I disagree. I've been with my kru for only a year and half and he's already shown me 4 different ways to clinch and he says there are more once you get more advanced. You have different ranges, attacks, and movements within clinches as well whether it's a straight knee, round knee, elbow, dirty boxing, or whatever you want to throw. Throws are cool too. Not only throwing a person to the mat but throwing them into the ropes and bouncing them off into your flying knee. THe details like where to put your chin, squeezing your opponents cheek into the top of your head (certain clinch positions) and making them feel like shit, round knees to the body and draining them for the next rounds, how to use your footwork to make them off balance, controlling your opponents shoulders to minimize their dirty boxing, and just feeling your opponent out in general. I feel like I could go all day and I haven't even talked about clinch defense or transitions and I still don't know shit about clinching.
Again, I'm really biased with the clinch though
I'm not denying that the clinch is one of the most sophisticated skill sets in the martial arts world, but there are just WAY more possibilities when you aren't merely attached to the opponent. Yes, there are mini-ranges and angles within the clinch, but you have even more possibilities outside of the clinch. So many ways to bait someone into doing what you want them to do, so many ways to psyche them out. A mere twitch of the shoulder or hip pivot could imply so many things to an opponent. Bouncing a knee low vs high could psyche an opponent out in completely different ways, and this can also vary based on the previous few seconds of a fight. Leaning forward slightly vs a lot.... taking a big step vs a small step. Even lowering your guard a little at mid-range could lead to a dozen different outcomes vs lowering guard a little at kick range, etc.
I just feel that the kickboxing element of Muay Thai has a dance/rhythm/flow element to it that cannot be duplicated in the clinch. High-level clinching is EXTREMELY technical and anyone to underestimate the potential of the clinch is as stupid as one could get. However, the moment you break from that inside range, there are SO many more options available. Hell, the rhythm even changes when the opponents are 4ft apart compared to just 3.
I can tell you now that boxing has a far more sophisticated movement game (angles, footwork, spacing games, rhythm, etc) than Muay Thai.. just because it's been developed and refined for over a century. Let's name perhaps the three greatest boxers of all time: SRR, Ali, SRL. They were all extremely witty in and out, and are renown for the fact that you could never get close to them as often as you'd like, and that they were almost unpredictable in their intentions because of how they dominated options with movement and timing. And know what? The best Nak Muays are those that can fuck with the opponent's head by dancing around, being unpredictable with how they APPROACH the opponent, the way they control the mind and dictate the offensive and defensive options of an opponent, etc. There's a damn good reason why Samart Payakaroon was/is considered the best Nak Muay in history, Saenchai the best presently, etc. Elite clinchers are heavily respected, but they don't shine in the same way that their fluid, rhythmic "striker" counterparts do.
Clinching is beautiful because it's soooo technically demanding. Yet the kickboxing element of Muay Thai is a crazy blend of precise distance recognition skills, intuition and mind-control, dance-like elements (rhythm, footwork, angles and all other forms of movement), exploiting the ring/arena, and of course.... technique.
Also, remember that clinching takes a dive if you can't get a chance to swim. Loses all relevance when the effective range is not accessible.
I just don't think a Dieselnoi stacks up to someone who can murder competition with an intelligent war-dance.
Perhaps I'm biased against clinching. But it seems that in boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, and even MMA, the man who wins is he who can neutralize an opponent's threat while still being a threat himself. Doing this from the outside is far more efficient/safe than taking risks trying to get in (yeah, you can "punish" an ineffective strike with a grapple-opener, but in doing so you're also far more open than punishing with a counterstrike).
