Carbajal Is Valedictorian of U.S. Boxing Class of ’88

Michael Carbajal stopped Thailand’s Muangchai Kittikasem in the seventh round of a battle of unbeaten 108-pounders Sunday afternoon and became the first 1988 U.S. Olympic boxer to win a world professional championship.

And afterward, nearly everyone was predicting this bout would be the start of something big for boxing’s little guys.

Carbajal, a Seoul silver medalist who was fighting before his hometown fans in Veterans Memorial Coliseum, drew 8,221 to see him win the International Boxing Federation light-flyweight championship.

The gate was $250,732, easily an Arizona pro boxing record and believed to be the largest U.S. gate ever for a light-fly or flyweight fight.

Carbajal, who earned $75,000 plus about another $20,000 as his share of proceeds exceeding $150,000, beat a rugged champion who seemed to run out of gas as the fast-paced bout proceeded.

Kittikasem, 10-1, had great difficulty making 108 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in. He arrived in Phoenix July 20 weighing 119 pounds, weighed 114 Friday and was 109 1/2 two hours before the 5 p.m. Friday weigh-in. For two hours before the weigh-in, he jumped rope wearing a rubber sauna suit in 104-degree heat.

“He was very strong early in the fight, but later I could feel him weakening,” said Carbajal, who has no problem making the light-flyweight limit.

Afterward, talk was of a big-money match with Mexico’s Humberto (Chiquita) Gonzalez (28-0), the World Boxing Council light-flyweight champion, or with the South Korean World Boxing Association titlist, Yuh Myung Woo (34-0).

Kittikasem, who earned $150,000 from promoter Bob Arum, will make another $50,000 from Thai television and yet another $50,000 when Arum buys back Carbajal’s first-defense option for which Kittikasem signed.

After Carbajal had his championship belt Sunday, Arum talked boldly of maneuvering Carbajal into a $1 million purse when he meets Gonzalez in mid-1991, providing both keep winning.

By the third round Sunday, Kittikasem was flatfooted and relatively immobile, but he remained a dangerous puncher to the end. Several times he rocked Carbajal with short hooks to the head.

Carbajal, slightly taller and with a longer, slightly more effective jab, knocked Kittikasem down four times, the final time 14 seconds into the seventh round when Tucson referee Bob Ferrara stopped it. Kittikasem was also down twice in the fourth round and once in the sixth.

By far the stronger, busier fighter at the finish, Carbajal, 22, said will and conditioning made him a champion.

“There was no stopping me today. . . . I’ve been waiting for this day since I was six,” he said. “I expected a tough fight and it was. He was tough, he kept getting up. But I was in great shape.”

Kittikasem, who was defending his title for the fifth time, scored several times to Carbajal’s head midway through the sixth round, but never hurt him. Seconds later, Carbajal had moved out of the corner and flattened the champion with a hard right to the chin. Kittikasem went down on his back, got up with a vacant stare, took an eight-count and was taking more punishment when he was saved by the bell.

Between rounds, Danny Carbajal, the new champion’s brother and trainer/manager, told his fighter to jump on Kittikasem quickly in the seventh. Carbajal doubled up the Thai with a body shot, then followed with two lefts and a right to the head. Kittikasem crumpled, and Ferraro quickly waved Carbajal off.

“The body shot was the punch that finished him. I really dug it in and he doubled over,” Carbajal said.

The effects of Kittikasem’s strength-draining struggle to make 108 seemed apparent early in the fourth round. He had Carbajal backed up on the ropes but missed him badly with wild punches, after which he simply backed up, fists down. Shortly after that, Carbajal put him flat on his back with a straight right to the chin.

At the moment when he became a champion, Carbajal leaped to the bottom strand of ropes and waved happily to his 3-year-old nephew, Danny, at ringside.

“I wanted to wave first to my nephew Danny because this was his first trip to one of my fights,” he said. “After every one of my fights, he’s been the first one to greet me at the door. He’d see me coming and he’d yell: ‘Let’s get ready to rumble!’ ”

For the shy Carbajal, that’s a speech. He was asked who was the best of the three unbeaten light-flyweight champions.

“Me,” he said.