Kaokor Galaxy

Who is Kaokor Galaxy?

Virote Saenkham is the twin brother of boxing star Khaosai Galaxy and twice world champion in his own right.

Like his brother, Sura Saenkham started his career in the sport of kickboxing and later switched to orthodox boxing. After becoming a sports star in his native country, he followed a long-standing Thai custom of adopting an attention-getting pseudonym and thus became known as Kaokor Galaxy.

Galaxy made his professional boxing début in 1985, winning his first seven fights before capturing the Thai Bantamweight title in July 1986. He held that crown until 9 May 1988, when he upset Puerto Rico's Wilfredo Vazquez to take the WBA Bantamweight title. With the victory, the Galaxy brothers became the first twins to ever be world champions.

Kaokor lost the title three months later in his first defence against Korean Sung-Kil Moon, when an accidental clash of heads caused a sixth-round stoppage with Galaxy behind on points. He bounced back with five straight wins to earn a rematch with Moon on 9 July 1989. This time, Kaokor Galaxy won easily, taking all 12 rounds on two scorecards and eleven of the twelve on the third. Once again though, Galaxy lost the title in his first defence three months later, this time against Luisito Espinosa. Surprisingly, he retired at that point with a record of 24 wins and just two losses. The defeat to Espinosa was unexpected, but Galaxy was caught with a left hook, and about 20 seconds later just collapsed out of thin air. Retirement followed defeat, no doubt the possibility of severe injury was the uppermost thought in Galaxy's mind.