Narupoen Versus Liu Ceng Ceng

A few months back a challenge was rendered allegedly from a team of Thailand’s Muay Thai camps to of all places the Shaolin Temple of Foshan, Guangdong province in China. Excerpts from the story quoted the five famous Thaiboxers as saying that they wanted to “wipe out the Shaolin Temple”. Needless to say the Shaolin Temple was quoted to have said they tired of being bombarded by fight challenges and were not interested in taking challenges from secular fighters. The challenge was summarily declined.

Instead the challenge was answered by known and accomplished Sanda fighters in China and the event was made for December 2009.

I am inclined to think this announcement is a fairly obvious piece of press hype but the fights happened and the Thai contingent were unquestionably A class boxers.  It’s mostly likely overheated hype to generate ticket sales in China.  And per usual the fights were subject to highly modified rules that predictably give Sanda unquestionable advantages.  The most obvious rule being no knee strikes to the head.  The history of Muay Thai versus Sanda matches is pretty well documented in video and print.  The print obviously being biased towards Sanda or Muay Thai depending on the source one gets the reports of these events from.  Though  I love Muay Thai I wanted to share the video so you can form your own opinion without too much effort to editorialize on my own. My opinions will follow the video.

For those not familiar with Sanda it’s basically China’s indigenous style of kickboxing which includes throws that include hip throws and utilize the side kick more than Muay Thai.  Points are also made with clean controlled throws. The techniques in Muay Thai should be obvious to you more or less if you are following this blog.

I will say this if these challenge matches are really supposed to determine who has the superior ring style (instead of generate some quick money for promoters) then they’d have this on even ground and agree to full rules in both formats.  And by even ground I mean neither in Thailand or in China.  The problem being is there an audience for this kind of fighting outside of the 2 nations?

Here’s an actual video of a fight taking place with Kaew Fairtex versus Xu Ji Fu at 60KG.

Now the rant:

1.  The refereeing is pretty bad.  I’ve noticed Xu Ji Fu is provided ample time to tie up with Kaew to execute a throw.  When Kaew ties up he is separated from Fu almost immediately.

2. The lack of unified rules doesn’t do too much towards making a case except that good Sanda fighters can beat good Thaiboxers at Sanda in a rules set favoring Sanda. For the record the Kung Fu team notched up 4 wins to one loss.  From the origins of this type of Sanda versus Muay Thai match they have never had a truly unified rules system. Why not, in the interest of bragging rights and really making some meaningful claim of ‘better’? However it must be clearly acknowledged that the Thai team knew and accepted the rules for this event. It’s reminiscent of K-1 putting in basically retired boxers in the ring with shoes on to fight K-1’s elite and not allowing the boxers to kick.

3. What is the purpose in Thais repeatedly engaging in matches they haven’t really got fair judging, refereeing or even minimal rules in? I couldn’t shake the feeling also that the Thai contingent were there for a payday and little more. Maybe they feel this kind of contest proves little one way or the other.  And indeed one would truly have a hard time saying any of the Thaiboxers took any damage of any kind save one. In fact I strongly doubt this event got more than column worth of writeup in Thai sports press.

4. Muay Thai is pretty healthy without the need to include Sanda in challenge matches.  In fact it had been quite some time since Sanda held an event of any really meaningful (and truly profitable) scale since their biggest sponsor Pabst Blue Ribbon beer pulled out.  Yes, sadly the PBR cheerleaders and Kung Fu form demonstrations before matches seem to be gone indefinitely. This event unquestionably benefits Sanda far more than Muay Thai. It should also be noted the Muay Thai scene in Hong Kong is also very healthy and Sanda is nearly an unknown entity there.

5. Yes they really used the Carl Douglas Kung Fu Fighting song between rounds which includes the faintly racist ‘funky Chinamen in funky Chinatown’ line.

Anyhow leave comments and let me know how you feel about this topic: pro or con.  I plan on sharing more of the video I have of this event so stayed tuned and please share an opinion if you have one.

After much thought I have decided to launch The Week in Review column to do a quick one week compilation of news and notables here at The Science of 8 Limbs.  This should make it easier to follow stories in their continuity.  It should also give a fast and easy week ending review of notable stuff here.  So without further ado let’s christen this one.

Today the Z-1 Muay Thai series final card was revealed featuring Wes Jaya and Leo Monteiro.

March 17th and 18th a the completed Better Late Than Never series highlighted 3 bouts at Lumpinee Versus Rajadamnern event.

On March 17th Sanchai’s American debut hit the internet.

On March 16th The Apocalix card is announced in Italy featuring Kem Sitsongpeenong

On March 14th MSA announced bringing the biggest Muay Thai card to the UK ever.

Followups to all these events will be posted later.  Leave me comments on whether you like this sort of round up or not too.  Thanks for reading!

Fellow bloggers  at Box Tomoi have shared some news with me!  The final for the Z-1 series final is coming up fast March 27, 2010.  I shared the news of the 3 weight category full rules Muay thai tournament here. Z-1 is one of the few tournaments to break with tradition and actually have more than the typical 8 man 2 tier setup in 2 very significant ways.  It 0ffered 3 different weight categories and the tourney was deep in truly international talent.

Headlining the Z-1 final card will be Wes Jaya who I had the pleasure of interviewing prior.  Along with Leo ‘Amendoim’ Monteiro. The two co-main events are:

63.5 kg Leo ‘Amendoim’ Monterio (Brazil) Vs. Abbas Ahmadi (Boxx Warriors, Malaysia)

67 kg Wes Jaya (Boxx Warriors, Malaysia) Vs. Wuttichai S. Tuptimsakeson (Thailand)

Z-1 2010 Final

The rest of the card includes 4 superfights:

Super Fight 1 – Fauzan Zabidi (Boxx Warriors) Vs. Abuza (Malaysian Tigers)

Super Fight 2 – Iddi Selandang Kuning (Boxx Warriors Ampang) Vs. Zidov Akuma (Croatia)

Super Fight 3 – Bow Sowailek (Boxx Warriors, Thailand) Vs. Behzad Rafigdosdt (Iran)

Super Fight 4 – Firdaus Janai (Boxx Warriors) Vs. Thomas Sidyumlang (Thailand)

Z-1 Final poster

The Z-1 Final teaser looks good! Good luck to all the fighters.

Here’s some press about the upcoming event too.

Here is the remainder of the fights I have from the Lumpinee versus Rajadamnern Super Show!  Enjoy and you can find the other fight here. If you want to go way back to the original post about the historic Super Show you can read about it here.

You can view the first fight here.

Ratchadamnern Versus Lumpini

Way back in August I announced the historical war of the Thaiboxing stadium of Lumpini and Ratchadamnern.  The historic event featured some of the hottest fighters and current champions of both stadiums at the time.  Well believe it or not I actually never did forget about the event.  I just never had much more to post about it except the quick results.  But now some foot age has finally began appearing on the net and I can now in turn share it with you.

Enjoy.  The first fight up is Petchthawee versus Sam-A.

As I find more of these videos I’ll update the fights.  Thanks for reading!

Sanchai Sor Kingstar recently made his American debut at the Muay Thai Extravganza held in El Monte, California. Sanchai fought Tesuya Yamamoto for the Muay Thai Association of America world title.

Thanks to MEXTHAIBOXER for the video!

After a close fight with Giorgio Petrosyan under K-1 rules it looks like Kem Sitsongpeenong is due to return again this time under full Muay Thai rules! Gotti Promotions with the Italian Muay Thai Association collaborating with Song Chai Promotions brings you this one! All fights are under Full Muay Thai rules.  Kem had a very close match loss against Giorgio Petrosyan under K-1 rules in Milan.  Could the difference this time out be in the rules?

Apocalix Poster

Headlining the fight will be Kem Sitsongpeenong Vs. Abdallah Mabel from France for the WAKO Muay Thai world title. The rest of the card looks really good as well.

Andy Thrasher will face the next big Dutch Moroccan talent Hakim Bouzambou who only has 3 losses in 30 fights. Bouzambou was originally scheduled to fight Harrison last year which shows how highly rated he is.

Watson takes on Italian champion Gianluca Bucceliero who has featured on the Queens Birthday.

Check out the new shiny trailer:

Also be sure to check out the rest of the line up and poster.

Just got this from the busy promoters of MSA.  Looks very promising!

MSA Muay Thai Premier League – Saturday 27th March 2010

MSA brings you the biggest muaythai show ever in the UK!

Taking place at the Manchester Evening News Arena in the heart of Manchester, MSA Muay Thai Premier League will be the biggest show to ever take place in the UK.

The lineup features Thailands best as well as some of the best domestic matches ever seen:

Some of the stars of the card

Liam Harrison (Bad Company, Leeds) vs Anuwat Kaewsamrit (Thailand, 2 x Thailand fighter of the year)
Harrison, arguably England’s best pound for pound, is out for revenge having lost previously to anuwat on a super show in Jamaica last year.

Michael Dicks (Darlington) vs Bovy Sor Udomsorn (Thailand)
Both of these two only know one way to go and that is forward. Bovy Sor Udomsorn is regarded as one of Thailand’s most exciting fighters ever.

Damien Trainor (K-Star, Birmingham) vs Kaewklaa Kaewsamrit (Thailand)
IKF World Champion Trainor has a tough challenge against Rajadamern Stadium title challenger Kaewklaa

Neil Woods (Kaobon, Liverpool) vs Kevin Harper (Majestic, Wigan)
These two old adverseries, two of Britain’s best ever, return from several years out just to fight at MEN Arena and settle the score.

Dean James (Pra Chao Suua) vs Andy Howson (Bad Company, Leeds)
Dean James challenges Andy Howson for the no.1 bantamweight spot in what will be one of the domestic fights of the year

Kieran Keddle (Semtex, Swanley/London) vs Imran Khan (Wicker Camp, Sheffield)
The long awaited contest between two great technical fighters as Keddle makes his return to the ring, a guaranteed elbow fest.

UKMF British title
Simon Chu (Kiatphontip Leeds) vs Daitan Jackson (Salford Fight Factory
War of the roses, Yorkshire vs Lancashire for the vacant British title

Stuart Kemp (Tobins Gym, Leeds) vs Alex Abusin (Bradford Thai)
Upcomer Kemp has a big test against the tough Abusin

All fights are contracted and with two other fights to be announced, this is certainly the card of the decade!

For tickets go to http://men-arena.com/about/?page_id=1653

Doors 4.45pm Show Starts 5.45pm Sharp

Here’s some video footage of Anuwat hard at work in the office: