Khaosai Galaxy

Khaosai Galaxy เขาทราย แกแล็คซี่
Khaosai Galaxy in 2007
Born	เขาทราย แกแล็คซี่ (1959-05-15) May 15, 1959 Ban Cha Lianglab, Tambon Na Pa, Mueang Phetchabun District, Phetchabun Province, Thailand
Nationality	Thai
Other names	ŝāy thalwng s̄ị̂ (ซ้ายทะลวงไส้) "The Left Hand That Drills Intestines"
Education	Petchabun Technological College
Statistics
Weight(s)	Junior bantamweight
Height	5 ft 5 in (165 cm)
Stance	Southpaw
Boxing record
Total fights	51
Wins	50
Wins by KO	44
Losses	1
Draws	0

Khaosai Galaxy (Template:Lang-th, born, May 15, 1959) is a former professional Thai super flyweight (also known as junior bantamweight) boxer and Muaythai kickboxer. Khaosai defended his WBA world title 19 times in seven years (1984–1991), winning 16 of his title fights by knockouts. As a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame, he is widely considered as one of the greatest boxing champions of all time. He is listed #19 on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time and named him the 43rd greatest fighter of the past 80 years in 2002.

Muay Thai career

Khaosai was born as Sura Saenkham (Template:Lang-th) in Phetchabun Province, Northern Thailand. He was a Muay Thai fighter in the early 1980s, and took the professional name Galaxy from a restaurant and nightclub owned by his manager's friend. Khaosai had tremendous punching power, particularly in his soon-to-be legendary left hand. On the advice of his manager and trainer, he switched to Marquis of Queensbury style and began training as a western style boxer.

In Muay Thai his ring names are Daoden Muangsithep (Template:Lang-th) and Khaosai Wangchomphu. (Template:Lang-th)

Boxing style

Lacking the amateur boxing experience common to most Western professional boxers, Khaosai's skills originally were limited, and he relied on toughness and his fearsome punching power to win. His southpaw style was based on closing his opponent and firing his left hand whenever he saw an opening. His right hand was used mainly to judge the distance for his left. All of his knockouts came by his left, which is arguably the hardest single punch in the history of the lower weight classes.

As he gained experience, Khaosai began to develop into a more refined boxer, learning combination punching to complement his deadly left. His favorite punch, a straight left to the midsection, translates roughly as "the left hand that drills intestines." Incredibly strong, he was never out-muscled, while opponents who tried the traditional stick-and-move techniques found he had quick feet and was able to block their movements.

Boxing career

Khaosai began his international style boxing career in December 1980. He won all of his first six fights, which earned him a shot at the Thailand bantamweight (118-pound) title on July 29, 1981 against Sakda Saksuree. He lost on a points decision. It was to be the last fight he would ever lose in the ring.

Khaosai won his next three fights and claimed the Thai bantamweight title in 1982. He won 15 consecutive fights by knockout and climbed in the world rankings to become super flyweight (115-pound) WBA world champion Jiro Watanabe's mandatory challenger by the summer of 1984.

When Watanabe failed to defend his title against Khaosai, the WBA stripped him and matched Khaosai against undefeated Eusebio Espinal for the vacant championship on November 21, 1984. Khaosai knocked out Espinal in the sixth round, beginning the longest title reign in his division's history.

Khaosai defended his WBA title 19 times over the next seven years, winning 16 of his title fights by knockouts. In the mid-1980s, when world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was in his prime and scoring knockouts over everyone, boxing fans nicknamed Khaosai The Thai Tyson for knockout wins.

Khaosai fought only once outside of Asia, when he defended his title in 1986 against unbeaten (and future WBA bantamweight titleholder) Israel Contreras in Curaçao. He had two title fights in Kōbe, Japan, one in South Korea and one at Bung Karno Stadium, Indonesia. The rest were in Thailand, where he often fought for purses in excess of $100,000 in front of huge crowds. That, plus the fact that few top fighters anywhere were willing to challenge Khaosai, made him relatively unknown in the West.

In 1988, his twin elder brother, fighting under the name Kaokor Galaxy, captured the WBA bantamweight title, making the Saenkham brothers the first twins to ever be world boxing champions.

Retirement

He fought for the last time on December 21, 1991 in Bangkok, beating Armando Castro over 12 rounds. A few weeks later, he announced his retirement with a record of 47 wins against only one defeat, and never attempted a comeback.

Life after boxing

Not long after his retirement to the boxing profession, Khaosai approached and took part in Thai entertainment industry, firstly, releasing his single of a song "Khob Khun Krub", meaning "thank you", then taking part in TV series and movies, particularly of a comedy type, for example Poot Mae Nam Khong (1992 version; this was his first role), Monrak luk thung (1995 version), The Legend of Suriyothai (2001), and The Bodyguard (2004) etc. In 2005, while he was taking part in a film making, he was punched in face by a drunk who was his boxing fan but wishing to obtain Khaosai's shirt for collection but was denied. The incident went on the first page of the next day paper with a photo of Khaosai standing next to the drunk man both smiling while Khaosai having a bandage in his face.

In 2006, he starred in a music video for a song by fellow boxers Somluck Kamsing and Samart Payakaroon. Khaosai portrayed a shy man being approached by a young woman.

After retirement, he married Japanese Yumiko Ota, whom he knew and relationships from the second fight with Kenji Matsumura in Kōbe, Japan in 1989. The couple live for only one year and it broke.

He later married a Buriram woman Sureerat "Fah" Saenkham (née Niwesram). They have no children together. He took his wife's nephew is a stepchild.

In March 2013, he appeared in notorious news when he unexpectedly entered the wedding ceremony with his new wife Wannapa "Nung" Kamboonsri by not legally divorce in Nakhon Si Thammarat her native. In 2013, her was pregnant and delivered daughter at the end of the same year. He got his first child at age 54. In 2016 his wife delivered second daughter at the end of the year Currently, he owns two Muay Thai gyms in Bangkok and Phuket. And he was a trainer for Denkaosan Kaovichit in the fight against Takefumi Sakata in the end of 2008 in Yokohama, Japan (Denkaosan knockout in the second round won the WBA flyweight champion).

Besides boxing and entertainment, in the Thai general election, 2011, he is a candidate on behalf of the Chartthaipattana Party in Phetchabun 2nd district his native, he was 8,485 votes, so he was not elected. And before that, in Thai general election, 2007, he was a candidate in the party-list of the Puea Pandin Party, but was not elected.

Honors

He was elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1999 and remains a well known Boxer throughout Thailand.

He is the first Thai boxer to mark the beginning of the ceremony, offering gold necklaces and other prizes to Thai boxers before the every bout. It started with his retained the ninth title against the Korean contender Tae-Il Chang at Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo, Samut Prakan in early 1989.

And every time he fights, there is a saying that traffic in Bangkok was good, because everyone rushes home to see him on TV.

External links

• Khosai Galaxy Muay Thai Gym official