Wisaksil Wangek better known as Srisaket Sor Rungvisai is a Thai professional boxer. Wangek came from a very poor family in Sisaket Province in Thailand, and he had to move into Bangkok to escape from poverty when he was only 13 years old, choosing boxing not for fun but for hope.
When he arrived in Bangkok, he had to walk more than 60 miles by foot to apply for a job as a trash collector at a department store in order to feed him. Life was so difficult for him that he sometimes had to eat leftovers he collected from the garbage just to survive.
“… people mocked me, doubting how I could make a living,” he said. “I came to prove that I could live by myself and provide for my family as well.”
In 2011, he won the WBC Asian Boxing Council super flyweight title and went on to defend it 4 times between June 2011 and December 2012. He is a two-time WBC super flyweight champion, having held the title since 2017. Since February 2018, he has held the lineal super flyweight titles.
The thought of fighting came when income became tight, Wangek then decided to follow in his father’s footsteps by trying his hand at Muay Thai.
“As a young guy who didn’t have the right qualifications to earn decent office jobs, fighting professionally was the only way I could get some money. It was also something I liked, and it was a fun challenge. I saw it as a way to help better my life and future,” he said.
Unfortunately, things did not turn out as well as he had hoped in his Muay Thai career, Wangek discovered professional boxing, the sport that could offer a way out of poverty. “I got recommended by a guy to try boxing. I didn’t like boxing that much back then because I thought it wasn’t fun,” he recalled. I needed the money very badly, so I accepted the fight even though I didn’t have much time to prepare and didn’t really know how to box. I just knew that boxing has similarities to Muay Thai.”
Transiting to boxing was not easy. He was knocked out during his first two bouts in 2009. Thoughts of his family back home stopped him from quitting. “There were only two paths to choose for me at that time,” he shared. “One was to become a boxer and the other one was to keep on working as a trash collector, and I chose the path to become a boxer because there’s more hope at least. There’s some hope in this career.”
Now enjoying boxing, the fame, and the money, Sor Rungvisai has a professional boxing record of 52 fights, 47 wins, 4 losses, he has not lost a fight since September 2014.
