Alot of trainers are like that as well, Sammy Stewart at Wildcard is the same way, so I guess it depends on both fighter and trainer
See, I come from a muay thai background as well as the boxing. In boxing you can pound out some good hard sparring without too many worries about injuries. In Muay Thai if you bang out hard sparring, even with shinguards, headgear, etc; you can still risk broken bones (+other injuries) and the knock out rate's a little higher coz kicks hit harder than punches. As a result, trainers and fighters spend more time on thai pads than sparring in the gym. So the sparring & pad work is like reversed- go light in sparring, harder on the pads. Therefor, the more like fighting the thai pads are, the better the fighter's gonna do in the fight. Of course with the thicker pads, the fighter can hit a lot harder. I really don't like the patty cake dance routines I see in some of the clips online; but if we're talking punches with decent power and realistic defense, then I actually like it.
