a home for his right uppercut. The Mexican was the more accurate of the two and snapped Srisaket’s head back with straight punches.
By contrast Srisaket seemed to lack a little speed and when he did try to charge forwards and throw combinations Estrada was able to either circle away from danger or block the majority of the punches with a right hook from the Mexican finding its mark in the eighth.
Srisaket landed a low blow in the 11th which put Estrada down but it was well below the belt and the referee spotted it. The final rounds produced some fiery exchanges with the Thai fighter getting the better of them.
Estrada stood his ground and fired back which seemed like a needless risk. But the Mexican had done enough in the opening eight rounds to ensure that Srisaket’s change of stance didn’t affect the outcome of the fight.
Big payday
Srisaket earned $500,000 USD for this fight. But the numbers that really mattered were not in his favour with the scorecards reading 115-113, 115-113, and 116-112.
Interestingly, he won three of the last four rounds on one judge’s scorecards and all four on another. This suggests the decision to fight orthodox backfired badly.
There might be another explanation: it’s possible that the 32 year old was protecting an injury. Doubtless we will find out in the coming days but the Thai fighter’s stock has fallen considerably after this performance.
Although this did not produce quite as much action as the first fight it was still an entertaining bout. A trilogy could be on the agenda but Estrada is the new WBC 115lbs champion, for Srisaket it is back to the drawing board after seeing his 20 fight winning streak come to a crashing end in California.
