Kaokor Galaxy


Pirachai Saenkham, known professionally as Kaokor Galaxy, is a Thai former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 1989. He held the WBA bantamweight title twice between 1988 and 1989. Khaokor and his twin brother Khaosai Galaxy became the first twins to win a boxing world title.

Personal life

Khaokor Galaxy was born as "Surote Saenkham" to and raised in Ban Chaliang Lab, Tambon Na Pha, [Mueang Phetchabun Province|Phetchabun District|Mueang Phetchabun], Phetchabun, Thailand. Although he was born after Khaosai, he was still considered by the Thai as the older brother because of their ancient belief regarding twins.
Khaokor graduated at same as Khaosai. Khaokor and Khaosai always liked boxing and fighting since they were children. Their parents bought them their first Muay Thai gloves. Their parents eventually took them to meet their first Muay Thai trainers, Prakan Vornsiri and Mana Lhawpradit.
Khaokor was ring named as Denja Mueangsritep for a Muay Thai competition, which is related to Khaosai's ring name, Dawden Mueangsritep. Both of them competed around Phetchabun and the nearby provinces. Khaokor started joining competitions before Khaosai and would use his twin brother's name. Niwat Lhawsuwanwat would take them to Bangkok for a professional training program and later, joined many competitions in Bangkok.

Professional career

Like his brother, he started his career in Muay Thai and would later switch to boxing. In fact, he had been fighting Muay Thai for many years before Khaosai. After becoming a star in Thailand, he followed a long-standing Thai custom of adopting an attention-getting ringname and thus he became known as Khaokor Galaxy after Khaokor, a renowned natural tourist attraction at his birthplace. His transition to boxing came after he became a sparring partner and mentor to Khaosai. At that time, he had been out of Muay Thai for seven years and had no intention of going back to fighting, whether it was Muay Thai or boxing. However, Niwat Laosuwanwat, Khaosai's manager and promoter, saw his potential and invited him to try boxing, hoping to make them the world's first twin world champions. Khaokor Galaxy made his professional boxing début in 1985, winning his first seven fights before capturing the Thailand bantamweight title in July 1986.
On 9 May 1988, he won against Wilfredo Vazquez to take the WBA bantamweight title. With this victory, the Galaxy brothers became the first twins to be world champions. Khaokor would also be the first Thai bantamweight champion.
After Khaokor and Khaosai won their titles, Tam Pai Doo, a variety TV show on Channel 9, organized an exhibition bout that pitted the twins against each other, the contest was produced at Rajadamnern Stadium, Bangkok. Khaosai beat Khaokor by points in three rounds.
Khaokor lost the title three months later in his first defense against Korean Sung-Kil Moon, when an accidental clash of heads caused a sixth-round stoppage with Khaokor behind on points. He bounced back with five straight wins to earn a rematch with Moon on 9 July 1989. Khaokor won the rematch easily, winning in all 12 rounds on two scorecards and 11 on the third scorecard. Once again though, Khaokor lost the title in his first defence three months later, against Luisito Espinosa. Surprisingly, he retired at that point with a record of 24 wins and 2 losses. The defeat to Espinosa was unexpected, but Khaokor was caught with a left hook, and about 20 seconds later just collapsed out of thin air. At that time, this matter was a huge sensation in society, it was called Rok-wubb. There was a lot of discussion about it, some people thought that he was being attacked by black magic from his ex-girlfriend. After retirement, Khaokor revealed that it was because he had lost a lot of weight at that time, coupled with stress, that caused it to happen.

Boxing style

Although they were twins, his fighting style was completely different from Khaosai. Kaokor fought with a technical and tactical approach, relying on timing and observing his opponent’s movements closely. In contrast, Khaosai used an aggressive approach known as the "fighting style," characterized by relentless attacks. In terms of training and discipline, he admitted that he had been lazy in practice, while Khaosai was more determined and diligent in his training.

Retirement

Two months after Khaokor lost his title, the twins had a fan meeting event in Phetchabun. While driving home, they had a car accident which was driven by Khaosai. Khaokor was sent to the ICU for 21 days while, Khaosai only suffered minor injuries and would later be back to professional boxing.
Khaokor decided to retire after his recovery from the car accident but still helped Khaosai in his trainings. When Khaosai decided to retire, Khaokor went back to look after his business full-time, a snooker club.
In his retirement, he got a film job as a main actor for a low-budget Thai movie titled "My name is..Mahingsa". He was also a boxing trainer for Siriporn Thaweesuk, the first female Thai professional boxing champion. Khaokor had many businesses such as a snooker club, selling car roof accessories, and a restaurant in Bangkok. He also used to work as a recreation attendant for the Phetchabun Government and also worked in a pawnshop.
He would later be broke after poor financial activities such as spending a lot of money with his ex-girlfriends. Although he got broke, he still got many opportunities in getting jobs and eventually settled in. Currently, Khaokor married Tak Jirapwan and have two sons, with four years age difference.

Professional boxing record

No.ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes
26Loss24–2Luisito EspinosaKO1, 2:1318 Oct 1989Rajadamnern Stadium, Bangkok, ThailandLost WBA bantamweight title
25Win24–1Moon Sung-kilUD129 Jul 1989Rajadamnern Stadium, Bangkok, ThailandWon WBA bantamweight title
24Win23–1Speedy KikuchiKO4 24 Apr 1989Bangkok, Thailand
23Win22–1Noel CornelioKO3 19 Feb 1989Bangkok, Thailand
22Win21–1Bae Duk-hwanKO3 15 Jan 1989Crocodile Farm, Samut Prakan, Thailand
21Win20–1Jorge RodriguezKO8 9 Nov 1988Rajadamnern Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand
20Win19–1John MatienzaKO3 12 Sep 1988Bangkok, Thailand
19Loss18–1Moon Sung-kilTD6, 0:3914 Aug 1988New Lamada Renaissance Hotel, Seoul, South KoreaLost WBA bantamweight title
18Win18–0Wilfredo VázquezSD129 May 1988Hua Mark Indoor Stadium, Bangkok, ThailandWon WBA bantamweight title
17Win17–0Cho Doo-bokKO2 14 Dec 1987Rajadamnern Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand
16Win16–0Constancio DanglaKO4 12 Oct 1987Rajadamnern Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand
15Win15–0Russell FinnKO3 6 Sep 1987Bangkok, Thailand
14Win14–0Tony PruittKO2 25 Jun 1987Bangkok, Thailand
13Win13–0Ben CapagnanKO6 17 May 1987Bangkok, Thailand
12Win12–0Cha Young-manKO6 5 Apr 1987Pattaya, Thailand
11Win11–0Keiichi OzakiPTS1014 Jan 1987 Bangkok, Thailand
10Win10–0 Singnoi SingkrungthonKO5 28 Sep 1986 Bangkok, ThailandRetained Thai bantamweight title
9Win9–0Nakarat KiatsonthayaTKO5 3 Aug 1986Rajadamnern Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand
8Win8–0Kwangthongnoi SithamnuayTKO4 9 Jul 1986Bangkok, ThailandWon Thai bantamweight title
7Win7–0Rakchai KiatsontayaKO5 11 Jun 1986Bangkok, Thailand
6Win6–0Nakarat KiatsonthayaPTS626 Mar 1986Bangkok, Thailand
5Win5–0Panchai KiatsontayaKO2 19 Feb 1986Bangkok, Thailand
4Win4–0Man SorchitpatanaKO4 8 Jan 1986Rajadamnern Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand
3Win3–0Rakchai KiatsontayaPTS627 Nov 1985Bangkok, Thailand
2Win2–0Kiatchai KiatsontayaKO3 30 Oct 1985Bangkok, Thailand
1Win1–0Kwannarong SawatwareeKO3 9 Oct 1985Bangkok, Thailand