Payao Poontarat

Payao Poontarat won a bronze medal in the light-flyweight class at Montréal, which was the first medal ever won by a Thai athlete at the Olympics. He attempted to break into professional boxing, but with little success until a Thai sport developer, Sahasombhop Srisomvongse, began to manage his career. Poontarat turned professional in 1981.

He fought for the OBPF super-flyweight title in 1982, but lost to Korea’s Kwon Soon-Chun. But in 1984 he defeated Guty Espadas (MEX) to win the WBC super-flyweight title. He lost the title in 1985 against Japan’s Jiro Watanabe and, after losing two more bouts, retired in 1985.

After his professional career he joined the Democratic Party and became elected as a member of parliament for his home-province Prachuap Khiri Khan in 2001. About one year later, he began to suffer from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and in 2006 he died of the disease at the Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok.

Professional Record – W – 10 (KO 7); L – 4 (KO by 1); D – 0.