Miki wins by unanimous decision in RWS Bangkok fight night

KUCHING: National muaythai athlete Mikail ‘Miki’ Ghazali needed one round to work out Zaid Zirem.

By the second, he had the Algerian moving backwards. By the third, he had him on the canvas.

The Sarawak-based fighter recovered from a slow opening to beat Zaid by unanimous decision in their RWS muaythai bout at Rajadamnern Stadium, Thailand on Saturday night, taking the judges’ cards 30-27, 29-28 and 29-28 to improve his RWS record to 3-1.

Zaid, making his debut, had the better of the opening round.

Miki stayed conservative and looked for his trademark left hook, while Zaid scored with low kicks and a right hand to take the round on two of the three cards – 10-9, 9-10, 9-10 in the Algerian’s favour.

The fight began to change pace in the second.

Miki started finding the gaps in Zaid’s defence and caught him clean with a jab combination before following with a kick that forced him backwards.

That gave Miki room to press.

He pushed Zaid towards the corner and unleashing a flurry of punches and jabs, making the Algerian defend for longer spells instead of setting his own attacks.

All three judges scored the second 10-9 for Miki.

Zaid tried to raise the pace again in the third, but Miki was ready for him.

A clean hook caught Zaid coming forward and sent him to the canvas, with Miki continuing to press after the count rather than allowing him to settle.

He landed a tomahawk shortly before the bell to close out a round in which Zaid never managed to regain the initiative he had in the first.

By the time the cards were read, the direction of the fight was clear – and Miki had another RWS win to his name.