Ironically after all the talk about it effecting Overeem he was one of the few fighters who didnt seem to have a problem adapting. Bar Teixeira last year(who I think showed his inexpereince with the thai clinch)Allistair has never realy been known for landing one shot accurate knees in the clinch, its been more slowly working people over. The flying/standing knee and the one handed clinch are bigger weapons for him if you ask me. I never really understood the need for the change personally, with the single knee rule clinching certainly wasnt effecting the flow of the action very much.
Check out Reem putting 2 hands on Edwards to crash home a knee, only to remember it is illegal thus he put one hand and landed some light hearted ****. They need to allow the 2 handed clinch and a clinch for more than one move to return.
you can but only one hand..the reason why they took that rule off because they want more action and excitement which was evident in the last K-1 WGP and MAX events
they changed it because k1 were fed up of all the thai boxers coming in and smashing their japanese fighters :hey
its only natural for many fighters to go for the thai clinch and throw knees to the head when they see the opportunity, many fighters were warned in the last event. its a stupid rule. K1 always had action, max in particular, why go and **** with a good thing?
That is the biggest factor, although it's not just anti-Thai, as the Australian fighters, and some of the Dutch are big users of the clinch. It has been a constant shift away from clinching.
I think they should allow clinch and 1 knee. The current rules at the last event pissed me off as the refs broke up the action too much for stupid reasons taking away the momentum of the fight. It used to be good for years , why the hell did they have to change it again?
As I said when have single knees in the clinch ever held up the action? I think you could actually argue the reverse is true since without the thai plum we just get up with guys in a regular boxing clinch having to be broken up by the ref.
The Thai Clinch is action. Guys are using battling for control or striking the **** out of someone who they have in control.
I can understand banning the extented clinch if fans want to see more boxing but when did the one knee clinch rule ever hurt the action? As I said I think the upshot of that is that when two fighters get close rather than ending with a thai plum atempt that often breaks them up before/after the knee has been delivered you just get guys grabbing hold of the boxing clinch instead needing a ref break. As has been said it just seems like a bit of a desperate bid to shift things into the favour of smaller karate based fighters.
I agree that people may not want to see extended clinching but I think they should allow 1, maybe 2 or 3 strikes in it. Serious damage can be done in the clinch. Plus the Thai Clinch is THE major difference between striking arts. You can be an awesome boxer, karate, kick boxer etc and get completely lost in the clinch.
