Lindenmuth returns from Bangkok with a title belt and a hunger for more

Forget the fight — well, except for that WIBA world boxing title belt. It’s the sights and sounds of Bangkok, Thailand, however briefly experienced, that Bosque Farms’ Katherine Lindenmuth will treasure.

On May 31 in Bangkok, Lindenmuth did to Pornpimon Pongpaew what one might do to a bowl of Tom Yum Goong — stopping the overmatched Thai boxer by second-round TKO. Lindenmuth’s onslaught ended the fight in just two minutes, 15 seconds.

It was a business trip, and Lindenmuth was in Bangkok for just a few days.

Even so … A trip of a lifetime? Yes, though maybe not for long. The reigning world champions in Lindenmuth’s 105-pound weight class — those in the four universally recognized sanctioning bodies, of which the WIBA is not one — hail from Germany, Japan, Argentina and Costa Rica.

And, of course, Lindenmuth (7-4, three KOs) has a journey of another kind, starting with her fight on Saturday in San Jacinto, California against Brook Sibrian 7-2, three KOs), if she’s to get a world title shot sanctioned by the WBC, WBA, IBF or WBO.

But she’ll always have Bangkok.

“It was beautiful,” she said during a recent interview at Rosales Karate & Kickboxing, where she trains with Anthony Rosales. “I loved Thailand; I loved the journey there. … The way we live here, and going into another country and seeing the life people live other places, the differences, it’s outstanding.

“People were sweeping the streets. There was no homeless on the streets. Everybody just lives for the day, to take care of their family. … It was a beautiful, refreshing reality, that we are not the center of the earth.”

Not on her menu: Tom Yum Goong, or even the far more familiar Pad Thai. Lindenmuth said she likes Thai food and sometimes indulges at home. But in the interests of making the 105-pound weight limit before the fight and not having anything her system it wasn’t accustomed to before the 20-hour plane ride home, she resisted.

Her only adventure in Bangkok street cuisine was a familiar one.

“I found my waffle,” she said. “That was the big highlight. I wish I’d known how to speak the language and gotten the lady’s name, a vendor right next to our hotel, made waffles fresh in the morning. I had my waffle and that made me happy.”

Just as her diet was Americanized, so were her lodgings at the Town in Town Hotel Bangkok.

“It was just a normal hotel, very air-conditioned because it was very humid outside,” she said. “… It just felt normal.”

Will she ever return? Perhaps.

In Bangkok, Lindenmuth met German promoter Rainer Gottwald, one of whose clients is WBO minimumweight champion Sarah Bormann. Gottwald was there in pursuit of promotional opportunities in Thailand.

Lindenmuth made it clear to Gottwald she’d love to come back.