The “Knockout” King Returns Against Australian Star Alex Winwood

The WBA has approved a September 7, Perth, Australia strawweight title matchup between the longest reigning current champion in boxing Knockout CP Freshmart (real name Thammanoon Niyomtrong) and 13th ranked, fast rising Australian prospect Alex Winwood. This comes after two years of inactivity by CP Freshmart, who spent the time tied to a title consolidation between himself and regular champion Erick Rosa. The mandated title consolidation never occurred after visa issues on Rosa’s part forced the fight to be cancelled at the last minute in March of 2023 and an inability to come to terms and attract promoters for a rescheduling led Rosa to eventually vacate his title and move up to 108 pounds. Winwood, who went pro in November of 2022, has come to be ranked in all four sanctioning bodies (#13 in the WBA, #3 in the WBC, #4 in the IBF and #7 in the WBO) and prior to eventually getting a shot at CP Freshmart was briefly linked to bouts with Joey Canoy and Luis Castillo. The winner of CP Freshmart/Winwood is expected to face #1 ranked WBA mandatory Hasanboy Dusmatov after his return from the Paris Olympics.
 
 
CP Freshmart will enter the ring with a record of 24-0-0 (0) with 9 wins by KO/TKO. While CP Freshmart’s run has been criticized for lacking ambition, it has some solid names, including champion Byron Rojas, a stinker over Xiong ChaoZhong (who I thought beat Daisuke Naito and also beat Panya Pradabsri), a war with Rey Loreto, a mauling of amateur standout Amit Panghal, a back and forth slug ‘em out with the underrated ArAr Andales and most recently a win over the other top strawweight of his era Wanheng Menayothin (albeit after Menayothin lost his title to Panya Pradabsri). Winwood will enter the ring with a professional record of 4-0-0 (0) with 2 wins by KO/TKO. While Winwood has not faced CP Freshmart’s level of competition, he has squeezed a precocious level of competition into four fights, including dominant wins over regional contenders Cris Ganoza and Tibo Monabesa, and a competitive but clear win over prospect Reyneris Gutierrez. Buffing out Winwood’s pro experience is an extensive amateur career, where Winwood faced top amateurs like Patrick Chinyemba, Omid Ahmadisafa, Thitisan Panmot, Galal Yafai, Vasily Egorov, Carlo Paalam, Selcuk Eker and Azat Usenaliev. The 27 year old Aussie is an orthodox fighter, listed as 5’2”. The 33 year old Thai is also an orthodox fighter, with a height of 5’1” and a reach of 61 inches. Neither is a huge fighter for the 105 pound division, but Winwood is certainly more muscular in frame and should come into this fight with an overall size advantage.
 
Stylistically, Winwood fights with a maturity one wouldn’t expect from somebody with only four professional fights under their belt. At his base, Winwood is a high guard pressure boxer with solid head movement and educated footwork which allows him to stay on his man well throughout the course of the fight. While his back foot game is less polished, he’s still capable of timing shots moving backwards well (as when he knocked Guttierez down with a beautifully timed counter left hook in round 4) and moves well laterally. Perhaps most importantly, Winwood is a genuinely high volume fighter, throwing a broad variety of punches in combination with a snapping jab to the body and head that works to break fighters down.
 
For his part, CP Freshmart has been historically likened to a less physically gifted orthodox Pacquiao: using his jab to score points and establish range while exploding in on his opponent with high volume, multi angle combinations. This perhaps isn’t a perfect comparison (I’d argue CP Freshmart is more comfortable fighting on the inside than Pacquiao was, and is a bit more inclined to do his work on the backfoot), but it’s not a terrible comparison overall. However, in his recent few fights, CP Freshmart has shown some evolution to his game: against Robert Paradero and Siridech Deebok CP Freshmart opted for a much lower volume approach, instead picking his shots and focusing on counters against the bigger opponents. His most recent fight with Menayothin showed a return to a higher volume approach, but his output did decline somewhat noticeably starting in round 7. Whether or not this is the beginning of the end of CP Freshmart’s traditionally high volume style is unclear, but it does appear that his output is declining at least somewhat with age. Additionally, CP Freshmart’s guard has become more active, as he relies less on the high guard he used to use for defense and instead rotates his gloves actively around his head to catch incoming shots. Finally, CP Freshmart’s footwork remains perhaps the least developed part of his game, mostly just basic circling and jumping backwards in straight lines to reset and get out of trouble.
 
The million dollar question, of course, is who wins and how? I’d expect this to be a high volume fight the whole way through, both fighters have shown considerable stamina and output, even if CP Freshmart’s has declined a bit. Whose stamina and work rate is better will likely be one of, if not the most, important factor in this fight, and is a genuinely difficult question to answer. However, given CP Freshmart seems to be on the backend of his career with two years of inactivity and a declining output in his last few fights, I’d hazard a guess that Winwood will have the activity advantage or it will at least be very close. Additionally, while neither man is much of a power puncher, Winwood appears to be the bigger puncher and will certainly be the bigger and more physical man, an element which CP Freshmart has had issues with in his fights with Loreto, Paradero and Andales, among others. Had this fight been announced a few years ago I would have picked CP Freshmart, who will have an enormous experience advantage and is a capable counter puncher, but I expect that Winwood should win a gritty 12 round decision, walking CP Freshmart down behind his jab and grinding him out between exchanges over the course of the fight. Still, it’s a 50-50 fight, and there are questions Winwood still has to answer (Winwood has never gone 12 and there were moments where the light hitting Gutierrez was able to stun Winwood, which could prove dangerous against CP Freshmart, who is very good at swarming a hurt opponent). Perhaps more concerning is that, while not confirmed, the fight will likely be held in Thailand, where refereeing and judging remains questionable for foreign fighters (no defending Thai champion has ever lost their belt by decision to a foreigner in Thailand), so I certainly can’t recommend betting on this fight if only for that. Regardless, it will be an exciting, high paced fight between an established champion (arguably the #1 in the division) and a young hungry lion, and I expect that, with fair judging and refereeing, Winwood should eek out a competitive, back and forth 12 round decision for the upset and catapult himself to the top of an extremely exciting division.