Thailand’s Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym who is scheduled to challenge WBA bantamweight champion Bernard Dunne in Dublin on September 26 is nine pounds over the limit of his weight category, while the Irish title holder is reportedly in a mourning period for the death of fellow Irish boxer Darren Sutherland.

Poonsawat was six pounds over when he first arrived to Dublin, but after a large dinner that included a whole salmon and a piece of steak, the Thai challenger shocked his manager for reaching 131 pounds, over the limit by nine pounds.

His trainer, however, pointed out that Poonsawat had not been exercising for two days due to the long journey to Ireland, and should be able to lose weight once his normal practice schedule has been resumed.

Thailand’s promoter Kokiet Panichayarom is suggesting WBA minimumweight champion Etsuko Tada should relinquish her title before fighting WBC light flyweight champion Naomi Togashi, which may allow his own boxer Yani Kokietgym to bid for the title again.

Kokiet said it is not likely that the rivaling WBC and WBA would both allow the two Japanese female world champions to fight each other, but he suggested Tada to drop her title in order to fight in the WBC match against Togashi. In such scheme, he hopes that Yani may have a chance to fight Panama’s Ibeth Zamora Silva for Tada’s title.

“I do not believe the Japanese boxers would try to boot the other out of her champion title, but if such case is true, Tada must drop her title first to allow Yani to fight with interim title holder Zamora,” said the promoter.

Thailand’s Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym has arrived in Ireland to challenge WBA bantamweight champion Bernard Dunne in Dublin on September 26, but the Thai boxer who is reportedly “stunned” by the cold weather will still have to lose six pounds before the match.

The interim title holder Poonsawat, together with his manager Niwat Laosuwannawat and the staff team as well as a sport reporter, arrived in Dublin after a 20-hour long travel and was greeted at the airport by a large group of Thai fans, some whom performed a traditional drum parade to welcome the boxer.

Poonsawat appeared to be happy too see the unexpected support from the Thai people in Dublin but was “stunned” by the cold weather at about 14 Celsius. The pugilist said he was lucky to arrive in Ireland one week before the match, so he would have enough time to adjust to the local weather, which he said was windy and “shivering cold” unlike the climate in Germany where he visited earlier.

The WBC International featherweight match of Thai title holder Rachamongkol Sor Pleonchit and Filipino challenger Ray Bautista scheduled in the Philippines in the next month has been cancelled, and may be replaced with a fight for an interim title.

Thailand’s promoter Kokiet Panichayarom cited Rachamongkol’s neck injury as the reason to cancel the title match on October 16 in Cebu City against Bautista, who once held the WBO Intercontinental junior featherweight title.

Kokiet, however, is requesting the WBC to instead allow Kongfah Singwangcha, another of his boxers, to fight in the Philippines for the interim title.