09.04.04 – By Tony Nobbs – In front of a packed hometown crowd at the Cathedral Centre in Toowoomba, Queensland on Thursday night Michael ‘Rocky’ Katsidis added the WBO Asia Pacific lightweight title to the two Australian crowns he had already captured by forcing Thailand’s Kongthawat Sorkitti to retire after nine torrid rounds. Sydney Olympian Katsidis (10-0, 8 KO) showed a marked improvement from previous fights and never gave the plucky visitor any let up much to the delight of his parochial fans. While 32 year old Sorkitti’s best days are long gone, Katsidis obviously went in with a plan to box his rival and try some new moves he’d picked up since beating Fred Kinuthia to claim the national 140 lb belt in February, rather than slug it out which has become the norm in past outings.
Controlling the action, Katsidis wore down the former WBF featherweight titlist who showed grit under fire. The piercing uppercuts, left hooks and body attack were still there but so was a tighter defence, more angles and a solid jab. While he still caught some shots himself from the experienced Thai, Katsidis, 23 – on this effort at least – is a rising prospect headed for bigger things. There were no knockdowns but Sorkitti did slip on a few occasions, not much surprise considering the amount of water used in his corner.
Undercard action saw local Les Crowe win a 4×2 min round decision over nationally rated North Queensland middleweight Arama Tabuai. Both boxers are former state champions and Oz title challengers. Neither was fit but tried hard and made it enjoying for the crowd. Officially a catch weight bout, Crowe coming in at cruiser, Tabuai, a couple of lb over SM.
Promising West Australian heavyweight Mark De Mori (110.8 kg) dominated skilled Baden Oui (107.5 kg) over four rounds. Oui did a good job negating the big punching De Mori’s power by smothering in close. All cards read 40-36, an accurate assessment of a good paced bout for heavy’s. This was just what the doctor ordered for De Mori, now 2-0, 1 KO, who has been attracting notice in this state due to the fact he is part of the Les Wilson-Joe Bugner stable on the Gold Coast. De Mori, 22, is still a raw novice only contesting nine amateur bouts as a junior but he was too fit and strong for pro debutant Oui, 28, from North Qld, who won an international bout on the Australia v Ireland amateur card in Sydney last month and showed a fair bit of dash.
Demori’s gym mate Brad ‘Glamour boy’ Hemming outpointed former amateur veteran Craig Monegal from Toowoomba in a welterweight four. Hemming is a useful boxer but made hard work of it against an aggressive opponent in taking a split nod.
Local novice Jason Pierce stopped a tired Geoff Kanofski, a state champion back in the 80’s, in round three, super middleweights.