The Official Bangkok Fight Card Thread

Good choice of avy Vic. :good

In the west a stoppage via low kick has become a very common occurrence that people have got used to and associate very heavily with MT. When Thais started to get flown to West to fight in the 80s & 90s they used the low kick to full effect to negate the heavily hand orientated westerners of the era who relied a lot on boxing techniques and tended to bounce around like boxers, easy pickings for a Thai with a semi decent low kick. The way these "quality"westerners were routniely getting brutally demolished by basically one weapon kinda set up the western mythology of the "brutal MT low kick". This captured the western imagination, was focused on in every MT and kickboxing gym from Amsterdam to Moscow and has since become a mainstay stoppage of not just the international MT fight scene, but K1 & now MMA. I'd say the main reasons for it's continued and regular success in the west is the lack of depth in the MT scene which can produce chronic mismatches, insufficient conditioning as well as the lack of technical experience of knowing how to deal with such an attack and how to comfortably take the fight into another realm or range.

The difference is in Thailand it's never been a particular specialty against Thais, it wouldn't work to focus on it, although some fighters have become famous for their low kick like the above mentioned Pornsaneh Sitmonchai, who mixes good hands with powerful low low kicks to devastating effect (you'll find that is very often the case, a good low kicker will usually have good hands, and is a master of mixing the two).Pornsaneh's one of thses guys where you know exactly what he's gonna do but he still manages to land it,every time! He just has the has this knack of being able to land it at will, a true low kick master, but he's an unusual throw back fighter, not the norm these days. You know exactly what he's gonna do but he still manages to land it,every time!

The Thai scene is also super competitive and very well matched with rank upon rank deep in each weight of highly technical fighters with almost superhuman levels of conditioning who as we all know have built up their conditioning and general ring smarts form a very young age. Due to their technical superiority being technical masters from pre teens Thais unlike most of their western counterparts are comfortable and super relaxed fighting in each of the many ranges MT offers you. Due to MT having 8 offensive weapons that can be deployed over such differing distances from long range kicks to up front and very personal elbows and inside knees it also offers you multiple escapes and spoiling techniques that offer you the chance to avoid getting dominated form one weapon alone, that's why stoppages in Thai MT are a relative rarity compared to say boxing or MMA. A stoppage via low kick is even rarer although does happen as it can be seen coming and is "relatively easy" to avoid in comparison to other weapons by just stepping out of range, limply lifting your leg to check, pulling your lead leg back and countering or walking into the fighter to engage in the clinch. There are of course are other foils to the low kick but those are just some simple examples. On the whole a well conditioned and well matched Thai fighter should have the skills and know how to avoid getting stopped in such a simple and dare I say it "novice" like fashion. When it does happen it tends to be inside 3 rounds with the kicker coming out unusually hard form the off catching the opponent "unprepared" for such an intense opening few rounds or when there is an equally unusual mismatch.

Yeah, that's right Flea the Champ lost and it was a Thailand belt not a Lumpinee belt. Not In BKK right now so can't look at the card to find the fighters name to post a clip. But it'll be on Live Muay Thai guy channel, Friday the 8th Feb at Lumpinee. There was also another nice stoppage via elbow.

By the way lads, sorry I haven't been posting much in this or the other thread recently, lot's of travel as well as bandwidth have been a prob. Burma has basically zero internet speed. I've got some great photos and footage from the Somluck night I'll eventually post as well as some other stuff for the Burma thread and the ATG thread.

 

Great posts lads and props for keeping the thread alive. :good Even though I'm amongst it all here I really haven't been able to post much, lots of travel.

I don't think we can be too surprised about Almos or Ishii, sure top flight quality farang boxers, but let's face it they've had it maybe a little padded and seem to lose when when it matters. Remember they fight right on the edge of a legit Thai weight class that don't have the depth of any below it. We said ourselves in the ATG forum when Almos won the title the Thai was seemingly smaller, out of shape and very rusty, he's now lost twice with the belt not on the line, including looking very average against Seanchai (but most do! ) and now a very dramatic stoppage.

Ishsi never seems to fight outside Japan, just looked at his record and he's only fought in Thailand three times, lost two and only won one very very early in his career in what was probably a very low level fight likes Petro's Thai win was. In this one the Thai looked about two weight classes smaller as well as pretty average and not too technical but wiped Ishii out, almost did it in the 2nd.......you gotta ask questions about a Raja champ that doesn't fight in Thialand at all?:think Even Masato had a run in BKK. It was clear from that 1st upward elbow in the 2nd Ishii wasn't comfortable with them, I wonder if that was the plan i.e. ruff him up & give him a bit of spice straight from home, something he wasn't used to.....And let's face it Raja hasn't had a great spell the last few years it's only very very very recently it's being put back up their with Lumpinee.

I'm not knocking them as fighters, they are both top level quality farang, I'm just looking at it objectively in a MT context......very good but not not elite.

So, Yodwicha jointly wins the sports writer's award, well he deserves it.

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, do we remember what happened last year with Penek? He won the award and then mixed it with Seanchai......what happened.......the famously elusive, tricky and technical master Saenchai made Penek look a little one dimensional and clumsy. I wonder if history will repeat itself.....I reckon it might. Yodwicha is I think a little taller than Penek and their is a big height difference (stood next to both on the big Raja night in Feb), but Yodvicha is a knee specialist that likes to come forward in straight lines to pull you into the clinch or walk through you with knees. Exactly the type of fighter Seanchai's Poot Lorlek side step and counter works very well on, but I reckon it'll be Seanchais famed sweeps and throws that'll be Yodwicha's downfall as he keeps coming forward into Seanchai's little traps. Who ever hits the deck first will lose in this one I reckon. Yodwicha valiantly will turn it on in the 4th and 5th but Seanchai will lap it up nad make him look clumsy! I know alot of people think Yodwicha will win, but I'm not so sure, either way it'll be interesting but not spectacular.

By the way I never got a chance really to talk about the big Raja card from feb, I just wanted to say I thought Sam A's 5th round rally was immense. The way he rallied under pressure and just went on a rampage espcially in the context of the fight as he's a defensive fight, ****in awesome reminiscent of the golden age that round!

Anyway, I'll be in the UK soon so I'll be able to post more regularaly and upload vids properly with more time on my hands. I've found some great treats............:yep

By the way as this is the BKK thread I figured I'm gonna post some vids pix of the stadiums and the atmosphere for the guys that've never been there. Here's Raja on that buzzing packed night in Feb when Somrak won....

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