Since turning pro in 2012, Knockout CP Freshmart has always been a player in boxing’s minimumweight and he continues to do so with another title defense.
CP Freshmart, real name Thammanoon Niyomtrong, retained his WBA minimumweight title by defeating former world champion Chaozhong Xiong with a wide unanimous decision victory (118-110, 118-110, 116-112).
The fight dragged on for long periods and feature little exciting action. CP Freshmart did give a strong round in the third after not doing much in the first couple of rounds. Other than that, there wasn’t much to go on in terms of any hard-hitting action.
Xiong did had to contend with the occasional series of punches thrown to him by the champion, but Xiong was able to dodge his way out of danger multiple times throughout the fight. Xiong was somewhat active with the jab, but it rarely amounted to anything meaningful for the Chinese fighter. Both fighters for the most part simply appeared to have been going through the motions in the bout, never really getting into second gear in terms of picking up the pace. Regardless, CP Freshmart emerged victorious yet again, moving to 18-0 as a pro.
After spending the first two years of his career as the WBC Youth minimumweight champion, CP Freshmart won the WBA interim title in 2014, eventually rising to full champion in 2016 after three interim title defenses. CP Freshmart has successfully defended his title five times, with four of those title defenses going the distance.
Xiong, the first Chinese boxer in history to win a boxing world title, was the WBC minimumweight champion from 2012 to 2014. Xiong previously challenged for the WBC flyweight title back in 2009, but was unsuccessful as he lost to Daisuke Naito. Heading to the fight against CP Freshmart, Xiong won three of his last four fights, reaching all the way to No. 2 in the WBA rankings at boxing’s lowest weight class.
