Most skilled Thai boxer: Pone Kingpetch, Sot Chitalada, Chatchai Sasakul, or Veeraphol Sahaprom

I'm not saying the best - although he could be - but IMO the most skilled was Sasakul. Man, he was beautiful to watch. Absolute sublime skills.

 

I'd say Sahaprom personally. He didn't cut weight as much as the others and was less reliant on size or power to win fights. Kingpetch had a superb jab and was a durable workhorse but I think his style was pretty simplistic, albeit effective. Sasakul was very elegant and offensively creative but he sometimes neglected his defensive poise and his mentality was often too lackadaisical to make the most of his skillset. Chitalada had one of the best jabs of all time and his feet were excellent but I do wonder how successful he'd be without his huge weight drains and rehydrations, and I also feel that he wasn't as good on the front foot compared to how stellar he was fighting backwards. Sahaprom, imo, has the best blend of offence and defence, with both being very layered. Sahaprom also had an uncanny sense of balance, and his straight right hand had no fat on it whatsoever, straight down the pipe. Gorgeous technician.

 

technician wise I go with Sasakul... only becuase of my lack of knowledge of the older fighters mentioned... Sahaprom had a lot of power

 

Yeah, I agree. He had a masterful straight right, great balance, and pretty slick defense to boot. His offense was somewhat basic, but it was extremely refined for his particular style. He'd land those straight rights and immediately began weaving his way out of his opponent's return fire. He had a deceptive amount of power and reach with those rights, too, which often jolted his opponents with surprise. When you factor in both his three division Rajadamnern Stadium championships in muay thai, and his 14 title defenses as a Bantamweight boxing champion, Sahaprom is also one of the greatest combat athletes to ever live in my opinion.

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That's a tough call, all superb fighters at their best. It's between Sahaprom and Chitalada for me. Sot had the superior jab but Sahaprom was the better allrounder so think I'd have to give him the edge.

 

Honestly really, really hard to pick here. Everyone has already made some great points so I'll start by saying that the odd one out here is Kingpetch. He seemed to struggle against both pressure fighters and southpaws on film, and he was very lucky to be given his two best 'wins' over Harada and Ebihara. To me he was well schooled, especially with his jab, but was much less effective at imposing himself overall so I would rank him last. However you can also argue that the main film of him is against two prime ATGs known for their physicality and ability so again... I don't know

His qaud-rilogy against Nishioka is a great example of what you're talking about. Against a super awkward and majorly fast southpaw style, Veeraphol showed just how to apply the basics of defense and straight punching in order to combat what had been an awful proposition for many others. Highly recommend everyone to watch these if they haven't. Also recommend his Muay Thai bouts.

Sidenote, it's a shame that insane technicians like Karuhat (who actually beat Veeraphol) didn't go into boxing imo. My personal opinion is he would've been as good if not better in boxing than Veeraphol and Samart.

And about Sot he was very good at applying his size against opponents. I remember his trainer saying he would cut from as high as 130, which would be insane even today. He looked bigger than Magri and our Charlie was a known weight cutter.