Recent fights/results/news from Japan II

All that time spent kickboxing has shown Kaew how to box and control distance in a way he never did before when he was a stadium fighter. K1 improved Kaew the same way it did Buakaw.

Once Thais spend a bit of time kickboxing abroad they realise that what worked in Thailand won't work abroad, so they spend time studying the foreigners techniques and incorporate them into their own thai style. In much the same way that Dekkers revolutionised muay thai in the early 90s by showing the effectiveness of boxing, so too have the best thais of this generation learned to incorporate new and innovative techniques after having seen the different styles on offer when they fight abroad. Take Saenchai for example, the greatest muay thai fighter of his generation, who uses such unorthodox techniques as cartwheel kicks, jumping roundkicks, jumping pushkicks and other moves not found in rigid traditional muay thai. It was only after spending so much time abroad that Saenchai was able to take the next step in his progression as a martial artist by absorbing the foreign modern techniques and dominate his stadium competition. If he had not spent his time so wisely abroad improving himself I think we can assert, with great confidence, that the later part of his career would not have been as fruitful as it was.

I have great optimism that this represents the wave of the future in muay thai and that as more and more thais gain exposure to western thought, the rigid chains which have long governed what techniques were seen as acceptable in traditional muay thai will be broken. Now, having overcome that impediment a boundless ocean of unlimited possibilities lies before us. And I predict that in the coming years a new and revolutionary hybrid of traditional and modern muay thai (neo muay thai, if you will) will emerge to dominate the sport by incorporating the best insights of both. The ultimate confluence of eastern and western thought.
I can appreciate the level of sarcastic detail in this post. I'd only argue that streamlining and shortening it would be neccisary to make it a truely great post.
 
I can appreciate the level of sarcastic detail in this post. I'd only argue that streamlining and shortening it would be neccisary to make it a truely great post.
agreed

head movement and boxing (footwork, angles, levels) are the next area of improvement and innovation for our sport, the successful fighters of tomorrow will focus a lot on this

i think head movement has traditionally been absent because of the sport's roots in kyukoshin and muay thai;

it was always received wisdom that "you dont move your head too much because you might move into a kick" but that really just demonstrates poor understanding of what head movement is; proper head movement is a game of millimeters and inches. If you are throwing your head downwards onto a kick you are doing it wrong to begin with.

In the past, there was a lot of crossover between Muay Thai and Kickboxing i.e. to stay busy, MT stylists would often fight KB rules (no clinch wrestling, elbows, leg catching, sweeps, throws etc.) while KBers fighting full MT was less common. Dutch fighters who used to fight with elbows and clinch adjusted to and adopted K1 rules created by the Japanese over the decades.

But this young generation of Kickboxers (mostly dutch/morrocan/japanese & other Europeans excluding french and british who mostly do Muay Thai) are truly making the sport their own. The young sport of Kickboxing is really getting to a highly technical level. The fast lowkick exchanges, "no-touch" jumping high knees, the "unorthodox" kicks, the boxing-esque exchanges on the inside, the footwork and the rapid flow of combinations, the emphasis on speed over power, the high striking volume etc.

In the future there will be a lot more young fighters who will be purely brought up and trained to fight in the Kickboxing discipline, to specialize in the ruleset and be very efficient in it. Also, as time passes due to the maturation of the talent pool of Kickboxing (which is a much younger sport than Muay Thai) I think it will be much harder for "pure" Muay Thai guys to jump back and forth between both sports with the same success as in the past (e.g. Keaw, Yod, Kem, Buakaw, etc.). I watched the last Krush and Enfusion, then i watched some stadium fights and Max Muay Thai and they are starting to look more and more like completely different sports.

I'm mainly a Muay Thai fan and practitioner because I like the roughness and violence, the power shots, elbows and clinch wrestling, but the speed and flow of kickboxing is beautiful to watch too.

The only thing that perplexes me is where the sport will be heading in the next few years. It seems like Kickboxing rules is where the money is at, but Muay Thai is the sport that is more widely practiced. I think both sports can coexist, but I also think that there are only so many people that are into combat sports to begin with.

Where do you see the future of the Kickfighting sports going as far as popularity and paychecks? Let's exclude the idea of jumping into MMA for the sake of discussion.

Will Muay Thai continue as a somewhat isolated low paying sport while more people jump to Kickboxing?

Will full Muay Thai rules catch on and gain the same popularity of K-1 in its best days?



You mean like these folks? Only keep the sarcasm. The revolution is coming, bro!
 
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All that time spent kickboxing has shown Kaew how to box and control distance in a way he never did before when he was a stadium fighter. K1 improved Kaew the same way it did Buakaw.

Once Thais spend a bit of time kickboxing abroad they realise that what worked in Thailand won't work abroad, so they spend time studying the foreigners techniques and incorporate them into their own thai style. In much the same way that Dekkers revolutionised muay thai in the early 90s by showing the effectiveness of boxing, so too have the best thais of this generation learned to incorporate new and innovative techniques after having seen the different styles on offer when they fight abroad. Take Saenchai for example, the greatest muay thai fighter of his generation, who uses such unorthodox techniques as cartwheel kicks, jumping roundkicks, jumping pushkicks and other moves not found in rigid traditional muay thai. It was only after spending so much time abroad that Saenchai was able to take the next step in his progression as a martial artist by absorbing the foreign modern techniques and dominate his stadium competition. If he had not spent his time so wisely abroad improving himself I think we can assert, with great confidence, that the later part of his career would not have been as fruitful as it was.

I have great optimism that this represents the wave of the future in muay thai and that as more and more thais gain exposure to western thought, the rigid chains which have long governed what techniques were seen as acceptable in traditional muay thai will be broken. Now, having overcome that impediment a boundless ocean of unlimited possibilities lies before us. And I predict that in the coming years a new and revolutionary hybrid of traditional and modern muay thai (neo muay thai, if you will) will emerge to dominate the sport by incorporating the best insights of both. The ultimate confluence of eastern and western thought.

You could troll your way to a gig at Bloodyelbow, Fightland or most MT blogs and they wouldn't know. Beautiful.
 
Does anyone know the next when, where and who for Genji Umeno?
 
Iirc they fought once as part of a tournament and Singdam brutalized Kaew with long knees. The fight used to be on youtube.
According to wiki, they fought 3 times and Singdam won all 3. I dont know if its 100% accurate though.
 
LOL you guys....

I know you're trolling but I don't understand where the saying "muay thai fighters don't have head movement" myth comes from.

Yes with all the risk of getting high kicked, and the clinch it doesn't allow you to slip punches like in western boxing, but most thai guys that fight in kickboxing (Yodsanklai, Buakaw, Sittichai, Kaew etc.) slip more than the average kickboxer. And they do it on instinct not by having to adapt to kickboxing. It's subtle but one must be blind not to see it.
 
1486625846_0sp.jpg

K-1 had a press conference.

They're doing 3 shows in the smaller Saitama Super Arena config. Still double the seats of the venue they've been using now. Then early 2018 a show in the big Saitama.
 


You mean like these folks? Only keep the sarcasm. The revolution is coming, bro!

Holy shit, I'm glad I read your comment at the bottom and realized you weren't serious. I was about to go OFF on you man, and you of all people should know better, lol.

I'll just leave this here to make myself feel better.

 
All that time spent kickboxing has shown Kaew how to box and control distance in a way he never did before when he was a stadium fighter. K1 improved Kaew the same way it did Buakaw.

Once Thais spend a bit of time kickboxing abroad they realise that what worked in Thailand won't work abroad, so they spend time studying the foreigners techniques and incorporate them into their own thai style. In much the same way that Dekkers revolutionised muay thai in the early 90s by showing the effectiveness of boxing, so too have the best thais of this generation learned to incorporate new and innovative techniques after having seen the different styles on offer when they fight abroad. Take Saenchai for example, the greatest muay thai fighter of his generation, who uses such unorthodox techniques as cartwheel kicks, jumping roundkicks, jumping pushkicks and other moves not found in rigid traditional muay thai. It was only after spending so much time abroad that Saenchai was able to take the next step in his progression as a martial artist by absorbing the foreign modern techniques and dominate his stadium competition. If he had not spent his time so wisely abroad improving himself I think we can assert, with great confidence, that the later part of his career would not have been as fruitful as it was.

I have great optimism that this represents the wave of the future in muay thai and that as more and more thais gain exposure to western thought, the rigid chains which have long governed what techniques were seen as acceptable in traditional muay thai will be broken. Now, having overcome that impediment a boundless ocean of unlimited possibilities lies before us. And I predict that in the coming years a new and revolutionary hybrid of traditional and modern muay thai (neo muay thai, if you will) will emerge to dominate the sport by incorporating the best insights of both. The ultimate confluence of eastern and western thought.

wow that's a real slick effort at trolling. I feel proud to be among the 1%ers who would catch on to this.
 
I can appreciate the level of sarcastic detail in this post. I'd only argue that streamlining and shortening it would be neccisary to make it a truely great post.
And Buakaw? I feel he is one of the few Thai fighters who managed to adapt their Thai style to include foreign influences (more mobile, better boxing, measured kicking). It's like he took the best of Thai Muay Thai (kick power and countering, frame guard, understanding of when to clinch, etc) but didn't just stop there. He kept adding and adding.

Maybe, I should have aimed for something more like this? It's concision is really concise.
 
LOL you guys....

I know you're trolling but I don't understand where the saying "muay thai fighters don't have head movement" myth comes from.

.


I assume a lot of people don't watch much Mauy Thai at all.
To be honest I thought most Mauy Thai fighters fought like Pornsanae Sitmonchai for a while. But he's old and actually has a slightly unorthodox style compared to other Thai fighters.

That being said I can understand if someone said the stadium Mauy Thai scoring should favor punches and volume slightly more than it does now.
 
I assume a lot of people don't watch much Mauy Thai at all.
To be honest I thought most Mauy Thai fighters fought like Pornsanae Sitmonchai for a while. But he's old and actually has a slightly unorthodox style compared to other Thai fighters.

That being said I can understand if someone said the stadium Mauy Thai scoring should favor punches and volume slightly more than it does now.
Effective puches do score, but when facing opponents that will counter with punches kicks knees and the clinch it's not the best strategy to try to stand and bang with punches.
 
1486625846_0sp.jpg

K-1 had a press conference.

They're doing 3 shows in the smaller Saitama Super Arena config. Still double the seats of the venue they've been using now. Then early 2018 a show in the big Saitama.
Now watch Caped Baldy and destroy everyone.
 
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