Bantamweight boxer Chatchai Butdee becomes the sole survivor out of three Thai contenders to win the match yesterday and pass to the quarterfinal at the AIBA World Championships in Milan, Italy.

In the bantamweight round of 16 on September 7, Chatchai was able to give Syria’s Wessam Salamana a good beating, before winning the bout by 15-4. The Thai boxer is scheduled to fight Russia’s Eduard Abzalimov on September 9 in the quarterfinal.

At the light flyweight match on the same day, however, Thailand’s young rising star Kaeo Pongprayoon was defeated by Jose Kelvin de la Nieve Linares despite his relentless attempts to score hits. He lost by 9-3 and was out from the competition.

Thailand’s newcomer pugilists Kaeo Pongprayoon and Chatchai Butdee have defeated their respective opponents at the AIBA World Championships in Milan, Italy, on Saturday, cruising to the round of 16 along with two other Thai veterans.

In the light flyweight event, Kaeo faced India’s Nanao Singh Thokchom whom he has defeated in the Asian championships in China earlier this year. Kaeo started the game aggressively and used his quick combo to score 4-1 at the end of the first round and 14-3 at the second round. In the third round, Thokchom tried to press forward but only ended up getting countered by Kaeo.

The game ended with Kaeo winning by 16-4, earning himself a spot in the round of 16 against Spain’s Jose Kelvin de la Nieve Linares on September 7.

Thailand’s four out of six boxing athletes have defeated their first round opponents to cruise to the second round at the AIBA World Championships in Milan, Italy, while the Thai amateur boxing chief says the Thai boxing squad will not return home “empty-handed”.

At the recent event, Thai Olympian Sailom Adi was able to use his superior experience to score points against US boxer Duran Caferro, winning the lightweight preliminary match quite comfortably by 12-9.

Three other Thai athletes, light flyweight Kaeo Pongprayoon, flyweight Amnat Ruenroeng, and bantamweight Chatchai Butdee have also defeated their respective opponents and passed to the next round.

Thailand’s five out of six boxing athletes are still competing at the AIBA World Championships in Milan, Italy, with light flyweight Kaeo Pongprayoon viewed as the top dog of his weight class.

In addition to Kaeo, the other Thais competing at AIBA World Championships 2009 are flyweight Amnat Ruenroeng, bantamweight Chatchai Butdee, featherweight Wuttichai Masuk, lightweight Sailom Adi, and lightwelterweight Apichet Seansit.

So far, Chatchai has defeated Ghana’s Emmanuel Quartey by 19-2, while Apichet has lost to Hungary’s Gyula Kate by 13-4 in the first preliminary round.