By James Goyder

Pungluang Sor Singyu registered the 50th win of his professional career with a third round KO of experienced Indonesian Nouldy Manakane in Chiang Mai on Wednesday afternoon (local time). 

In 2012, Pungluang beat AJ Banal to win the WBO 118 lbs world title but he dropped a decision to Paulus Ambunda in his first defence and was stopped by Tomoki Kameda when competing for the same strap in Las Vegas last year.

At the age of 27 he will feel he has at least one more world title shot in him and Pungluang was looking to take a step in that direction with a win over an experienced Indonesian, albeit one who has had very little success fighting on the road.

Pungluang normally applies relentless forwards pressure but he made a slow start and was content to paw away with the jab in the opening two rounds as Manakane loaded up on big overhand rights, which were thrown with serious intent but seldom found their target.

In round three Manakane paid the price for his recklessness when Pungluang landed a hard right hook which stunned him. The Indonesian found himself trapped in the corner and tried to roll with the punches but succeeded only in ducking straight into a right uppercut.

The punch didn’t travel far but it had the desired effect with an unsteady Manakane unable to beat the count. The win sees Pungluang move up to 50-3 while his opponent drops to 29-17-1 and continues his wretched record in fights outside of Indonesia.

With the win, Pungluang successfully defended his WBO Asia Pacific bantamweight title and remains undefeated on Thai soil.

Earlier in the afternoon two time word title challenger Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo was competing in a 130 lbs six rounder against Yakobus Heluka. 

The "Pacquiao clone" - as he became known in the buildup to his title fight loss to Vasyl Lomachenko on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao's 12-round rout of Chris Algieri last year - won courtesy of a fourth round body shot which landed right on the belt line. Heluka bitterly complainted that it was low, but his protest fell on deaf ears.

Chonlatarn was cruising to a decision win at the time so it is doubtful whether the referee’s decision to rule the borderline shot legal had much impact on the outcome of the fight. The win takes the Thai to 54-2 while Heluka drops to 8-11.