Khaosai Galaxy

Khaosai Galaxy (เขาทราย แกแล็คซี่, born, 15 May 1959) is a Thai former professional boxer who competed between 1980 and 1991.

He was also a Muay Thai practitioner.

He was a Muay Thai fighter in the early 1980s, and took the professional name Galaxy from a restaurant and nightclub owned by his manager's friend.

Khaosai had tremendous punching power, particularly in his soon-to-be legendary left hand.

On the advice of his manager and trainer, he switched to Marquis of Queensbury style and began training as a western style boxer.

In Muay Thai his ring names are Daoden Muangsithep (ดาวเด่น เมืองศรีเทพ) and Khaosai Wangchomphu.

(เขาทราย วังชมภู)

He praised his mother as the first trainer, because she was fond of boxing and Muay Thai.

Due to he and his twin brother Khaokor Galaxy were born during the time that Pone Kingpetch, the first Thai world champion, was becoming famous.

His mother would wake them up at 4.00 a.m. for a run before school, along with supporting everything for the twins to fight.

Lacking the amateur boxing experience common to most Western professional boxers, Khaosai's skills originally were limited, and he relied on toughness and his fearsome punching power to win.

His southpaw style was based on closing his opponent and firing his left hand whenever he saw an opening.

His right hand was used mainly to judge the distance for his left.

All of his knockouts came by his left, which is arguably the hardest single punch in the history of the lower weight classes.

As he gained experience, Khaosai began to develop into a more refined boxer, learning combination punching to complement his deadly left.

His favorite punch, a straight left to the midsection, translates roughly as "the left hand that drills intestines."

Incredibly strong, he was never out-muscled, while opponents who tried the traditional stick-and-move techniques found he had quick feet and was able to block their movements.

Khaosai began his international style boxing career in December 1980.

In the mid-1980s, when world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was in his prime and scoring knockouts over everyone, boxing fans nicknamed Khaosai The Thai Tyson for knockout wins.

He won all of his first six fights, which earned him a shot at the Thailand bantamweight (118-pound) title on 1981 against Sakda Saksuree.

He lost on a points decision.

It was to be the last fight he would ever lose in the ring.

Khaosai won his next three fights and claimed the Thai bantamweight title in 1982.

He held the WBA super-flyweight title between November 1984 and December 1991.

He won 15 consecutive fights by knockout and climbed in the world rankings to become super-flyweight WBA world champion Jiro Watanabe's mandatory challenger by the summer of 1984.

When Watanabe failed to defend his title against Khaosai, the WBA stripped him and matched Khaosai against undefeated Eusebio Espinal for the vacant championship on 1984.

Khaosai knocked out Espinal in the sixth round, beginning the longest title reign in his division's history.

Khaosai defended his WBA title 19 times over the next seven years, winning 16 of his title fights by knockouts.

Khaosai fought only once outside of Asia, when he defended his title in 1986 against unbeaten (and future WBA bantamweight titleholder) Israel Contreras in Curaçao.

He had two title fights in Kōbe, Japan, one in South Korea and one at Bung Karno Stadium, Indonesia.

The rest were in Thailand, where he often fought for purses in excess of $100,000 in front of huge crowds.

That, plus the fact that few top fighters anywhere were willing to challenge Khaosai, made him relatively unknown in the West.

In 1988, his twin younger brother, fighting under the name Kaokhor Galaxy, captured the WBA bantamweight title, making the Galaxy brothers (Saenkham brothers) the first twins to ever be world boxing champions.

He fought for the last time on December 22, 1991 in Bangkok, beating Armando Castro over 12 rounds.

A few weeks later, he announced his retirement with a record of 47 wins against only one defeat, and never attempted a comeback.

Not long after his retirement to the boxing profession, Khaosai chose to take part in the Thai entertainment industry.

He first took a shot at the music industry, releasing a single, "Khob Khun Krub", meaning "Thank You", then began taking part in TV series and movies, particularly comedies.

He is listed #19 on Ring Magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time and named him the 43rd greatest fighter of the past 80 years in 2002.

As of 2022, BoxRec rates him as the best Thai boxer of all time, pound for pound.

Khaosai was born as Sura Saenkham (สุระ แสนคำ) in Phetchabun Province, Northern Thailand.