This Week in Muay Thai

[The MM Analyst]

I've started a weekly recap of stadium Muay Thai fights that I thought might be of interest here.

Praewprao vs Phetrung (Rajadamnern 115lb Title)
Praewprao Petchyindee is one of the most exciting fighters in Muay Thai right now. An aggressive southpaw, Praewprao can put heat on his opponents moving forwards and backwards. He’s a versatile combination striker who enjoys walking his man down and battering them with kicks, punches, elbows, and knees in combination on the open-side. He’s also adept at hitting in transition, using his combinations to take him into the clinch where he looks for big elbows and knees.

A former Rajadamnern champion at 108lbs, Praewprao was 7-2 in his last 9, with one of those losses being immediately avenged. Praewprao has been fighting at 115lbs for the past couple years and this fight was his first title shot at the weight.

Phetrong Sitkhrunoth is a powerful outside kicker with sharp clinch elbows. He was 2-1 on the year coming into this fight, and he ended 2022 with two brutal elbow knockouts in a row.

Praewprao and Phetrung didn’t observe the usual feeling out process and instead got started early in the first round. Both fighters worked with hard kicks, Phetrung pairing an outside leg kick with powerful rear-leg body and head kicks, while Praewprao hunted the open-side body kick.

Both fighters were throwing exceptionally hard kicks. The stadium audio tends to be pretty poor on these broadcasts, but you could still hear a lot of the kicks rattling off the body or forearms.

In the second round, Praewprao looked to retreat and lead Phetrung into kicks, finding spots to clinch reactively and land elbows. Phetrung chased with his rear kick, looking to cut Praewprao off and herd him into the kick.



Praewprao would look to catch collar ties out of his long guard as Phetrung advanced or strike into them, setting up big elbows. Note how he angles out while lining up the elbow. If you can position yourself on the inside so you’re looking at an opponent’s ear, you have a bigger target to elbow, while they aren’t properly lined up to block or hit back.

Praewprao started using a “Thai Hop” to close distance on the longer man, picking up his lead leg and hopping in behind his attack. By hopping in with the lead-leg raised, not only is it threatening an attack off your lead leg, but it gives you a measure of protection against kicks and knees which would otherwise be wide open when covering so much distance.

Phetrung quickly picked up the timing on Praewprao’s hop and started countering it with stabbing elbows as his attack came. Praewprao had a clever adjustment in turn, however:



Anticipating the counter elbow that kept following his hops, Praewprao began blocking it proactively and pushing forward into his own elbow or a clinch exchange. Note the structure of Praewprao’s blocks here - a standard double forearm guard is easily split by the vertical elbows Phetrung was throwing, but by crossing the forearms over the head or “answering the phone” while the elbowing arm is outside, he covers more surface area on the elbow’s trajectory.

After three rounds, Phetrung was down and needed a big fourth round to swing the fight back in his favor. He pressured more aggressively, but that only lead him right into Praewprao’s wheelhouse. As he advanced, Praewprao would pivot to the open side and turn him into devastating counters.



This is excellent footwork and positioning from Praewprao. He pivots with every attack he makes, which leaves Phetrung playing catch up the whole time, having to turn to face Praewprao to return. After a couple of these sequences, Praewprao gets the Thai Hop going again. He pounds the body with a left hand and a knee that he converts into a collar tie, setting up a devastating elbow.

After dropping Phetrung, the finish was imminent. Praewprao went to work battering him with knees and elbows. Phetrung maintained his aggression as he needed multiple big moments to have a chance, but it only made Praewprao’s shots even more damaging.



The finish came as Phetrung tried to pressure into the clinch. Praewprao framed his head away, causing Phetrung to give him the push reaction he was looking for. Praewprao needed only collapse the frame and let Phetrung’s momentum run him onto a huge, fight-ending elbow.

Continued Here

 

[Bearknuckle]

I love muay thai, but being a dumb american, its hard to remember their names.

 

[The MM Analyst]

I love muay thai, but being a dumb american, its hard to remember their names.

Gets even tougher when the only video is a 4 hour stream and you're trying to find one guy but they don't show the english names lol

 

[Bearknuckle]

Gets even tougher when the only video is a 4 hour stream and you're trying to find one guy but they don't show the english names lol

add to the fact they change their names around lol

 

[thecoldbloodedone]

Very enjoyable analysis and gifs mate, thanks for the good work

I've started a weekly recap of stadium Muay Thai fights that I thought might be of interest here.

Praewprao vs Phetrung (Rajadamnern 115lb Title)
Praewprao Petchyindee is one of the most exciting fighters in Muay Thai right now. An aggressive southpaw, Praewprao can put heat on his opponents moving forwards and backwards. He’s a versatile combination striker who enjoys walking his man down and battering them with kicks, punches, elbows, and knees in combination on the open-side. He’s also adept at hitting in transition, using his combinations to take him into the clinch where he looks for big elbows and knees.

A former Rajadamnern champion at 108lbs, Praewprao was 7-2 in his last 9, with one of those losses being immediately avenged. Praewprao has been fighting at 115lbs for the past couple years and this fight was his first title shot at the weight.

Phetrong Sitkhrunoth is a powerful outside kicker with sharp clinch elbows. He was 2-1 on the year coming into this fight, and he ended 2022 with two brutal elbow knockouts in a row.

Praewprao and Phetrung didn’t observe the usual feeling out process and instead got started early in the first round. Both fighters worked with hard kicks, Phetrung pairing an outside leg kick with powerful rear-leg body and head kicks, while Praewprao hunted the open-side body kick.

Both fighters were throwing exceptionally hard kicks. The stadium audio tends to be pretty poor on these broadcasts, but you could still hear a lot of the kicks rattling off the body or forearms.

In the second round, Praewprao looked to retreat and lead Phetrung into kicks, finding spots to clinch reactively and land elbows. Phetrung chased with his rear kick, looking to cut Praewprao off and herd him into the kick.



Praewprao would look to catch collar ties out of his long guard as Phetrung advanced or strike into them, setting up big elbows. Note how he angles out while lining up the elbow. If you can position yourself on the inside so you’re looking at an opponent’s ear, you have a bigger target to elbow, while they aren’t properly lined up to block or hit back.

Praewprao started using a “Thai Hop” to close distance on the longer man, picking up his lead leg and hopping in behind his attack. By hopping in with the lead-leg raised, not only is it threatening an attack off your lead leg, but it gives you a measure of protection against kicks and knees which would otherwise be wide open when covering so much distance.

Phetrung quickly picked up the timing on Praewprao’s hop and started countering it with stabbing elbows as his attack came. Praewprao had a clever adjustment in turn, however:



Anticipating the counter elbow that kept following his hops, Praewprao began blocking it proactively and pushing forward into his own elbow or a clinch exchange. Note the structure of Praewprao’s blocks here - a standard double forearm guard is easily split by the vertical elbows Phetrung was throwing, but by crossing the forearms over the head or “answering the phone” while the elbowing arm is outside, he covers more surface area on the elbow’s trajectory.

After three rounds, Phetrung was down and needed a big fourth round to swing the fight back in his favor. He pressured more aggressively, but that only lead him right into Praewprao’s wheelhouse. As he advanced, Praewprao would pivot to the open side and turn him into devastating counters.



This is excellent footwork and positioning from Praewprao. He pivots with every attack he makes, which leaves Phetrung playing catch up the whole time, having to turn to face Praewprao to return. After a couple of these sequences, Praewprao gets the Thai Hop going again. He pounds the body with a left hand and a knee that he converts into a collar tie, setting up a devastating elbow.

After dropping Phetrung, the finish was imminent. Praewprao went to work battering him with knees and elbows. Phetrung maintained his aggression as he needed multiple big moments to have a chance, but it only made Praewprao’s shots even more damaging.



The finish came as Phetrung tried to pressure into the clinch. Praewprao framed his head away, causing Phetrung to give him the push reaction he was looking for. Praewprao needed only collapse the frame and let Phetrung’s momentum run him onto a huge, fight-ending elbow.

Continued Here

 

[BruhBruh]

Nice one mate. Thanks for the breakdown.

Seen that the young UK prospect Joe Ryan just won another world title with a lovely headkick KO over the past weekend. 2x world champ at 19. Needs to get over to Thailand and start competing consistently against the Thais and he'll go right to the very top.

 

[The MM Analyst]

Another week is up:

Narak Tongprajean vs Patihan Phor.Lakboon



Narak is a slick counterstriker with very sharp elbows, while Patihan is a Muay Khao who looked to overwhelm opponents with knees and elbows. This fight had two distinct phases. For the early rounds, it was a distance striking match in which Narak outslicked the less adept distance fighter, but once Patihan began to adjust and pour on the pressure, the tone of the fight changed quickly.

In the early rounds, Narak was consistently countering every ranged attack from Patihan. He fired back kicks immediately after taking a kick from Patihan or pulling back to make one fall short, also looking to catch body kicks and fire back with counter combinations.



Even when Patihan adjusted his attack to account for the counters, Narak still found success with them.

After having his open-side kicks caught, Patihan feints the kick and lands a shifting right hook, but Narak stays with it and catches him with a counter combination as he exits. The great thing about countering in combination is that even if you flub the timing on the initial shot or get feinted out, you can still force them to give ground and punish their retreat.

Patihan began leaning more on the right-leg lead as the fight went on to counter Narak’s effective open-side offense. He began advancing with his right leg in the air and extended, picking it up to throw shifting hooks, or just switching to southpaw and advancing behind the right leg.

Closing off the open-side is a tried and true tactic for closing distance against kickers. When Rodtang Jitmuangnon fought Kaonar P.K. Saenchai for the first time, he was lanced at kicking range and tied up in the clinch when he tried to press forward. In their rematch, Rodtang advanced methodically in a square or southpaw stance, picking up his right leg. His new stance closed off the clear route to the body for Kaonar’s rear kick and he could step forward and punch when a kick hit his leg, rather than having to rush past them into the clinch.

Without the open daylight for his rear leg, Narak was consistently backed up and forced into exchanges. He looked to counter with elbows, but Patihan anticipated this response:



Patihan expected counter elbows and made sure to throw up cross-blocks in heated exchanges, folding his left arm across his face to block the path of Narak’s left elbow. This allowed him to catch the elbows and pitch out his own while Narak recovered, ensuring that he came out on top in elbow exchanges.

In the fourth round, Patihan went southpaw and marched Narak down without committing first. He simply let Narak initiate the exchange with a punch or elbow and used that committed attack to grab the clinch. Once in the clinch, Patihan defaulted to an underhook and inside bicep control, using the bicep to steer Narak and prevent him from swimming an arm in, while the underhook helped turn and elevate his elbow to expose the body for knees.

It was a classic tactic for shutting down a counterstriker - walk him down and make him go first, then punish when he commits. Even when Narak landed hard on the lead, because he had to close distance to initiate the exchange, Patihan could tie him up and go to work.



In Muay Thai clinch exchanges, it’s not uncommon to see stay-busy knees thrown to the rips with the side of the knee. But the knees Patihan lands here are clean and sharp. He does a great job creating hip separation to give his knees room for power, using his arms and head to block Narak’s upper body while he hollows his back out into a C-shape. The knees land on the hardest part of the knee, and you can see Narak’s frame fold slightly around the knees as they land.

After about a minute and a half of Patihan’s clinch swarming, the fight was just about over and the finish elementary:



The knees to the body took so much out of Narak that Patihan was able to walk him down and finish the job with a teep.

One thing that fighters who are most effective at countering clinchers have in common is that they make effective use of frames. When you watch fighters like Prajanchai P.K.Saenchai or Ronachai Tor.Ramintra fight a clincher, they spend a lot of time with their hands extended, physically blocking the clinch entries and using the hand-fight to score and facilitate lateral movement away from the clinch. When he was pressed, Narak defaulted to committed strikes to back Patihan off, but they only served to give him the distance he needed to enter the clinch.

Full article here

 

[BoxerMaurits]

Takeru vs Sugden happening this weekend

 

[The MM Analyst]

Another week!

Duan99 vs Nampu
Duan99 SorJor.TongPrachin is the top fighter in Muay Thai below 108lbs and one of the best prospects in the game. Only 18 years of age, Duan99 is already a prolific finisher, with four wins by stoppage in his last six fights. His victim this time was Nampu Kraisiripopgym, who came into the fight on a four-fight win streak.

The vast majority of Muay Thai fights end by decision and finishes in high level fights aren’t very common. So how does Duan99 so reliably get his man out of there? The answer is a tenacious commitment to attritional work.

Muay Thai fights start slowly as part of a narrative scoring structure that sees the fourth round as the fight’s climax. If a fighters brings out his weapons too early and fails to keep that pace up throughout the fight, the narrative becomes one of him losing steam as the fight starts heating up. But the lax early rounds have become exaggerated in modern Muay Thai, often ending up less as the rising action that leads up to a climax and more as throwaway rounds.

For Femeu fighters who like to stay outside and dazzle the opponent with finesse, it makes sense to limit the pace early. Likewise, a lot of aggressive Muay Khaos like to let the opponent bring out their weapons first, as it can be easier to get on top of a fighter if you can draw out his strikes. But for Muay Mats like Duan99, who tend to make their hay with heavy punches and low kicks, I’ve always felt that it is a waste of time to let the early rounds slip by without punishing the opponent.

Duan99 doesn’t make this mistake. From the opening bell, he’s slamming in hard low kicks and body shots, prioritizing the targets that will pay off later in the fight. He doesn’t open up with everything he has and risk being worse off in the later, more important rounds. But he also doesn’t waste time, and the investment in body and leg work makes sure that he’s in a better position than his opponent to take advantage of the higher-paced third and fourth rounds.

Nampu threw a lazy teep several times in the early rounds and Duan99 immediately looked to catch and counter with hard body shots.



One of the drawbacks of teeping with the toes pointing toward the opponent rather than a tilted foot is that it’s easy to scoop the heel as it retracts. Generally you see two kinds of teeps most often - a hard, committed teep that prevents a catch by throwing the opponent backwards, and a lighter teep timed as the opponent advances that halts them in their tracks and moves the kicker back, allowing them to take additional distance. Nampu’s teeps were sort of in the middle - not hard enough to knock Duan99 back, but they were also timed when Duan99 was in a stable stance, making it easier for him to catch and counter.

The main tool Duan99 uses to convince opponents to give ground and set up his combination work is a quick, probing jab that seemingly never relents. He advances behind that constant jab, flicking it out to draw reactions and set up his big rear hands.



If an opponent closes distance, the extended lead hand is used to frame or physically shove them away. If they try to knee from a long distance, the hand jolts their shoulder to destabilize them while Duan99 advances. Once they’re on the ropes, Duan99 begins to open up with sharp combinations, going to the body with his biggest shots.

Opening up with aggressive combinations can expose fighters to their opponent’s clinch. When punching wide, arms often fall on the shoulder outside the opponent’s hands and give them a route to wrap the head. Opening the elbow to punch also allows an arm to slot beneath it in an underhook. Duan99 did a great job preempting Nampu’s clinch entries and making sure he came into the clinch with advantageous positioning.



While Duan99’s rear hand is often committed and wild, he keeps his lead elbow tight to his ribs when throwing it. The tight elbow locks off the space for an underhook and ensures that if an opponent grabs his head, he’ll come up with inside position, which he uses to frame inside their bicep and push them back to the ropes for knees. If the opponent takes an underhook, Duan99 will immediately drop his level and stick his head in their chin, forcing them upright and exposed while he locks around the head.

Though Duan99 was prepared to deal with the clinch attempts, Nampu wasn’t making him work too hard. His clinch entries were haphazard, ducking in desperately amidst Duan99’s flurries or just reaching toward the head and hoping for the best. As he moves up in weight and starts fighting more experienced competition, he’ll find that most opponents are able to time specific strikes and enter the clinch when he’s not in the best position to frame them off. It’ll be interesting to see how he continues to deal with that threat.

After three rounds of grinding Nampu down with pace and body work, Duan99 finished the fight brutally by walking Nampu down and going back to the body.



Note the lovely use of the lead hand to corral and control while he unloads his heavy punches. Duan99 starts off the finishing sequence by using a collar tie to shove Nampu straight into the ropes. When he tries to push himself off, another collar tie keeps his back on the ropes. After unloading another big combination, Duan99 backhands the forearm into Nampu boxing-style to keep him in place and create just enough distance to put him on the ground with a huge right hook.

Nampu’s biggest success in the fight came through elbows, as he was able to open a cut near Duan99’s eye. Duan99’s punching style leaves a gap for elbows, as he uses a lot of boxing combinations and pushes in close. Typically when fighters take an extra step in from the edge of punching range, their hands extend to jostle with their opponent’s and the closer they get, the more they focus on controlling their opponent’s elbows. Duan99 instead devotes the lead hand to jabbing and framing off, which leaves an open lane for the elbow.

Elbows act as natural counters to body shots too, since they present a larger surface area than a punch and can catch a fighter while he changes levels. The shorter range is also advantageous, as a fighter stepping in after throwing a body hook will smother straight punches, but can end up stepping right onto a shorter elbow. Future opponents of Duan99 would do well to take note.

Full Recap Here

 

[The MM Analyst]

KaenUbon vs Kradooklek

KaenUbon Por.Lakboon and Kradooklek Achariya are both top fighters at 112lbs, with the WMO having them ranked sixth and seventh respectively. KaenUbon was 2-2 this year coming into this fight, with his most recent loss against the division’s top fighter, Waewow Wor.Wangprom. Kradooklek was 2-2-1, with his most recent loss also coming against Waewow.

The main story of this fight was KaenUbon’s silky smooth rear body kicks. He was able to consistently land the body kick throughout the fight and Kradooklek could not find any consistent defense or counters. The secret to his ability to land the kick at will was in the rhythm of his stance and the particular trajectory of the kick.

KaenUbon’s body kick doesn’t swing out from the side like a baseball bat, but rather comes straight through and whips around. His hip and knee are driven straight toward the opponent, before a quick pivot of the lead foot and swivel of the hip send it into the body. The trajectory ends up sort of like a question-mark kick, but with a more efficient and less exaggerated motion.

Prolific Muay Thai fighter, Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu, has talked about what she calls “The Golden Kick”, named because the style of kicking was much more common in Muay Thai’s golden age. KaenUbon’s kicks reminded me of that:



She mentions that this kick can slip through attempts to check it due to the linear preliminary motion, but in this case Kradooklek was rarely able to see the kick well enough to even attempt checking, having to settle instead for taking it on the arm.



Full Recap Here

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Need to start getting into this thread, seems very technical.

 

[thecoldbloodedone]

I started having to use this '?' path of my body kicks against opponents with high level kick defense game. Turning that hip over at the end to send my shin into their ribs between their knee and elbow.
I recommend that remaining conscious of the fact that checking body kicks is a primary way to avoid damage and concede scoring points in the eyes of the judges.
Blocking with your arms still scores against you in traditional Muay Thai and some guys can kick really damn hard and shut down your arms with repeated attacks, especially in Southpaw vs Orthodox scenarios.

KaenUbon vs Kradooklek

KaenUbon Por.Lakboon and Kradooklek Achariya are both top fighters at 112lbs, with the WMO having them ranked sixth and seventh respectively. KaenUbon was 2-2 this year coming into this fight, with his most recent loss against the division’s top fighter, Waewow Wor.Wangprom. Kradooklek was 2-2-1, with his most recent loss also coming against Waewow.

The main story of this fight was KaenUbon’s silky smooth rear body kicks. He was able to consistently land the body kick throughout the fight and Kradooklek could not find any consistent defense or counters. The secret to his ability to land the kick at will was in the rhythm of his stance and the particular trajectory of the kick.

KaenUbon’s body kick doesn’t swing out from the side like a baseball bat, but rather comes straight through and whips around. His hip and knee are driven straight toward the opponent, before a quick pivot of the lead foot and swivel of the hip send it into the body. The trajectory ends up sort of like a question-mark kick, but with a more efficient and less exaggerated motion.

Prolific Muay Thai fighter, Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu, has talked about what she calls “The Golden Kick”, named because the style of kicking was much more common in Muay Thai’s golden age. KaenUbon’s kicks reminded me of that:



She mentions that this kick can slip through attempts to check it due to the linear preliminary motion, but in this case Kradooklek was rarely able to see the kick well enough to even attempt checking, having to settle instead for taking it on the arm.



Full Recap Here

 

[The MM Analyst]

Another week, Kompatak's Femeu masterclass and a fun clinch battle between Rungkhao and Khunhanlek.

Kompatak Or.Achariya is the top fighter at 130lbs and one of the best in Muay Thai right now. Somraknoi has been on a good run lately, with three wins in 2023 including one over Longern, who’s top 10 in his division. This was Somraknoi’s first fight up at 130lbs moving up from 126lbs, but he weighed in at 2lbs heavier than Kompatak.

Kompatak is one of my favorite fighters to watch. He’s very well rounded, with slick Femeu movement on the outside, sharp knees, and a brilliant lead leg that he throws all sorts of kicks with.

His lead-leg kicks were on full display here, as he put on a masterclass of kicking and distance control. Kompatak smoothly mixed up body, leg, and head kicks off his lead leg, wreaking havoc on Somraknoi’s defense and reactions. Kompatak was showing interesting combinations and setups all fight. He would use a quick inside leg kick to knock Somraknoi off balance before kicking the head, sidestep to turn Somraknoi into his kicks, and feint teeps to sneak his lead leg back into kicking position while Somraknoi was unaware.



Kompatak’s lead leg is a thing of beauty, but equally impressive is his control of the engagements after his kick lands. He was always balanced to pull his kicking leg back into a floating block if Somraknoi tried to return a kick, and would alternately clinch or pivot out after his kicks landed to prevent Somraknoi from hitting on the counter.

One particularly neat use of the lead leg body kick was sneaking it under the elbow as Somraknoi punched:



Clean body kicks to the open side are one of the highest scoring strikes in Muay Thai, but they’re difficult to land clean as everyone is aware of that and focused on blocking them. But it’s impossible to throw a punch without bringing your elbow away from your body, so if you can time the punch and get the correct distance to make it fall short, you can take a free shot at the ribs. Kompatak was perfect with this counter all fight.

Somraknoi tried to take angles to his lead side in order to set up his rear kick, but Kompatak would either retreat into a defensive shell to block, or teep him off when he tried to enter. He threw a nice little short teep that came up quickly and was useful for snuffing out the entries. The teep also plays into his lead leg system, as he would bounce the leg up and down at range and Somraknoi would immediately be threatened with the plethora of attacks Kompatak could throw off the leg.



Once Somraknoi caught a couple teeps to the body, Kompatak switched up his target and started throwing them at the lead hip.

There was a lot of talk about the oblique kick in MMA a few years back, but the upright, square stances and active lead legs in Muay Thai make them not very viable as a hurting weapon. However, you do often see fighters throw short teeps to the leg or hip to off-balance or gain distance. The key to these teeps is that they’re thrown quickly without much commitment, and function best as an intercepting weapon. The goal isn’t to hurt, but to knock the weight off that leg while you strike or escape.

In addition to his beautiful offensive work, Kompatak also showed brilliant defense and distance management. His defensive shell with his rear arm and lead leg raised served to impede most of Somraknoi’s attacks and he did a good job both attacking and pivoting off it. When Somraknoi crowded him, he would step into the clinch to snuff out his attacks. When he tried to strike with Kompatak’s back against the ropes, Kompatak would effortlessly slip the shot and gracefully pivot back to the center of the cage.



I really liked how Kompatak made use of the space he took after pivoting off the ropes. I’ve talked before about how having your back against the ropes in Muay Thai is often a safe, defensible position, as you can square your feet to easily check kicks off both sides and use the clinch to counter punches. But it also locks you in one place and gives the opponent chances to set stuff up. Kompatak would do his defensive work on the ropes and wait for an opportunity to pivot out, but then he would take back the center and make Somraknoi walk him down again, all the while feinting him out and walking him into kicks.

While Somraknoi was outmatched and unable to accomplish much, he did show one tactic that I liked. After Kompatak established his lead leg teep, Somraknoi started catching it and following it back with knees:



As Kompatak was using quick, noncommittal teeps, it would’ve been difficult to keep the leg and return a power shot since without the leg fully extending, it’s difficult to get a grip on the heel and Kompatak’s leg was already on the way back when the catches happened. Instead, Somraknoi used the catch just to disrupt his balance and force him backwards, before running in with a knee to the body.

Full Recap Here

 

[SuperLuigi]

Its too bad Panpayak's brother retired, he was the one guy who could pretty consistently beat Kompatak.

 

[The MM Analyst]

Its too bad Panpayak's brother retired, he was the one guy who could pretty consistently beat Kompatak.

Then they'd need to bring in Chorfah to beat Kiewpayak, then Kompatak vs Chorfah again.

 

[Gamboal]

I love muay thai, but being a dumb american, its hard to remember their names.

Watch ONE FC MT then. Easy to remember Superlek, Superbon, Rodtang, Nong-O etc

 

[The MM Analyst]

Phetrugnruang's patient, stalking pressure and Nuaphet elbowing off the jab.

Phetrugnruang vs Kaewkangwan



Phetrugnruang Odtuekdaeng and Kaewkangwan V.K.KhaoYai are both top five fighters at 130lbs. They’ve spent most of this year fighting each other, as this was their third consecutive fight in a row. Kaewkangwan took the first fight by decision and the second fight was scored a draw. Phetrugnruang was looking to even the series up at 1-1-1.

From the start, Phetrugnruang looked to march Kaewkangwan down and smother him in the clinch, working with teeps and knees to carry him inside.

Muay Khaos are known for their aggression and relentlessness, but a lot of them actually see themselves as counter fighters. Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn, perhaps the most dangerous Muay Khao of all time, preferred to avoid showing his weapons early in a fight and instead stalk the opponent, letting them initiate their offense first. Phetrugnruang demonstrated a similar patience in his approach here.

He marched Kaewkangwan down in a composed manner, picking up his legs to ward off kicks and close distance, and scoring with long knees. When Kaewkangwan tried to preempt his pressure and back him off, a short rear teep would shut him down and allow Phetrugnruang to keep marching him down.

Kaewkangwan looked to cut angles to the side and pivot around Phetrugnruang, a smart tactic as a fighter marching in behind raised legs is often out of position to smoothly turn. If the retreating fighter times his pivots well, he can score a free kick while his opponent has to plant and turn to face him.

The lateral movement allowed Kaewkangwan to sidestep a few teeps and set up his rear kick, but Phetrugnruang’s patience made it difficult for him to have too much success with it.

If a fighter is charging at you mindlessly, it’s easy to pivot out and let their forward movement throw them off balance. But by advancing in a measured manner and letting Kaewkangwan bring out his weapons first, Phetrugnruang could often use his attacks to get on top of him and trap him in a clinch exchange. It’s much more difficult to play the matador against a stalking spider than a charging bull.

When it did get to the clinch, Kaewkangwan had some answers of his own however. He fought for inside position when Phetrugnruang’s grabbed onto him and made quality use of an inside bicep grip to turn and off-balance.

Inside bicep control allows one to turn his opponent effectively toward the direction of the bicep control and also afford them a position of superior leverage on that side to push forward. Since it’s an inside grip, it also has the benefit of blocking the opponent’s elbow on that side.



Kaewkangwan used the bicep control to threaten footsweeps and land a kick or knee as Phetrugnruang recovered his balance. At one point he used the inside control to simply shove him backwards and land a body kick. It was a really nice show of transitional hitting - when they’re defending strikes, that’s when you look to break their balance, and when they’re recovering their balance or hunkering down to avoid being swept, that’s when you want to strike.

After Kaewkangwan had some success in the clinch, Phetrugnruang began to adapt and work out counters. He started weaving his arm from the outside in when Kaewkangwan went to inside bicep control, ending up with his forearm and glove stuck in the crook of the elbow:



This is a position you see a lot in Muay Thai, but I’ve never really heard it discussed. By wedging the arm inside the elbow, Phetrugnruang nullifies some of the advantages of inside control. Kaewkangwan still has inside control, but his elbow is no longer on top, meaning that he’s blocked from throwing elbows while Phetrugnruang has access to them. This position also allows Phetrugnruang to elevate and open Kaewkangwan’s elbow, exposing his ribs for knees.

The “arm wedge” position was a favorite of Yodpanomrung Jitmuangnon, who used to look to pummel into it from neutral clinch positions and had a plethora of attacks that flowed out of it.

After a strong third round from Kaewkangwan where he was able to counter Phetrugnruang at range and avoid being dominated in the clinch, Phetrugnruang stepped up the aggression. Phetrugnruang started galloping toward Kaewkangwan to rapidly close distance and hopping in behind a raised leg to bridge kicking range into the clinch:



You’ll note that though he’s closing distance much more rapidly, Phetrugnruang is still letting Kaewkangwan go first. Without being given a committed strike to slip or circle away from, it’s much more difficult for Kaewkangwan to pivot away from the gallop, and if he tries to hit back to buy some space, it just gives Phetrugnruang a chance to tie up.

As the fight went on, Phetrugnruang found increasing success in the clinch. When Kaewkangwan tried to control the bicep, Phetrugnruang would hike that arm upward and force it into a lock, securing both hands behind the head with Kaewkangwan’s own arm inside it. From there, he would look to rotate toward the inside arm to get outside of Kaewkangwan and enter a dominant side lock:



We discussed the side lock last week in regards to Praewprao vs Phetanuwat. Phetrugnruang was able to score with this lock several times in the later rounds and take control of the clinch exchanges.

Phetrugnruang came out aggressive in the fifth round and continued looking to score in the clinch, before backing off halfway through the round and fighting defensively once he’d secured the win. It ended up being a competitive fight, but Phetrugnruang’s clinch work in rounds four and five put him ahead.

Full Recap Here

 

[The MM Analyst]

There wasn't much Muay Thai I was interested in this week, so I wrote about my favorite Golden Age fight instead.

Wangchannoi vs Cherry: A Tapestry of Violence

The Golden Age of Muay Thai was a period between the early 80’s and mid 90’s when the sport was at its peak. Within that roughly 13 year period, Thailand’s Muay Thai produced a shockingly high percentage of the greatest strikers I have ever seen, including multiple boxing world champions and Olympic gold medalists.

When watching fights from the Golden Age, it’s immediately clear that it was a totally different game from today’s Muay Thai. The talent level was at an all time high, with a large well of strong provincial gyms developing fighters locally and feeding them into the major Bangkok stadia. Fight purses and interest from fans and gamblers was also peaking in this era.

You can feel all this in the action itself. The gloves are smaller, the boxing is better, the eyes, counters, and responsiveness of the fighters on another level from today’s game. The clinch was beautiful and continuous, with referees who would let exchanges play out for as long as they kept going and fighters who worked through them.

It should come as no surprise that the fights tended to be more enjoyable. The sport still had the narrative scoring structure which saw the fourth round as the fight’s climax, but the early rounds tended to be more of a true rising action than today’s Muay Thai, where the first two rounds are often thrown away and stalled out. Most of my favorite Muay Thai fights are from this period, but Wangchannoi vs Cherry stands out amongst the others for me.

Wangchannoi Sor Palangchai is an all-time great in Muay Thai. With five Lumpini championships and a Fighter of the Year award under his belt, he has one of the sport’s best resumes. He beat an impressive list of Muay Thai greats, many of them by knockout, including the excellent Namkabuan NongkeePahuyuth who he finished with a left hook in 33 seconds. Wangchannoi was one of the sport’s most ferocious Muay Mats. His punches were devastating, but the skill in his hands was even greater than the power.

Cherry Sor Wanich held the Lumpini 130lbs championship for 3 years, defending it against greats like Saencherng Pinsinchai and Superlek Sorn E-Sarn. He was a locking clinch fighter who looked to snuff out his man’s space on the inside and break their posture to tee off with knees. Today’s Muay Khaos focus more on locking in the clinch than working in transition, but the meta was geared toward transitional work in the Golden Age, and Cherry’s locking style was an outlier.

Their Wikipedia records (which may not be fully accurate, but they’re the best I’ve got) say that this fight took place in 1991, with Wangchannoi having just won the Lumpini 122lbs title and Cherry recently dropping his 130lbs title to Namkabuan. We’ll take this round by round, since there are a bunch of tactical shifts that demonstrate the narrative structure of Muay Thai in interesting ways.

Round 1 - The Setup
Wangchannoi came out hot from the opening bell, teeping Cherry into the corner without even giving him a chance to take center ring. He began applying his trademark pressure, walking Cherry down and putting heavy leather on him.

While Wangchannoi must have been one of the scariest fighters in all of Muay Thai, his aggression was always tempered and methodical. He pressures not by getting in his opponent’s face and constantly forcing them back, but instead by inching forward, occupying space directly in front of them and never relenting for even a second, letting his imposing presence do the work of convincing his opponents to make mistakes and open themselves up.

A consequence of the measured pressure is that he’s always in a strong position to throw power. He rarely gets caught between steps rushing, in fact more often that not it’s his opponent who is forced to break their positioning.



Wangchannoi used long stepping right hands to crash into the pocket. Once inside, he would open up with lovely combinations. Wangchannoi doesn’t flick out throwaway punches as a setup often, instead he probes, folds over his hips, and waits. Each strike he throws is distinct and legible, but his rhythm throws off opponent’s timing. He uses slight pauses the way many fighters use setup punches, building them into his combinations so that his opponent’s defensive reaction comes a split second too soon. You can see his tricky rhythm in the clip above while he manipulates Cherry’s guard, pairing inside attacks with outside attacks and high with low.

Cherry attempted to catch Wangchannoi coming forward with round kicks, but Wangchannoi was unmoved. In Muay Thai, kicks to the arms score, so the legs are typically used to block middle kicks. However, lifting the leg up to check takes you out of a strong punching stance. Wangchannoi prioritized being in position to hit over kick defense:



Instead of attempting to check every body kick, Wangchannoi would just take them on the arm and parry the kick across Cherry’s body. With Cherry’s feet now crossed and Wangchannoi in a strong stance, his parry gives him a chance to land a thudding power shot on an opponent out of position.

Taking kicks to land punches is not an even trade - the kick scores highly and the punch only scores if it shows a clear effect. Wangchannoi’s aim with this counter is not to subtly outpoint Cherry with half-speed counters, but to smash him with his right hand hard and consistently enough to signal to the judges that his punches are breaking Cherry’s composure, while signalling to Cherry that he should stop kicking if he wants to stop taking the right hand.

We also see some of the first clinch exchanges of the fight. Cherry looks to secure his left hand around the head elbow-deep to enter his lock, while Wangchannoi attempts to control his hands at range to prevent him from entering the clinch. When Cherry does get a strong control position, Wangchannoi moves to a bodylock, looking to squeeze all the space out of Cherry’s lock to avoid the knees, before turning or throwing Cherry.



One of the great things about the Golden Age’s smaller gloves is that they left room for punching in clinch transitions. Wangchannoi does a bit of that here, posting his head on Cherry’s shoulder to create just enough space that the right uppercut can sneak through. He then uses Cherry’s reaction to the uppercut to secure a bodylock and hit a twisting throw.

Continued Here

 

[Nova44]

There wasn't much Muay Thai I was interested in this week, so I wrote about my favorite Golden Age fight instead.

Wangchannoi vs Cherry: A Tapestry of Violence

The Golden Age of Muay Thai was a period between the early 80’s and mid 90’s when the sport was at its peak. Within that roughly 13 year period, Thailand’s Muay Thai produced a shockingly high percentage of the greatest strikers I have ever seen, including multiple boxing world champions and Olympic gold medalists.

When watching fights from the Golden Age, it’s immediately clear that it was a totally different game from today’s Muay Thai. The talent level was at an all time high, with a large well of strong provincial gyms developing fighters locally and feeding them into the major Bangkok stadia. Fight purses and interest from fans and gamblers was also peaking in this era.

You can feel all this in the action itself. The gloves are smaller, the boxing is better, the eyes, counters, and responsiveness of the fighters on another level from today’s game. The clinch was beautiful and continuous, with referees who would let exchanges play out for as long as they kept going and fighters who worked through them.

It should come as no surprise that the fights tended to be more enjoyable. The sport still had the narrative scoring structure which saw the fourth round as the fight’s climax, but the early rounds tended to be more of a true rising action than today’s Muay Thai, where the first two rounds are often thrown away and stalled out. Most of my favorite Muay Thai fights are from this period, but Wangchannoi vs Cherry stands out amongst the others for me.

Wangchannoi Sor Palangchai is an all-time great in Muay Thai. With five Lumpini championships and a Fighter of the Year award under his belt, he has one of the sport’s best resumes. He beat an impressive list of Muay Thai greats, many of them by knockout, including the excellent Namkabuan NongkeePahuyuth who he finished with a left hook in 33 seconds. Wangchannoi was one of the sport’s most ferocious Muay Mats. His punches were devastating, but the skill in his hands was even greater than the power.

Cherry Sor Wanich held the Lumpini 130lbs championship for 3 years, defending it against greats like Saencherng Pinsinchai and Superlek Sorn E-Sarn. He was a locking clinch fighter who looked to snuff out his man’s space on the inside and break their posture to tee off with knees. Today’s Muay Khaos focus more on locking in the clinch than working in transition, but the meta was geared toward transitional work in the Golden Age, and Cherry’s locking style was an outlier.

Their Wikipedia records (which may not be fully accurate, but they’re the best I’ve got) say that this fight took place in 1991, with Wangchannoi having just won the Lumpini 122lbs title and Cherry recently dropping his 130lbs title to Namkabuan. We’ll take this round by round, since there are a bunch of tactical shifts that demonstrate the narrative structure of Muay Thai in interesting ways.

Round 1 - The Setup
Wangchannoi came out hot from the opening bell, teeping Cherry into the corner without even giving him a chance to take center ring. He began applying his trademark pressure, walking Cherry down and putting heavy leather on him.

While Wangchannoi must have been one of the scariest fighters in all of Muay Thai, his aggression was always tempered and methodical. He pressures not by getting in his opponent’s face and constantly forcing them back, but instead by inching forward, occupying space directly in front of them and never relenting for even a second, letting his imposing presence do the work of convincing his opponents to make mistakes and open themselves up.

A consequence of the measured pressure is that he’s always in a strong position to throw power. He rarely gets caught between steps rushing, in fact more often that not it’s his opponent who is forced to break their positioning.



Wangchannoi used long stepping right hands to crash into the pocket. Once inside, he would open up with lovely combinations. Wangchannoi doesn’t flick out throwaway punches as a setup often, instead he probes, folds over his hips, and waits. Each strike he throws is distinct and legible, but his rhythm throws off opponent’s timing. He uses slight pauses the way many fighters use setup punches, building them into his combinations so that his opponent’s defensive reaction comes a split second too soon. You can see his tricky rhythm in the clip above while he manipulates Cherry’s guard, pairing inside attacks with outside attacks and high with low.

Cherry attempted to catch Wangchannoi coming forward with round kicks, but Wangchannoi was unmoved. In Muay Thai, kicks to the arms score, so the legs are typically used to block middle kicks. However, lifting the leg up to check takes you out of a strong punching stance. Wangchannoi prioritized being in position to hit over kick defense:



Instead of attempting to check every body kick, Wangchannoi would just take them on the arm and parry the kick across Cherry’s body. With Cherry’s feet now crossed and Wangchannoi in a strong stance, his parry gives him a chance to land a thudding power shot on an opponent out of position.

Taking kicks to land punches is not an even trade - the kick scores highly and the punch only scores if it shows a clear effect. Wangchannoi’s aim with this counter is not to subtly outpoint Cherry with half-speed counters, but to smash him with his right hand hard and consistently enough to signal to the judges that his punches are breaking Cherry’s composure, while signalling to Cherry that he should stop kicking if he wants to stop taking the right hand.

We also see some of the first clinch exchanges of the fight. Cherry looks to secure his left hand around the head elbow-deep to enter his lock, while Wangchannoi attempts to control his hands at range to prevent him from entering the clinch. When Cherry does get a strong control position, Wangchannoi moves to a bodylock, looking to squeeze all the space out of Cherry’s lock to avoid the knees, before turning or throwing Cherry.



One of the great things about the Golden Age’s smaller gloves is that they left room for punching in clinch transitions. Wangchannoi does a bit of that here, posting his head on Cherry’s shoulder to create just enough space that the right uppercut can sneak through. He then uses Cherry’s reaction to the uppercut to secure a bodylock and hit a twisting throw.

Continued Here

These posts are so great dude, i always enjoy reading them.

 

[UWanaPlayDaGame]

Phetrugnruang's patient, stalking pressure and Nuaphet elbowing off the jab.

Phetrugnruang vs Kaewkangwan



Phetrugnruang Odtuekdaeng and Kaewkangwan V.K.KhaoYai are both top five fighters at 130lbs. They’ve spent most of this year fighting each other, as this was their third consecutive fight in a row. Kaewkangwan took the first fight by decision and the second fight was scored a draw. Phetrugnruang was looking to even the series up at 1-1-1.

From the start, Phetrugnruang looked to march Kaewkangwan down and smother him in the clinch, working with teeps and knees to carry him inside.

Muay Khaos are known for their aggression and relentlessness, but a lot of them actually see themselves as counter fighters. Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn, perhaps the most dangerous Muay Khao of all time, preferred to avoid showing his weapons early in a fight and instead stalk the opponent, letting them initiate their offense first. Phetrugnruang demonstrated a similar patience in his approach here.

He marched Kaewkangwan down in a composed manner, picking up his legs to ward off kicks and close distance, and scoring with long knees. When Kaewkangwan tried to preempt his pressure and back him off, a short rear teep would shut him down and allow Phetrugnruang to keep marching him down.

Kaewkangwan looked to cut angles to the side and pivot around Phetrugnruang, a smart tactic as a fighter marching in behind raised legs is often out of position to smoothly turn. If the retreating fighter times his pivots well, he can score a free kick while his opponent has to plant and turn to face him.

The lateral movement allowed Kaewkangwan to sidestep a few teeps and set up his rear kick, but Phetrugnruang’s patience made it difficult for him to have too much success with it.

If a fighter is charging at you mindlessly, it’s easy to pivot out and let their forward movement throw them off balance. But by advancing in a measured manner and letting Kaewkangwan bring out his weapons first, Phetrugnruang could often use his attacks to get on top of him and trap him in a clinch exchange. It’s much more difficult to play the matador against a stalking spider than a charging bull.

When it did get to the clinch, Kaewkangwan had some answers of his own however. He fought for inside position when Phetrugnruang’s grabbed onto him and made quality use of an inside bicep grip to turn and off-balance.

Inside bicep control allows one to turn his opponent effectively toward the direction of the bicep control and also afford them a position of superior leverage on that side to push forward. Since it’s an inside grip, it also has the benefit of blocking the opponent’s elbow on that side.



Kaewkangwan used the bicep control to threaten footsweeps and land a kick or knee as Phetrugnruang recovered his balance. At one point he used the inside control to simply shove him backwards and land a body kick. It was a really nice show of transitional hitting - when they’re defending strikes, that’s when you look to break their balance, and when they’re recovering their balance or hunkering down to avoid being swept, that’s when you want to strike.

After Kaewkangwan had some success in the clinch, Phetrugnruang began to adapt and work out counters. He started weaving his arm from the outside in when Kaewkangwan went to inside bicep control, ending up with his forearm and glove stuck in the crook of the elbow:



This is a position you see a lot in Muay Thai, but I’ve never really heard it discussed. By wedging the arm inside the elbow, Phetrugnruang nullifies some of the advantages of inside control. Kaewkangwan still has inside control, but his elbow is no longer on top, meaning that he’s blocked from throwing elbows while Phetrugnruang has access to them. This position also allows Phetrugnruang to elevate and open Kaewkangwan’s elbow, exposing his ribs for knees.

The “arm wedge” position was a favorite of Yodpanomrung Jitmuangnon, who used to look to pummel into it from neutral clinch positions and had a plethora of attacks that flowed out of it.

After a strong third round from Kaewkangwan where he was able to counter Phetrugnruang at range and avoid being dominated in the clinch, Phetrugnruang stepped up the aggression. Phetrugnruang started galloping toward Kaewkangwan to rapidly close distance and hopping in behind a raised leg to bridge kicking range into the clinch:



You’ll note that though he’s closing distance much more rapidly, Phetrugnruang is still letting Kaewkangwan go first. Without being given a committed strike to slip or circle away from, it’s much more difficult for Kaewkangwan to pivot away from the gallop, and if he tries to hit back to buy some space, it just gives Phetrugnruang a chance to tie up.

As the fight went on, Phetrugnruang found increasing success in the clinch. When Kaewkangwan tried to control the bicep, Phetrugnruang would hike that arm upward and force it into a lock, securing both hands behind the head with Kaewkangwan’s own arm inside it. From there, he would look to rotate toward the inside arm to get outside of Kaewkangwan and enter a dominant side lock:



We discussed the side lock last week in regards to Praewprao vs Phetanuwat. Phetrugnruang was able to score with this lock several times in the later rounds and take control of the clinch exchanges.

Phetrugnruang came out aggressive in the fifth round and continued looking to score in the clinch, before backing off halfway through the round and fighting defensively once he’d secured the win. It ended up being a competitive fight, but Phetrugnruang’s clinch work in rounds four and five put him ahead.

Full Recap Here

Great stuff man! I finally got around to read some full recaps. These are awesome.

Do you have a review or something on Flukenoi? I put together a playlist of his fights and I'm about to post a new thread about him once I watch some older ones.