Srisaket Sor Rungvisai

Wisaksil Wangek (วิศักดิ์ศิลป์ วังเอก; born 8 December 1986), better known by his ring name Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (ศรีสะเกษ ศ.รุ่งวิสัย), is a Thai professional boxer.

He signed with Nakornloung Promotion, Thailand as a professional boxer in 2009.

Two years later, Sor Rungvisai won the WBC-ABC super-flyweight title and went on to defend it 4 times between June 2011 and December 2012.

He has held multiple super-flyweight world championships, including the WBC title twice between 2013 and 2019, and The Ring magazine and lineal titles from 2018 to 2019.

In an intense fight, Sor Rungvisai became the new WBC super-flyweight champion by knocking out Yota Sato in May 2013 in his native Sisaket.

From the beginning of the fight, Sor Rungvisai harassed Sato, who tried to use his jab to keep Sor Rungvisai at bay, but the latter never relented on his pressure.

The end came in round eight.

Sor Rungvisai unleashed a flurry of punches on the defending champion until Italian referee Guido Cavalleri halted the fight after 1:23, giving Sor Rungvisai a technical knockout (TKO) victory.

"What a fight! It was a war between two honorable fighters. Sato did not want to lose. Each round was toe-to-toe action until Sor Rungvisai overpowered Sato in the eighth" commented promoter Pisitwuttinan Thainchai.

Sor Rungvisai's first defense came against Hirofumi Mukai in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand.

Mukai was overpowered from the early stages and his corner threw in the towel in the ninth round of the bout.

Mukai was previously knocked down once in round two.

"It was a total defeat", said the 27-year-old Mukai, who dropped to a record of 9–3–1.

"I can’t remember how I fought at all."

Sor Rungvisai's first reign came to an end against Carlos Cuadras in May 2014.

Referee Jay Nady stopped the fight after Cuadras was cut over his left eye due to an accidental clash of heads in round eight.

According to WBC rules, Sor Rungvisai was deducted a point on all three scorecards.

Cuadras won a unanimous technical decision (TD) (78–73, 77–74, 77–75) to dethrone Sor Rungvisai.

Following his defeat against Cuadras, Sor Rungvisai reclaimed the WBC-ABC title and made one successful defense of it before earning a shot at the WBC Silver title.

Sor Rungvisai scored a fourth-round knockout (KO) of prospect José Salgado Fernández in May 2015.

A series of left hands left Salgado defenseless, with a final right hook from Sor Rungvisai producing the knockdown and prompting the referee to immediately halt the contest.

The fight between Sor Rungvisai and Salgado aired live on Channel 7 in Thailand, and also streamed live on the network's website.

With the victory, Sor Rungvisai claimed the WBC Silver title and became the mandatory challenger to the WBC super-flyweight champion, Carlos Cuadras.

Sor Rungvisai's handlers sought to host the rematch against Cuadras in Thailand.

Negotiations between Cuadras and Sor Rungvisai stalled, with Cuadras going on to lose his title against Román González in September 2016.

Sor Rungvisai kept busy fighting in Thailand, scoring eight knockouts in 18 months following his win over Salgado.

The WBC ordered González to make his first defense against Sor Rungvisai.

The fight was scheduled for the undercard of Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs in March 2017.

On fight night, Sor Rungvisai put González down with a body shot in the first round.

González came back and won several rounds, despite two cuts over his eyes.

Sor Runvisai lost a point due to repeated head butting.

According to CompuBox, González outlanded Sor Rungvisai 441 (of 1,014) to 284 (of 940) overall.

In January 2019, he signed a multi-fight deal with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing.

They plan to have his fights scheduled in the US and appear on the streaming service DAZN.

His previous promoter was Thainchai Pisitwuttinan of Nakornloung Promotion.

As of November 2020, he is ranked as the world's best active super-flyweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, third by BoxRec and first by The Ring magazine.

Sor Rungvisai came from a very poor family in Sisaket Province in Thailand.

He moved to Bangkok to escape from poverty when he was 13 years old.

When he arrived in Bangkok, he had to walk more than 60 miles to apply for a job as a refuse collector at a department store.

Life was so difficult for him that he sometimes ate leftovers he collected from the refuse.