LIST OF MOST POPULAR BOXERS IN INDONESIA
Boxing is one of the extreme sports which involves two boxers fighting in a professional way in the boxing ring. They compete based on the same weight within rounds. One round is three minutes.
Boxing as a sport has been having its own Championships and Olympics and also had many world champions throughout history. The winner in boxing is chosen based on his or her ability in knocking down the opponent. Punches are considerably hit on the head, face, and chest which gets more points. If the opponent falls down and can’t get up in a short sort of time, the boxer deserves to be labeled as winner.
Moreover, Indonesia has big names in boxing history, such as; Ellyas Pical, Nico Thomas, M Rahman, Chris John, Daud Yordan, and Ongen Saknosiwi. Here are the following profile of professional boxer from Indonesia.
- Ellyas Pical
Who doesn’t know Ellyas Pical?
Ellyas Pical is a legend in the history of Indonesian boxing who succeeded in becoming a world champion for the very first time. He’s originally from Maluku as World Champion in the IBF Bantam Junior Class (Super Flyweight) class on May 3rd, 1985. He won this world championship after defeating his opponent, Ju Do-Chon in Jakarta. His achievement as a world champion is like a roller coaster. After he won as The World Champions in 1985, Elly had lost to maintain his achievement when he lost the title unification duel against Khaosai Galaxy in Thailand. It didn’t take long for him to bounce back and become a World Champions after defeating Tae Il-Chung. However, his career faded when he was defeated by Juan Polo Perez in 1993.
- Nico Thomas
Physically, Nico Thomas has a petite posture as a boxer. But, wait a minute, don’t judge a book by its cover. Because of his success in defeating Ammuth Sithnaruepol from Thailand on June 17th, 1989 in Jakarta. At that moment, Nico Thomas managed to become the IBF Mini Flyweight World Champion in 1980. However, Nico lost by knockout status to the Filipino boxer Eric Chavez on September 21st 1989.
- M Rahman
We are still talking about Indonesian Professional Boxers and M Rahman was listed as a World Professional Boxer in the IBF Mini Flying Class in 2004-2007 and 2011. Unmitigated, he managed to beat Colombian boxer, Daniel Reyes with TKO status. Furthermore, in 2011, a boxer from Thailand, Kwantai Sithmorseng, had a knockout in the 9th round. No wonder, M Rahman regained his Wolrd Champion status after losing his title in 2007.
- Chris John
You may be familiar with the nickname “The Dragon”. The Dragon is given to Chriss John. Reason is because he has the longest World Champion tittle in the history of Indonesian boxing. Just imagine, Chris John managed to master the WBA Featherweight boxing for 10 years from 2003-2013. This achievement began by defeating Oscar Lleon at the WBA Featherweight.
A year later, in 2004, Chris John brought down Osamu Sato. In addition to defending his WBA Featherweight title for a decade, Chris John became the WBA Super Featherweight Champion six times by defeating Rocky Juarez and other opponents. Finally in 2013, Simpiwe Vetyaka made Chris John’s dominance fade on December 6th 2013.
FYI, before starting his career as a professional boxer, Chris John was a Wushu athlete.
- Daud Yordan
The boxer from Kalimantan, Indonesia, Daud Yordan is also stealing public’s attention through his achievements. Daud Cino Yordan is a professional boxer who has 3 World Titles at once. These titles include; WBO Featherweight World Champion, WBO Flyweight Champion, and WBO and IBA Super Lightweight Champion. Each after immobilizing his opponents, namely; Lorenzo Villanueva, Daniel Eduardo Brizuela, and Michael Mokoena on 2019.
- Ongen Saknosiwi
Ongen Saknosiwi is enjoyed his time as rising star on the Indonesia boxing momentum. Ongen comes from Maluku, Indonesia, with the achievement of IBA Featherweight Boxing World Champion. He made his professional boxing debut shen he defeated Imanuel Hutagalung in the domestic competition. Then, beat Nanthawat Maolichat to become WBC Asian Boxing Council Continental Featherweight Champion.
Another interesting fac about Ongen Saknosiwi is he was also an Indonesian Air Force soldier when he became World Champion and defeated Marco Domecillo on November 17th 2019.