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Sirimongkol Singwancha

Sirimongkol Singwancha

Yup, not only another post about Thai boxing, but one with a title that will guarantee tons of hits via Google searches. Some bar owner in Thailand should take note. Please?

And of note, especially to gay guys who like hunky Thai men, was champion boxer Sirimongkol Singwancha’s appearance – sans belt, trunks, or anything else – in the gay magazine Heat which earned him a legion of new fans and a conviction for taking part in publicizing obscenity. In 2005, the Thai district court fined the champ 4,000 baht and awarded him a six-month suspended sentence and two year probation for showing off all of his talents in the magazine.

 Sirimongkol who won WBC world titles in two weight divisions, bantamweight and super featherweight, was paid about 200,000 baht for appearing in the publication. Two years before doing the Heat layout, he was the cover model for Lips, a Thai upscale fashion and life-style magazine with a large gay male readership Not expecting that his full frontal nudity shots would be included in Heat, Sirimongkol claimed that the staff simply asked him to pose “for fun and for them to view in privacy.”  Wink. Wink.

Sirimongkol Singwancha

With a record of 63 wins, just two losses and 37 knockouts his boxing career stalled in 2005 after a seventh round knockout victory over Michael Clark in a WBC eliminator in Las Vegas. Shortly after, he falsely tested positive for Hepatitis B and lost an all-but-certain interim lightweight crown before doctors could prove he did not have the virus. By that time, the damage was done and Sirimongkol’s career never got back on track. Later the same year he was arrested for the full-frontal nudity photographs discovered by authorities during a porno raid in Northern Thailand.

Fined, but not jailed, in 2007 he agreed to an ill-advised drop down to super-featherweight to fight Thong Por Chokchai. Sirimongkol won, barely, and moved up to light-welter to destroy Australian Chad Bennett in 135 seconds in 2008 followed by a win against Rogelio Castaneda Jr. in Las Vegas.

His professional career and private life took another dive in August the following year when Sirimongkol was arrested with 28g of methamphetamines in Pattaya while allegedly delivering the drugs to a customer for 10,000 baht. The former world champion told police he was delivering the drugs for a man named “Lek” because – despite being scheduled to fight in a match in Mexico later that week – he no longer could earn enough money from boxing. Sirimongkol admitted he was guilty and that he has acted as a drug courier several times.

The most recent news I could find was from October of last year; the 32 year old boxer was still in jail while his family attempted to get more than three million baht together to free the former champ so that he could possibly fight again.

Sirimongkol Singwancha

Not quite as tragic, ballsy, hunky, or hard, Olympic silver medal boxer Worapoj Petchkoom also got his hand slapped for a gay magazine spread. In 2009, he appeared in Stage, both on the cover and a pictorial inside. But only in a swimsuit and his undies. His bitch slap came from the boxing commission rather than the courts; he was suspended for three months.

The boxer, who hopes to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, says he didn’t know the magazine was a gay publication. Worapoj says he was tricked and agreed to the shoot after the magazine invited him to do the cover to mark its third anniversary, thinking it was just an ordinary fashion job.

“On the first day I started to have my doubts, when they brought out a pair of underwear for me to wear,” he said. “Since the magazine appeared, another two gay titles have offered me work, but I turned them down. I meant to show my six pack – not my private parts.”

Sirimongkol Singwancha

The 28 year old 2004 Olympics silver medal winner (bantam class) says he agreed to the shoot after a dentist friend who knows people at the magazine invited him to do the cover for which he was paid 15,000 baht for two days’ work. The images were not considered obscene but still “they have tarnished the reputation of the national athletes” said Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand (ABAT) president, Gen. Taweep Jantararoj.

Petchkoom defended his actions while apologizing for showing so little, “I thought I would just be wearing a swimming costume. I refused, but they coaxed me into it, saying they wanted to see my six-pack.” Uh, Petchkoom? That’s not what they wanted to see.

Worapoj Petchkoom

Worapoj Petchkoom

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