Is Samart Payakaroon the Greatest Striker in Combat Sports History? | Boxing | Kickboxing | MuayThai

As a kid I remember Jeff Fenech knocking him out to win the WBC world title,when Payakaroon was in his prime and massive star in Thailand

 

While he has solid credentials I feel there has been some outstanding strikers from boxing,mma and kickboxing who would be ahead of him, although i do think he could have had some success if he had tried MMA

 

Just watched that fight today, both 2 of my favorites...but Samart was not quite prime nor taking training seriously (although to a certain degree he never did). But this is not. Prime Samart by any stretch...not saying he would beat Jeff in his prime...but this was not it. And despite that he still scored the first KD Jeff ever had.

He is also regarded as the best Thai fighter ever by quite a few, not sure there are many better strikers than him....but then again I am more into boxing than mma and have never compiled an mma list of any sort

 

I think he is, I made this video about what I thought were his best wins;

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He’s light years ahead of anyone in MMA but that’s normal because they have to train loads of grappling and can’t focus on striking as much.

I think his prime probably came just after the Fenech humbling in his late 20’s when he returned to Thai boxing after his boxing run.

Losing to Fenech under boxing rules is no shame for a Muay Thai fighter though, most Thai’s now are heavily thrown off by K1 rules which are much closer to their national sport.

 

While he may not have been in his absolute prime as a fighter when he fought Fenech ,he was in his prime as a boxer when he lost his world title to a fairly inexperienced Fenech.
When I think of the top strikers in the game I generally think of fighters who are knocking other guys out,while Payakaroon is a brilliant fighter and tactician and 1 of the best Thai fighters of all time,with only 30KO's from 130 wins in Muay Thai and just over 50% KO ratio in boxing I don't believe him to even be in the top 10.

 

I think Samart Payakaroon is the best striker ever.

Samart Is one of, if not the grestest mauy thai fighters ever.

Stuart boxer is right, samart is a much better striker than any mma fighter. He is also a better striker than any kickboxer. I dont think any boxers could be considered greater striker since "striker" would include kicks, clinching .ect.

If Samart isnt the best I would like to see a better nominee.

 

Muay thai is a very niche sport and the division he took a belt from in boxing is shallow. It's a very cool accomplishment though. Samart destroyed the stadium scene in muay thai. His 1980-1981 run of 4 Lumpinee titles in 4 weight classes is nuts. The fact he could transition and hold his own in boxing is just as crazy. Fenech didn't even really "out-box" him in a finesse way. He just bullied the **** out of him. That's what Horn-Pac made me think of. Fenech actually worked with Horn prior to that fight.

If you want to see a couple nakmuays who can box, an hour and 15 minutes from now there's a card where 22 year old southpaw Sangmanee is fighting Frenchman Rafi Bohic. Both have great lead hands especially. Curious whose jab comes out on top. Sang lines up his straight and Rafi's signature move is prob when he digs a left hook to the body and follows it up with a mid kick.

 

Sangmanee is on a good run, but he will have a significant size dissadvantage against Rafi.

 

Also, https://boxrec.com/en/proboxer/11494

Yeah, and Rafi is a brutal finisher. Should be a good game of cat and mouse while it lasts though.