World Boxing Council minimumweight champion Panya Pradabsri of Thailand said on Oct. 2 in Tokyo his experience will make a difference in his title unification fight with WBC interim world minimumweight champion Yudai Shigeoka of Watanabe Boxing Gym on Oct. 7. At Ota City General Gymnasium.

  After a light training at the gym, the 32-year-old Panya said, ‘’I think the difference in experience between us will show in the fight. I paid a particular attention to my roadwork as I attempted to boost my stamina. True my opponent has speed, but I can cope with that.’’

  Panya, who suddenly cancelled his visit to Japan to defend his title against Shigeoka in this past April citing he caught the flu shortly before. Shigeoka then faced Wilfredo Mendez of Puerto Rico and won the WBC interim minimumweight title. Panya stopped Norihito Tanaka of Misako Boxing gym in Thailand in June to successfully defend his title for the fourth time.

  Shigeoka’s trainer Chikara Machida said after observing Panya’s training, ‘’I think he appears to have a difficulty in reducing his weight. He has a variety of right-hand punches. He will probably aim at connecting with his punches right after Shigeoka has thrown his punches. We will have to be careful about that.’’

 Panya, who had about 200 fights as a Muay Thai fighter before becoming a professional boxer, has a 40-1 win-loss tally with 24 KOs. The 26-year-old Shigeoka is undefeated in his seven bouts, including five KOs.