Khaosai Galaxy - best wins, best fights?

[Autobarn]

OK modern boxing is getting pretty poor so I'm getting more interested in outstanding fighters from the past. What is the best place to start for checking out Galaxy's career?

The guy seems to be a 115-pound wrecking ball. Was he in any classic fights? What are his best title defenses/opponents?

Some say he beat "only bums" but I notice he has a KO of Israel Contreras, a guy with a 1 round KO of Wilfredo Vazquez on his record. Anyway, for a fighter with Galaxy's sawn off slugging approach, his longevity was pretty amazing.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I haven't seen even close to all of his fights. Of the few that i have, Pical is my favorite.

[Autobarn]

What a great left hand uppercut he could throw. He looked really clumsy but threw great hooks and uppercuts with the left.

[jmc617]

He had two fights with Kenji Matsumuru that are noteworthy. His twin brother, Khaokor, who is considered by most of the boxing analysts to be inferior to Khaosai fought the opposition and beat most of them. He beat Wilfredo Vasquez, split two fights with Moon and had an unforgettable war with Matsumuru.

They both fought other decent competition but those stand out. Sung-Kil Moon fought Roman and Konadu beat them both.

[Autobarn]

Galaxy seems very mechanical. Moved sort of like a clockwork toy soldier that you wind up. Then those left hands seemed to rocket out of nowhere. Entertaining from what I've seen.

[Autobarn]

Is Khaosai a "victim" of the Internet? i.e. over fussy posters who know it all and declare that he "fought 20 bums" and "had no skills" - that kind of mentality.

19 defenses, 16 by KO, wins over the rival IBF champ. not too shoddy. Guys with longevity at one weight don't often have loads of signature wins i.e. Holmes, Hopkins (at middleweight). Canizales, and so on. How did Galaxy go on so long with his build/style?

Also, why did Jiro Watanabe not face him?

[Arbachakov]

NO he's not a victim of the internet.Lets say he was British and fighting today he'd be getting as much criticism as Joe Calzaghe got for years, due to not fighting rival champs and taking on mostly very mediocre undeserving challengers.A guy like Pical was a typical IBF eighties lighter weight splinter champ no hoper.

Best fighters he beat were Contreras, much smaller yong-kang kim and shot Rafael Orono.He has the worst resume of all the top fighters of that period at 115.

[Autobarn]

yeah but at least he wasn't flapping at their ears with the inside of his glove - like Hall of Fame Joe was. most of his fights he was throwing crazy left hands like he was aiming at the moon, and sending his opponent into orbit.

i suppose he is lacking a "defining fight" but for a compact muscular fighter like him, 19 defenses is pretty remarkable. some say kaokor is better - however, kaokor didn't hold onto a belt, did he?

khaosai's win over isreal "i did future 3 weight champ wil vazquez in a round" contreras might be an underrated one.

if ricardo lopez hadn't fought alvarez, ppl would be saying same thing about lopez. then again probably not due to tidy, well balanced, aesthetic Beristain style!

[Arbachakov]

Acutally a lot of informed lighter weight fans do say the same thing about Lopez, who also mostly fought appalling competition.

It's often not easy to fight a lot of top fighters at these weights for a variety of reasons. but those two are mong the worst offenders.

[Autobarn]

yes, strawweight is terrible. there is hardly any competition at world level. but then again lopez was remarkable in the avlarez rematch.

i wonder, if khaosai had done it in a traditional weight class like bantam, or faced some hard case like konadu, if he'd get a lot more credit.

are there any signs that he was "ducking" anyone? didn't a very good fighter vacate the title, rather than defend vs khaosai?

darchinyan looks like a bit of a present day galaxy - left hand happy, crazy power, lack of "style" - but obviously darchinyan beat pacheco, kirilov, mijares and arce: good or very good fighters all.

[My2Sense]

His late round stoppage of that guy Castro (not the Castro he fought in his last fight) was probably his most entertaining fight.

He was immensely strong and powerful for his weight, and he could actually box a little bit, but he tended to be indifferent to defense. Hard to tell how he would compare to the other top fighters at his weight. Then again, who are the other top fighters at his weight? (I know Tapia, but who else?).

I suppose you could say he was like the jr. bantam Marciano: he seemed to have obvious flaws, but no one could take advantage of them.

[Autobarn]

wonder how khaosai would have got on vs moon, watanabe and konadu.

[giacomino]

I think he KOs Watanabe and Moon and Konadu are probably wild, knock-down filled fights.
I followed Galaxy's title run and he fought a lot of crappy opponents, but I thought he fought some decent ones too. Orono was an ex-champion, but was still a pretty good fighter when Galaxy Ko'd him. Contreras made a name for himself beating Vasquez and briefly holding a bantamweight belt after Galaxy beat him. Pical was a two-time IBF super flyweight champ when they fought, both Castros he fought were legit contenders, Kim was a former and future flyweight title holder and Griman was a future flyweight champ. He probably would have made a bigger name for himself if he'd not stayed in Asia throughout his career, because his style would have made him the division's first international superstar if he'd made it to the U.S., Mexico or Europe.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Acutally a lot of informed lighter weight fans do say the same thing about Lopez, who also mostly fought appalling competition.

It's often not easy to fight a lot of top fighters at these weights for a variety of reasons. but those two are mong the worst offenders.

Lopez is one of the more overrated fighters in the history of the sport. His competition was woeful for the most part. Maybe i give Khaosai more of a pass because he is generally overlooked and the logistics of getting fights made were much more difficult for him than they would have been for Lopez.. I think in Finito's case a bunch of fans started recognizing a strawweight to prove they know what's happening in the lowest weight class and then the legend took off like a runaway train.

[Autobarn]

Interesting point. As with the recent Calderon hype which has come undone. ie Calderon as "one of the best pure boxers in the sport."

Lopez did prove greatness in te Alvarez rematch, though.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Interesting point. As with the recent Calderon hype which has come undone. ie Calderon as "one of the best pure boxers in the sport."

Lopez did prove greatness in te Alvarez rematch, though.

That depends on how great you think alvarez was. I'm not saying he sucked. But he had the ability to make bigger fights and had no interest in doing it. Everyone that points fingers at Calzaghe should be pointing a gun at Finito.

I don't think anything has come undone with calderon, he is a 34 yr old 108lb fighter. most are long done by now.

[Autobarn]

Yep, put on a couple of pounds and there were Chiquita Gonzalez & Carbajal and Mark Johnson was somewhere round those lighter weights too. Gonzalez and Carbajal would surely have generated lots of interest.

[Autobarn]

Turns out I have the 2 Matsumuru fights on DVD. From what I've seen:

Khaosai's style may take some getting used to but his skills were a bit underrated. He may have been crude but he had good "ring generalship". His footwork was slow & chin too high, but he would use sidesteps and put his glove on the opponent's shoulder so they couldn't catch his high chin. If he took flush shots, he would walk his challenger onto power shots, flush shots as they came in to finish him. He threw long cumbersome shots then sometimes suddenly threw compact hooks and quick uppercuts. He appears to be an absolutely evil body puncher, and knew how to apply his freakish power and impressive physucal strength. He has this weird move where he taps his opponent's gloves as they are trying to throw shots - stopping their punches. He worked the clinches well, shoving opponents off to create space, smothering the opponent and crowding their shots. His shot anticipation seems quite good. This boy knew what he was doing.

It is a shame that ppl say he has "no skills" especially on other forums. I like the tidy, say, Ricardo Lopez style as much as anyone but I prefer watching a freak like Galaxy making the most of his attributes with practical fighting skills.

giacomo - thanks for the info on Khaosai's opponents. I'm going to have some fun tracking them down.

[meade95]

The notion that Khaosai Galaxy's competition wasn't of quality just isn't accurate - He fought quality competition throughout his entire title reign...and the reality is the other champions avoided him....hell the WBA king back then (J. Wantabe) simply vacated his belt instead of fighting him ...when Galaxy was ranked #1 -

Furthermore Galaxy did fight and beat the other long reigning IBF JBW champion during his regin....that was E. Pical - And he beat him on the road in Pical's home country and hometown to boot (KO 14th).

K. Galaxy Resume is actual quite impressive by most measures.... There is also an odd notion that Galaxy only fought in Thailand, and that is incorrect as well.... He defended his world title in a number of places outside of Thailand...

He traveld and beat a highly thought of IBF JBW Champion Ellyas Pical, in Jakarta, Indonesia.....so this was in all effect a "unification" title fight...yet the IBF wouldn't put Pical's title on the line....Galaxy still took the fight and was the only one risking his title belt......yet he took it...travled and Ko'd him....

He traveld and beat the undefeated / big punching Israel Contreras (24-0-1) in Willemstad, Curacao -

He traveld and beat Chang Ho Choi in Seoul, Korea -

He traveld and beat Kenji Matsumura, in Japan (Twice) -

Outside of the quality competition listed above....Galaxy also fought and beat...the following...

Rafael Orono 32-2-1 (WBC JBW World Champion....had an accomplished reign as champion)

Edgar Omar Monserrat 13-1-0 (Highly rated challenger....fought for sevearl world titles)

Israel Contreras 24-0-1 (Went on to win WBO & WBA BW World Titles)

Ellyas Pical 16-1-0 (Long reigning IBF JBW Champion...8 defenses...when he lost to K. Galaxy his IBF belt wasn't on the line....Galaxy's WBA belt was)

Tae-Il Chang 26-2-1 (Won IBF World Title)

Alberto Castro 21-2-1 (solid challenger)

Cobra Ari Blanca 30-5-3 (challenged for several world titles)

Shunichi Nakajima 23-4-0 (Japanese super fyweight Champion)

Yong Kang Kim 21-2-0 (Went on to win 2 world titles)

Ernesto Ford 21-1-0 (ranked in the top 10 of all three world titles at the time)

Jae-Sok Park 14-1-0 (ranked #3 at the time)

David Griman 13-0-0 (Went on to win WBA Fly Title)

Chang Ho Choi 18-2-0 (IBF Fly World Champion)

Dong Chun Lee 20-5-1 (former OPBF Super Flyweight Title)


So the reality is not only did K. Galaxy travel and beat opponents....but he faced a very healthy resume during his long and impressive reign while being actively avoided by several of the other champions - And not only did he win......he did so mostly in brutal KO'ing fashion.

He took on all commers...boxers, sluggers, runner's, you name it.....broke them down and defeated them....Was one of the best lower-weight body-punchers ever (which is often overlooked). He went to the body like that of JCC in his prime days....

[Autobarn]

I agree mostly. I'm not sure if Watanabe vacated, though. I'm sure it says in Bob Mee's book that he was stripped for entering a unification fight.

I think many ppl assume that Khaosai should have gone up to bantam where there were some tough fights. But his twin brother was the bantamweight of the two. And if you have awesome strength and power as a super fly, and can keep making the weight, why move up?

[jont]

I was just in Thailand a few days ago...I talked boxing with a former Muay Thai fighter and he told me the best champion that the country had was Galaxy...you could see the respect in his eyes as he talked of Galaxy...my friend was in his sixties and he had the messed up ears of a former fighter.....regardless of what people on the forum think of Galaxy...in his homecountry he is still a champion...

[kidbazooka1]

Khaosai was a badass he kinda reminds me of a young Manny Pacqiuao. He was build very strog for a jr bantamweight and carried brutal power. One of my all time favorite lower weigth fighters.