Kal Yafai wants Sor Rungvisai fight

By Scott Gilfoid: Kal Yafai says he’s interested in facing Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in a unification fight in the near future. Yafai (24-0, 15 KOs) needs an opponent for his next fight in the U.S in October. Yafai, 29, would like to fight Rungvisai (45-4-1, 40 KOs), former four division world champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez or Jerwin Ancajas.

Yafai is in a hurry to fight the best in the super flyweight division after his 7th round injury stoppage win over former world title challenger David Carmona last May on the undercard of Ancajas vs. Jonas Sultan in a fight card that was promoted by Matchroom Boxing and Top Rank in Fresno, California.

Yafai thinks he can cause Rungvisai all kinds of problems. He doesn’t say how he would give him problems. Lately, the only guy that has given Rungvisai problems is Juan Francisco Estrada, but he still lost to him by a 12 round majority decision last February in Inglewood, California. The scoring for that fight was all over the place. The only judge that seemed to have his eyes open was the one that scored it 117-111 for Rungvisai. Estrada spent too much time running and not enough time fighting Rungvisai. If Yafai’s idea is to run from Rungvisai for 12 rounds, I can agree that he will give him problems in the sense that he’ll frustrate him, but he’s not going to beat the Thailand fighter.

“The fight I would ideally like is against Sor Rungvisai, the No 1 at the minute,” Yafai said to skysports.com. “I do think I’m all wrong for him and can cause him some real trouble. There were previous talks of the Gonzalez fight and I’d love to face him, he’s a legend who has put the little weights in the limelight.”

I think Rungvisai destroys Yafai, especially if he tries to slug with him like he did in his last fight against the light hitting David Carmona. Yafai was able to overpower Carmona because he didn’t have to worry about anything coming back from him in terms of punching power, but it would be an entirely different scenario if Yafai were to fight Rungvisai. Yafai would be blown out in two or three rounds if he slugs with Rungvisai. Yafai doesn’t possess the power to compete with Rungvisai.

Yafai’s promoter Eddie Hearn needs to try and setup a fight between him and 30-year-old Chocolatito, because the Nicaraguan fighter is looking shot, and he doesn’t belong at super flyweight. Yafai would have a big size advantage of Chocolatito, and he might be able to beat him. It wouldn’t be easy for Yafai, as Chocolatito is a more talented fighter than him, but he’s old now, fighting out of his natural weight class, and he’s taken some bad beatings in his fights against Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras.

It appears that Hearn is going to use Yafai as part of his DAZN fights in the U.S. If that’s going to be the case, then Hearn needs to match him against Roman Gonzalez, Rungvisai, Ancajas or Carlos Cuadras, because the boxing fans in the States aren’t going to get excited about seeing him fight obscure guys. Ancajas is promoted by Bob Arum of Top Rank, and he’s very unlikely going to want to take a chance of him getting beaten by facing Yafai. Hearn can certainly try and setup a fight between Ancajas and Yafai, but I don’t see it happening. Arum is likely going to continue to match Ancajas against weak opposition to try and make him look good so that he can build a large fan base in the States. Ancajas has power, but he’s very flawed. Yafai might be able to out-box him.