If Sirimongkol Singmanasak was American there would be movies about his life. But in Thailand world champion boxers tend to remain obscure and impoverished despite their success inside the ring.
Sirimongkol won two world titles and fought twice at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But despite being one of Thailand’s best boxers he was struggling to make ends meet.
This first led Sirimongkol to get into trouble in 2005. He posed nude for a gay magazine, presumably hoping that he wasn’t sufficiently famous for anyone to notice the well endowed man was a boxer
Unfortunately for Sirimongkol he was, and they did. The magazines were seized when police raided a shopping mall in Bangkok and he was arrested and charged under the country’s obscenity laws.
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Long sentence
Sirimongkol admitted he had been paid 200,000 baht for the photo shoot and claimed he did not realize the photos would ever be published. He got away with a 4,000 baht fine and a suspended sentence but it wouldn’t be the boxer’s last brush with the law.
In 2009 he was arrested with 29 grams of methamphetamine, known as yaba in Thailand. Sirimongkol claimed he had been paid just 10,000 baht to to deliver the drug.
The previous year he had boxed at the MGM Grand on a card headlined by Ricky Hatton. But now Sirimongkol’s career appeared to be over as he was sentenced to 20 years under Thailand’s draconian drug laws.
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Pardoned and released
But that wasn’t the end of Sirimongkol’s career. He continued boxing in prison and embarked on a remarkable 51 fight winning streak that lasted right the way through his sentence and was still going when he was pardoned and released.
Sirimongkol only ended up serving four years. But having been on the cusp of a world title shot in 2009 he was never able to secure big enough fights to become a challenger again.
Whether it was due to his advancing years or tainted reputation Sirimingkol would never fight in the US again. His record currently stands at 97-5 and he has held two world titles.
Last year Sirimongkol made a successful foray into the world of bare knuckle boxing, winning his first two fights. It isn’t clear whether the 46 year old’s career is finally over but his life story is the stuff that Hollywood movies are made of.
