Thai Boxers

[Miles Teg]

I just watched the lastest K-1 fights on Japanese T.V on Saturday night. Dont want to tell everyone what happened cause I suppose you'll all be watching at some point anyway. But one of the fights particularly caught my interest after the Thai boxing discussion we had.
A thai boxer (of whose name escapes me at the moment) fought the Scorpian (his real name escapes me but I believe he is from the republic of Czech. Anyway the latter is a rather successful K-1 heavey weight fighter with a decent record. Anyway he was put up against this Thai fighter who would have been a middle weight AT THE MOST. 40 kg weight difference and a huge reach and height disadvantage to the Thai fellow.
Well as you might guess the Thai fighter won with relentless attacks and a few tricky moves. I thought it was amazing that this person was getting in and contecting so well before getting out again.
As professional fighters they both would train hard but you really have to put these Thai fighters in another league.
The lessons I got from this fight were:

* Conditioning wins the day

* The Thai guy adapted his fighting style to suit the way more restrictive rules of K-1. So even though the most dangerous and effective Thai techniques were removed he still came out on top. I believe this is the same for W.C. I think W.C has a good foundation that shouldnt be dependant on the "deadly eye poking techniques".

* Dont hold anything back. This guy was relentless.


There was also another fighter where the Sumo Akebono got knocked out cold by the Dutch fighter Lenny who is called "the fly". This was another good example of a much smaller person coming out on top. The only difference is Akebono is not a conditioned fighter.

[SevenStar]

good post. adaptability is something I seem to talk about alot here. IMO, if you know the principles of your style, you can adapt it to the venue.

[Vajramusti]

Saw Roy Jones get knocked out on PPV a week ago Saturday.
His opponent (Johnson?) was less skilled- but relentless.
Often relentless people punch themselves out- but Johnson was hungry and in very good condition. Hardly huffed and puffed between rounds. After the first round Jones told his corner- no problem---this guy is just wild. But sometimes relentless wild action can have a percentage benefit. Mayorga is that way...wild but powerful.Trinidad is poised and a heavt hitter but hasa problem jaw- good fight coming up.

Another brief for conditioning in a fighting sport.

But sporting careers are fairly brief. Jones has been at it for along time- but it may be time to hang up the gloves after two successive knockouts. BTW his head hit the canvas twice- may have beena bigger reason for the concussion and damage that he suffered than the punch itself.

Also saw some replays of PPV UFCs--- again I saw more conditioning than real skill in many of them. Though in a couple
the fatter guy got in the first hard lick and followed up quickly.
Conditioning glass jaws and skins- more difficult than other areas of conditioning it seems. Shamrock seemed more conditioned than Kimo....even though Kimo has learned not to have a pony tail.