KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Dustin Kim hit Orose Muengpimile with a left last night. Kim won by unanimous decision.
Kim still perfect
in Hawaii
Waipahu native Dustin Kim made his homecoming a happy one by winning a 10-round unanimous decision over a feisty Orose Muengpimile in the co-main event of last night's boxing card at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.
In the other main event, Teddy Limoz knocked out Wat Vor Wutinun at 2:35 of the second round to raise his record to 10-1 with nine knockouts. Kim, who last fought in Hawaii in 2000, ran his career record to 19-5 and is 5-0 in Honolulu.
"I'm glad I was at home because they urged me on to keep on going," Kim said. "He was a tough fighter.
"I didn't know what to expect, because he was from Thailand and I didn't know anything about him. All I knew is he would be tough."
The judges scored the featherweight fight 96-94, 98-94 and 96-95, all in Kim's favor.
Muengpimile took Kim's best shots but stayed on his feet to go the distance against the hometown favorite. He played to the crowd throughout the fight, often flexing or giving Kim an "is that all you've got?" shrug on his way back to the corner between rounds.
"I like to entertain the crowd," Muengpimile said through an interpreter. "I am an entertainer and a fighter."
Kim began the fight by going after Muengpimile's body, working inside with body shots in the first three rounds. He adjusted his strategy in the fourth, moving outside and snapping stiff left jabs into Muengpimile's face.
The switch proved profitable as Kim repeatedly scored with the jab and stayed away from Muengpimile's wild right hands.
"Early on I was trying to work on the inside, but he was tough, he was a game fighter," Kim said. "He threw a lot of wide punches so they told me to box more, hit him from a distance and that seemed to work a lot better."
Both fighters traded shots throughout the entertaining fight. Kim rocked Muengpimile with shots to the head late in the fight, but Muengpimile never backed down.
Muengpimile drew jeers from the crowd and a warning from referee Abe Pacheco for landing two punches after the bell to end the fifth round and later had a point taken away in the eighth round for hitting on the break. He also tried to bait Kim into a mistake with taunting waves.
"To me that's showing me I'm getting to him, I'm irritating him," Kim said. "So that helps me out because I'm saying, 'OK, he frustrated. He has to taunt me to try to suck me in.' When he did that I just stuck with my jab."
The closest thing to a knockdown came in the 10th when the fighters got tangled up and went to the canvas. When the bell rang Kim raised his hands in victory and hugged Muengpimile.
"I agree with the decision," Muengpimile said. "He is good and he is fast, but I think I can knock him out next time. I'd like a rematch."
In the night's preliminary bouts:
>> Detchrit Vor Surapol of Bangkok floored Kalihi's Jerry Saribay with a stiff right hand to score a TKO in a junior welterweight fight.
After a relatively uneventful first round, Surapol caught Saribay with a right to knock Saribay out 26 seconds into the second round.
"I've been hit like that a few times," Saribay said. "I was just doing whatever I was supposed to do and got caught. Sometimes it happens."
>> Saribay's brother, Jay, improved to 2-0 with a TKO of Luis Parra in the third round of the night's opening bout.
Saribay, who made his professional debut in April, wobbled Parra with a right and followed with a flurry shots to the head before sending his opponent to the canvas at the 2:10 mark of the third round.
"He looked like a strong guy so I wanted to listen to my coaches and pace myself," Saribay said. "But when he started wavering I got a little excited."
>> Sarina Sojot ran her record to 2-0 by spoiling the profession debut of Melanie Bunao with a unanimous decision in a four-round bout.
Sojot, who fights out of the Kalakaua Gym, won every round against her opponent from Kaimuki.
