EVEN THOSE who don’t follow Thailand’s boxing scene especially closely will surely recognise the name of one of the most spectacularly monikered fighters of all: Knockout CP Freshmart.
In no other country would a serious, world-level athlete go by a name that is one part comic book, one part convenience store. But in no other country are athletes compelled to adopt as their surnames the titles of their sponsors, or promoters, or gyms.
That’s why the likes of Sirimongkol and Chaloemporn Singwancha share a name despite not being related, while the etymology of the likes of Tepparith Kokietgym and Veerapol Nakornluangpromotion is self-evident. And even if you didn’t know how these things worked, you’d probably make a good guess as to how certain boxers ended up with second names like 3K Battery or Thirteencoins.
Sometimes, this idea is compounded and a boxer’s gym will be renamed after being sponsored by a company, which is why, for a time, the great Pongsaklek Wonjongkam went by the splendid name of Pongsaklek Five Star Grilled Chicken Gym (Kaiyanghadaogym).
CP Freshmart, a chain store with branches across Thailand, routinely sponsors top-flight boxers, most notably among them former two-weight champion Petchmanee CP Freshmart (aka Panya Pradabsiri), ex-WBC strawweight boss Oleydong (SIthsamerchai) CP Freshmart, and the aforementioned Knockout.
So, his “surname” explained, what of Knockout’s first name? Surely it wasn’t the greatest example in history of nominative determinism?
“I was a muay Thai fighter before I was a boxer,” he says. “I changed to boxing because I scored most of my knockouts with punches, so my promoter said I should try boxing instead.
“When I started boxing, I changed my name to Knockout. In Muay Thai, I fought under the name Newlukrak.”
No, that’s not his real name either. Let the record show that this is Thammanoon Niyomtrong, which is what BoxRec lists him as, and by which he was announced for his two biggest televised overseas fights, against Alex Winwood in Australia and Oscar Collazo in Saudi Arabia.
But what would he prefer Boxing News calls him?
“You can call me Noon,” he says – an abbreviation of Thammanoon.
Suits me – it saves on keystrokes, and also avoids clumsy explanations if I might have to write about Knockout winning on points – which has happened more often than Knockout has won by knockout; decisions outnumbering stoppages on Noon’s record 28-1 record by 17 to 11. Not so much nominative determinism, then, as an oxymoron.
But statistics are often misleading in boxing. Knockout’s 38% knockout ratio does not mean he doesn’t hit hard; it is more a reflection of the high level at which he has consistently fought – all but two of his boxing matches have been for recognised titles, including 14 for world strawweight championships (18 if you include ‘interim’ versions). And, until he lost to Collazo in November last year, Noon was at that point the longest-reigning world champion in all of boxing.
These statistics are what Noon takes pride in, and above all a record that anyone with even the most fleeting of interests in Thai boxing can relate to.
“It felt great destroying the record of Khaosai,” he says.
Widely regarded as the best boxer to ever come out of Thailand, Khaosai Galaxy’s WBA super-flyweight reign spanned seven years and one month. Noon’s run with the same body’s strawweight belt lasted eight years and four months.
It might be more accurate to say he surpassed rather than “destroyed” the record for longest-serving Thai world champion, given Khaosai managed 19 defences to Noon’s 12, and also that there was a two-year spell of inactivity amid his reign, but the choice of vocabulary perhaps reflects a sense of frustration at the relative lack of appreciation for what, by any measure, has been one of the kingdom’s most accomplished boxing careers.
“I’m famous to a point, but not as famous as Khaosai,” he says, “After all, he’s a singer and an actor.”
True enough, Khaosai is an A-list celebrity in Thailand, arguably more so for his post-boxing career, which has seen him release albums, act in movies and stand in elections. It’s hard to imagine Noon courting celebrity in a similar fashion, as he is quiet, reserved, softly spoken and, for the most part, serious.
The only time a smile crosses the visage that is remarkably unblemished for a 35-year-old top-level pugilist is when Boxing News asks him about the best – or, at least, the most recognisable – win on his record, a July 2022 unanimous decision over fellow Thai great Wanheng Meenayothin.
“It felt good, beating him,” he says. “He was so strong at 105lbs at the time he was the champion.”
That win was something of a changing of the guard in Thai boxing. For years, they had reigned in tandem; Noon as WBA boss from June 2016 and Wanheng as WBC counterpart from November 2014 until November 2020. But while in most of the world there would be a clamour for rival champions from the same country to unify, Thais have typically preferred not to fight each other at the top level – until recently.
The coronavirus pandemic hit, and its resultant international travel restrictions forced a rethink. Wanheng dropped his title to countryman, and Noon’s stablemate, Panya Pradasiri (Petchmanee CP Freshmart), lost a rematch, and then, in a last shot at world glory, finally got it on with Noon.
It came a few years too late, but Wanheng staged a “last stand” type performance, albeit a losing one. “We went back and forth; the fans were cheering,” recalls Noon. “That fight was a big deal for Thailand, but not as big as it would have been [if it had happened earlier].”
Wanheng had famously equalled, and then surpassed, Floyd Mayweather’s iconic 50-0 record, but once his momentum was broken with the Panya defeat, he failed to regain his form. Noon now finds himself in a similar position, as an ex-champ in his mid-30s, and a stalwart of both the Thai boxing scene and the lower weight classes, launching an attempt to claw back what he had lost.
That long reign was brought to an end by Oscar Collazo in a WBA/WBO unification match Riyadh last November. While it is a defeat that has aged well, with Collazo now knocking on the door of pound-for-pound consideration, it was nevertheless an emphatic one.
But if those who witnessed the Surin native being floored three times and stopped in seven one-sided rounds that night think that he is being delusional in believing he can win another title, Noon himself doesn’t attempt to veer from the harsh reality of his sole setback.
“Nothing went wrong against Collazo,” he says. “He just made it so I couldn’t follow my strategy.
“Congratulations to him – he won with greater accuracy and speed, and he was very hard to hit. No excuses.”
Pragmatism is usually more important than attempting to save face when it comes to righting wrongs, and Noon gets a chance to show what he learned in defeat when he gets a chance to regain a belt, this time a division up, against WBC light-flyweight champion Carlos Canizales in Bangkok on December 4.
Canizales is well known to Thai fans for his two fights with Panya, which played out in very different ways.
Most recently, he knocked out Panya in five rounds in Caracas in August to take the title. It was a belated coronation, with Canizales having been denied his accession eight months earlier when he appeared to dominate Panya only to be adjudged a majority-decision loser in a Bangkok verdict that even Thai fans cried foul over.
It may be a surprise, then, that Canizales is heading back to Thailand, given the treatment he received on his last visit there. But Noon understands the mentality – at the same time as promising to take the matter out of the judges’ hands anyway.
“He wants to prove he can win anywhere,” he says of Canizales.
“He had all the advantages in terms of the environment when he fought at home [in the Panya rematch], so he wants the challenge [of fighting again in a location where it would appear he’s at a disadvantage].
“The first [Panya] fight was a great fight; both were very good.”
But what of the infamous verdict that followed it?
Noon offers a stock diplomatic answer – “You’ve got to respect the judges” – but his real thoughts on the matter are perhaps betrayed by the pause which precedes it, and the smirk while he delivers it.
For context, Boxing News could find no more than two borderline rounds to give Panya that night, yet two of the judges felt he’d won the whole fight, and one of them by four rounds.
Noon wants no part of any such controversy, though.
“I’m confident I can make it clear,” he says. “My style and Canizales’s style is pretty different. My strategy is land clean, clear punches with power and accuracy; precise punching.
“He leaves a lot of open targets and his punches are pretty wide.”
Indeed, Canizales was dropped by Panya in their rematch; a counter right hand in the fourth round pitching the Venezuelan on to the strands for a short-lived set-piece in an otherwise one-sided affair.
It was that moment which gives Noon and his coach Chatchai Sasakul – the former world flyweight champion, who was in Caracas with Panya – the greatest cause for optimism.
Chatchai believes Panya’s moment of drama was more a last-gasp instinctive effort from a disinterested ex-champ than a genuine attempt to win. Indeed, Panya announced his retirement in the wake of the defeat, and Chatchai feels he might have made a better attempt at getting up from the fight-ending body shot in round five.
“Come on, at least try!” exclaims Chatchai, joining the conversation as we discuss Canizalez-Panya II while Noon takes a break from training at Chatchai’s gym in Pathum Thani, a province bordering Bangkok.
Yet he has no doubt Noon will do this – and more.
“Petchmanee [Panya] was on the way out. But for this one, don’t worry – it will be much better,” he says. “Noon still has energy, power for training. He’s ready for anything.
“Canizales is strong, he has a heavy punch, but I can see something. I learned from [Panya’s] Canizales loss.
“Canizales leaves himself open. Like the counter punch [that Panya dropped Canizales with] – we planned for that. Noon can do something like that to him, but this time we can win.”
In other words, the prediction is Knockout – whether by name, or method, or both.
