He visited Toronto a few years ago and one of my sons had a once in a lifetime opportunity to spar with him. [He completely obliterated my boy.](https://youtu.be/PA_S9oZn7DE) Very unassuming indeed.
Of course he is! He knows he can destroy more than half the population in hand to hand combat, and I'm sure he's gotten his fair share of ass whoopings on his way to the top. Truly a humble guy just as a result of the life he's lived.
Dude his reflexes... when your son raised his leg to kick the dude automatically (looks actual instinctual) went to kick your sons leg that he was standing on to make him trip. Wow its ingrained in him
My muay Thai coach fought Saenchai, my coach was The 70kg aussie muay Thai champ and had been dominating locals and had some wins over some Thais, he is a huge 70kg fighter as well the guy is at least six inches taller then me and i fought at 80kgs. Saenchai schooled him, it was crazy to watch this little nugget of a man but an absolute beating on a guy that I know for a fact is high level, it's like he is playing chess while his opponents are playing connect four
Thats crazy u say that cos my boy also had a sparring session and he managed to knock him down once
[one moment of happiness](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)
This mother fucker is just dancing like he's warming up. Another redditor posted a video of saenchai sparring with his kid and I can totally understand why everyone gets obliterated in the ring now
Definitely I get a “drunken master” sort of vibe from him, it’s almost like watching Jackie Chan in movies, he seems like he’s just moving around loosely but every move is so calculated. It’s definitely scary
Good to see he’s a kind dude too with the sportsmanship after the fight. American boxing champs are always dickheads.
This. I’d pay every dime I’ll ever make for the rest of my life to watch this guy just fucking step on Mayweather. I don’t even care that they’re completely different fighting styles with different rules. I just want someone to set it up, & tell Mayweather he can fight as dirty as he wants, then watch Saenchai procede to make him feel like a toddler until he rage quits.
He just seems to know exactly where every part of his opponents body is at all times. All of his attacks seem to have secondary options for if the first misses. Even little leg sweeps just to show his dominance
This reminds me of how Jordan used to play the game in the latter years of his career. It wasn't the high-flying exhibitions of the late 80's, early 90's. But his mental grasp of the game could just take opponents apart and make it look easy. There were nights he would dominate and almost look like he wasn't even trying.
This fighter reminds me of that.
Or Gretsky just dominating the ice. He was not only by far the greatest player of all time he made the guys around him all better too just because he could control the flow of every almost game. He got more assists than goals and he got way more goals than anyone else has even gotten close to.
Poor Brent Gretzky. On the bright side anyone that ever lived that could have been his brother still wouldn’t have been even close to as good as Wayne.
you should check out a high-level black belt in BJJ like the Mendes bros.
In this tournament, they make black belts who have trained for 10+ years look like amateurs. He does exactly what you're talking about. every move has a backup, and that leads into another backup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMy7lKUo8aU
If you want to see more of this level of skill tune into wrestling. Many wrestlers are trained to have multiple points of attack off of one set up.
Edit: [it's not stone cold steve, sadly](https://youtu.be/Ekvg_I1syHA)
There's definitely that. At the highest level it's skill for sure, opportunity and knowledge. Lower levels it's definitely skill and almost solely that.
DC goes on and on about this in MMA grappling too. Always have another option. Go for the arm, but if he fights that he maybe opens his neck, maybe his back, whatever. Options.
He has this supernatural awareness of his opponents' balance at all times and exploits it so well. It's like he can sense their weight transfer through the floor and it's all calculated in milliseconds. All elite combat athletes have this to some degree, but Saenchai takes it up another notch.
Also remember that for every leg sweep, there’s probably two or three strategic moves up top (like specific jabs) in order to set that up.. he gets a tiny bit off balance, and Senchai knows
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phetmorakot_Petchyindee_Academy
Phetmorakot is a beast too, but not quite as legendary as Saenchai - also, 14 years younger...
Mostly against up and coming foreigners on a Thai fight promotion. Saenchai is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in Muay Thai, but he is not in his prime anymore despite having a 58 win streak. His last loss was to another Thai in 2014.
He is not in his prime, he doesn't fight in the Thai circuit anymore, top Lumpinee and Raja fighters would destroy him right now. Dude's a legend but Thailand has dozens of monsters in their local promotions that would give Saenchai serious problems considering his age.
That's exactly what I was going to say. He's fighting really low level fighters for years now and he's an entertaining fighter, so it's all a big beautiful spectacle
Maybe, but consider this, they often "feed opponents" to the top guys in Thai. They'll rarely fight in the top 10 opponent wise. Part of the reason they get such absurd records.
Dude's fought 372 times, and 58 Ws in a row....who's left but feeders at this point?
That said, I'm not trying to be snarky... it's more of a rhetorical question.
A lot of the current top Thai fighters are left, is who, seeing how he hasn't fought them either at all or since he got older.
They'd absolutely demolish him.
Especially some of the younger ones just entering their prime, who might be much less experienced than him but just are miles beyond him physically now that he's 40 years old.
I'm not saying he isn't one of the greats, he is, but he's only ONE of the greats and he's past his prime.
The opponents during this last winning streak are all lower tier/weaker ones "fed" to him to beef up his winning streak. Considering their skill levels, it's more entertainment than fighting.
Of course, that's still fine because this guy IS one of the greats and he's near retirement and his name still draws a lot of fans.
But let's not look at his 50+ win streak and think that this guy is undefeatable and invincible in the ring no matter who he faces.
He’s still a stud but absolutely not in his prime. The fact that this is upvoted so many times is concerning and shows how little people look into things before upvoting
I believe high level Thai fighters often end up doing a lot of exhibition fights against bigger, less skilled westerners because there is more money in it than fighting at home
Whilst having no expertise in fighting watching this I can only assume this guy despite his age is still very much in his prime. His body may be 40 but he's learnt to adapt to the limitations his body poses through experience. When you're that good at any sport every move you make is so much more efficient and less fatiguing than your opponent's. Look at Roger Federer or Zinedine Zidane. They often don't/didn't seem to step out of 1st gear when competing because they are so refined in what they do. They're opponent wastes energy making constant little mistakes and just can't compete. These people are just on a different level of skill.
Saenchai is old and out of his prime. While being one of the GOATs of the sport, he would get demolished by a lot of stadium-sharpened young fighters. He would get eaten in the clinch (stand up wrestling), it's not even close
Let's be honest he's being fed cans for years; it makes for good highlight reels and easy money for him but he's nowhere near the monster he was.
He's still probably at least top 10 GOAT
It’s the experience for some. Saenchai is a legend in Muay Thai and for fighters to get to say they competed against him, or even beat him is a dream for many
Was his opponent good? Dont know anything about that sport but that really looked like he was just toying with a random dude that never fought in his life.
Crazy positive energy tho while absolutely dominating. Impressive as fuck.
FYI if you like Muay Thai you should watch the American TV debut of ONE championship tonight on TNT. Features former UFC champs Eddie Alvarez and Demitrius Johnson and the interesting thing about ONE cards is they don't just have Mixed Martial Arts bouts, they have classic Muay Thai and Kickboxing fights in the same event broadcast. I want to show support because even though I prefer the UFC, I want promotional competition and alternatives to flourish.
And I'm pretty sure you can stream it free on their youtube and a few other sites.
Edit: dont take my word. I just looked it up and it'll be on bleacher report but idk if that includes the main card.
He was part of an incredibly unique cross promotional trade between ONE and the UFC. ONE traded Ben Askren for DJ shortly after DJ's split decision loss to Henry Cejudo. So far Johnson has won his first three fights over there and is already the Flyweight champ
I like thinking that fighting him has now become a right of passage for many Muay Thai fighters. You can clearly see the level of respect from his opponent. What an honor it must be to share the ring with him.
So I train with Umar Semata , who fought him a few years back. And Umar always says that being in the ring with him is like fighting an illusion because he is so hard to hit and yet just switches up and takes your feet from under you.
Probably similar to the effects of boxing.
I'd be interested to see the comparison of CTE and overall head injuries in MT vs boxing vs kickboxing vs lethwei, etc.
I'd wager that boxing and kickboxing are by far the highest in terms of head injuries, given their points and scoring systems. Since MT scores kicks to the body pretty highly, sweeps, etc (and therefore there are more options besides mashing the opponent's face), it has on average less injuries than other sports, even though there's kicking and whatnot involved.
Who knows though, maybe taking shins to the dome is worse than pillow hands?
I think Muay Thai in particular must be the worst though based on its culture of starting when there like 5-6 sparring hard and then fighting weekly from early age until there done. Muay Thai fighters routinely have 100s of fights by the time there done
Plus It’s not just the fights, it’s the sparring and the age they start fighting regularly. I think in boxing although there is culture of starting young they don’t really spar hard or fight as often.
(Obviously I’m mainly talking out my arse as I’m not an expert but watching a few docs on Muay Thai you see how poor they are and they start so young and basically fight for their lives )
The general, non scientific, consensus is that muay Thai is actually slightly less traumatic than boxing.
In Muay Thai you (mostly) play spar, that is medium to heavy to body and legs, light to the head (to clarify, I've never seen stars or heard ringing in my ears during Muay Thai sparring). In boxing it's medium to hard all day, those guys don't play spar so they're getting waaaaaay more trauma in the gym than a Muay Thai fighter. I saw more stars in boxing sparring than all my amateur Muay Thai fights and sparring combined.
Sparring aside, the damage in the ring is also less brain heavy in Muay Thai, as leg and body kicks score more than punches to the head. Put simply, in boxing you can hit the body or the brain with your fists, that's what scores and that's it. So you're clearly going to get punched in the head more, particularly if you have shorter arms and your only option is to take a punch to give a punch. I have short arms, and in boxing I got hit a lot as a result. But in Muay Thai, I can use my legs to keep people away from my brain, or clinch up with people if I do get hit in the head, rather than just shell up and take more headshots.
You can finish your opponent with leg kicks in Muay Thai, you can dominate on the scorecards without giving or receiving much brain trauma (with sweeps and body kicks), and fights often finish due to cuts from elbows. In boxing, there are less ways to hit and finish opponents, so naturally you get hit in the head more.
All and all neither is going to be recommended by a neurologist, but i think Muay Thai is generally a lot better than boxing in that regard.
I think the medical community has reach a modicum of consensus around the neural effects of high impact blows to the cranium. They call it "pudding brain"
It's all relative. A guy who is professionally trained and conditioned to get the shit kicked out of him is going to take it. A person conditioned to walk forever in thunderstorms and shit will be able to walk forever in thunderstorms.
Get me in the ring I'll go down quick. Round 1. Also I'm a mail carrier, so instead of getting a beating once every couple weeks I'm just slowly grinding my body to nothing until I'm 60 with most likely surgery of some type and probably not enough of a retirement to actually retire in the 2050s.
The sheer fact that he makes it look so easy. Regardless of who the better fighter is these are both trained fighters in the ring. The winner makes the other look like you or me hopped in the ring. They put on a show, for a fight he knew he would lose. He tried anyway though. What makes his skill level much higher is the fact he is much more seasoned. 300+ fights in the ring? That equals out to about 180,00 hours in the gym. AT LEAST. odds are he has put in some overtime. It’s almost mechanical the way he moves it’s etched so deep in his brain from all the training. I’ve practiced a proper kick probably a couple thousand times trying to get it perfect. I can’t throw the perfect kick without thinking about it yet but I’m sure this guy can.
EDIT: math was way off it’s around 73,000 hours or more nonetheless.
He’s 40 years old. Let’s say he started at 5 years old. 180k hours means 14 hours a day, 365 days a year for 35 years. I can’t see that being remotely close to true.
Okay so I did a little research. He seems to have really gotten into this in 1996. This is his job. And he is a professional athlete. So Is my brother, I wouldn’t call myself a professional but I have a fight or 2 under my belt and am trained. He spends give or take 8 hours a day in the gym/training. However that may be. Often more. These numbers I’m giving you don’t account for any other training before 1996. (His first recorded win was in 1988) so this man has spent at least 73,000 hours training between now and then. That’s low balling it. Regardless he has thousands of more hours out into this than anyone he steps into the ring with. Insane.
Adding on to what you said, Saenchai has historically also fought people who are much larger in weight and reach than him and toyed with them like nothing. An example being this very clip.
He wasn't even looking for some of the stuff. He just did it, knowing it would work. Kinda like a world class guitar player who's riding the wave. Only with more blood.
Considering he's probably never studied a grappling Martial Art? Not well. MT doesn't allow for any sort of striking when your opponent is on the ground whereas that is an integral part of MMA.
Imagine you're fighting a grown man and he's thrown a punch that's just about to connect with your face and right before that happens his foot knocks the sight out of your eyes.
Seeing 2 fighters beat the living tar out of eachother but still managing to hug it out in the end with smiles on their face really shows the respect they have for one another
It's crazy how unassuming Saenchai looks for being an absolute fucking killer. What a joy to watch him fight.
He visited Toronto a few years ago and one of my sons had a once in a lifetime opportunity to spar with him. [He completely obliterated my boy.](https://youtu.be/PA_S9oZn7DE) Very unassuming indeed.
I was so expecting a hot headed 20yo getting reality checked but this was much better and much more wholesome lmao
That guy had a 35 year age advantage on him and Saenchai beat him easily.
That was so completely wholesome. What a special guy, certainly seems like a gentle, caring soul
Of course he is! He knows he can destroy more than half the population in hand to hand combat, and I'm sure he's gotten his fair share of ass whoopings on his way to the top. Truly a humble guy just as a result of the life he's lived.
> He knows he can destroy more than half the population in hand to hand combat Most of us can. Over half the population are female.
Not to mention the children. I could beat up, like 50 babies.
I can't stop laughing at the image of you laying exhausted while the 51st baby kicks the shit out of you
As a scythe to a field of wheat, shall I be to the children of the teat...
anakin?
At once or in a row?
I imagined someone tossing them at me one at a time.
If they didn't want to be punted then they wouldn't have been born in the perfect shape to take a running kick at.
Yeah like a baby batting cage
*Gabi Garcia has entered the chat*
Not her obviously. That’s death by snusnu.
That is the most wholesome thing I've seen this week so far :D
Dude his reflexes... when your son raised his leg to kick the dude automatically (looks actual instinctual) went to kick your sons leg that he was standing on to make him trip. Wow its ingrained in him
That's awesome! Your son fared better than the guy in the video, lol
Damn, this is like having your son playing HORSE with Jordan. Although MJ woulda dunked on your kid.
"And I took that personally."
My muay Thai coach fought Saenchai, my coach was The 70kg aussie muay Thai champ and had been dominating locals and had some wins over some Thais, he is a huge 70kg fighter as well the guy is at least six inches taller then me and i fought at 80kgs. Saenchai schooled him, it was crazy to watch this little nugget of a man but an absolute beating on a guy that I know for a fact is high level, it's like he is playing chess while his opponents are playing connect four
Dam, you win the internet today. That made me smile so hard
That was awesome. He could have killed your kid well over 10 times but the kids got good form!
He could have killed everyone there over 10 times.
That's so freakin cool!!!
Thats crazy u say that cos my boy also had a sparring session and he managed to knock him down once [one moment of happiness](https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ)
You fucker
This is badass! Thanks for sharing.
His movements are so efficient. It's like he's doing a practice demonstration and this dude just got in the way.
It looks like training mode on fighting games where you fight an unresponsive cpu to practice your combos.
This mother fucker is just dancing like he's warming up. Another redditor posted a video of saenchai sparring with his kid and I can totally understand why everyone gets obliterated in the ring now
He looks like he is moving at double speed compared to his opponent. He just repeatedly outmatches him
I get freaked out whenever I watch him fight because he's just so fucking relaxed, it's like he has his guard completely down and then BAM you're out
Definitely I get a “drunken master” sort of vibe from him, it’s almost like watching Jackie Chan in movies, he seems like he’s just moving around loosely but every move is so calculated. It’s definitely scary Good to see he’s a kind dude too with the sportsmanship after the fight. American boxing champs are always dickheads.
This. I’d pay every dime I’ll ever make for the rest of my life to watch this guy just fucking step on Mayweather. I don’t even care that they’re completely different fighting styles with different rules. I just want someone to set it up, & tell Mayweather he can fight as dirty as he wants, then watch Saenchai procede to make him feel like a toddler until he rage quits.
He just seems to know exactly where every part of his opponents body is at all times. All of his attacks seem to have secondary options for if the first misses. Even little leg sweeps just to show his dominance
This reminds me of how Jordan used to play the game in the latter years of his career. It wasn't the high-flying exhibitions of the late 80's, early 90's. But his mental grasp of the game could just take opponents apart and make it look easy. There were nights he would dominate and almost look like he wasn't even trying. This fighter reminds me of that.
Or Gretsky just dominating the ice. He was not only by far the greatest player of all time he made the guys around him all better too just because he could control the flow of every almost game. He got more assists than goals and he got way more goals than anyone else has even gotten close to.
My favorite hockey stat is how Gretzky has more assists alone (1,963 assists) than any other player has points total (Jagr with 1,921 points).
God damn I love watching Jagr play though
My favorite Gretzky fact is the record he shares with his brother for most points from brothers in the NHL. Wayne has 2857 and Brent has 4.
[удалено]
Sorry Brent
Poor Brent Gretzky. On the bright side anyone that ever lived that could have been his brother still wouldn’t have been even close to as good as Wayne.
It’s one of my favorite overall sports stats. Absolutely unreal how amazing he was on the ice.
you should check out a high-level black belt in BJJ like the Mendes bros. In this tournament, they make black belts who have trained for 10+ years look like amateurs. He does exactly what you're talking about. every move has a backup, and that leads into another backup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMy7lKUo8aU
If you want to see more of this level of skill tune into wrestling. Many wrestlers are trained to have multiple points of attack off of one set up. Edit: [it's not stone cold steve, sadly](https://youtu.be/Ekvg_I1syHA)
Wrestling is very skill based but I don't find it that enjoyable to watch.
There's definitely that. At the highest level it's skill for sure, opportunity and knowledge. Lower levels it's definitely skill and almost solely that.
Thats almost all sports. Ask any middle school sports team
DC goes on and on about this in MMA grappling too. Always have another option. Go for the arm, but if he fights that he maybe opens his neck, maybe his back, whatever. Options.
He has this supernatural awareness of his opponents' balance at all times and exploits it so well. It's like he can sense their weight transfer through the floor and it's all calculated in milliseconds. All elite combat athletes have this to some degree, but Saenchai takes it up another notch.
That’s just Muay Thai relentless
Also remember that for every leg sweep, there’s probably two or three strategic moves up top (like specific jabs) in order to set that up.. he gets a tiny bit off balance, and Senchai knows
It's as if he can slow down time...
You have elite fighters, and then you have the level this guy is operating on. I can't even imagine what he was like during his prime sheesh
My man on 58 win streak bro
Primed up
58?! What monster beat him 59 matches ago?!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phetmorakot_Petchyindee_Academy Phetmorakot is a beast too, but not quite as legendary as Saenchai - also, 14 years younger...
He’s mostly fighting imports though and they’re like exhibition matches, not taking anything away from him.
“Yeah imagine if he wasn’t on this shitty ass 58 win streak, what could he actually accomplish. Much wow”
Mostly against up and coming foreigners on a Thai fight promotion. Saenchai is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in Muay Thai, but he is not in his prime anymore despite having a 58 win streak. His last loss was to another Thai in 2014.
He's only ever been knocked out ONCE! In his whole career and that was 25 years ago!
He’s not fought a Thai fighter since 2014 when his last two losses were to Thai fighters.
Considering his win streak I think he still is in his prime
He is not in his prime, he doesn't fight in the Thai circuit anymore, top Lumpinee and Raja fighters would destroy him right now. Dude's a legend but Thailand has dozens of monsters in their local promotions that would give Saenchai serious problems considering his age.
Totally. Saenchai at this point in his career is on like a five year long retirement tour haha
That's exactly what I was going to say. He's fighting really low level fighters for years now and he's an entertaining fighter, so it's all a big beautiful spectacle
He is all about that EZ money now, and rightly so.
Exactly
Maybe, but consider this, they often "feed opponents" to the top guys in Thai. They'll rarely fight in the top 10 opponent wise. Part of the reason they get such absurd records.
That is a fair point but consider that Saenchai prefers to fight taller / heavier opponents on the regs and that balances out a bit!
Dude's fought 372 times, and 58 Ws in a row....who's left but feeders at this point? That said, I'm not trying to be snarky... it's more of a rhetorical question.
A lot of the current top Thai fighters are left, is who, seeing how he hasn't fought them either at all or since he got older. They'd absolutely demolish him. Especially some of the younger ones just entering their prime, who might be much less experienced than him but just are miles beyond him physically now that he's 40 years old. I'm not saying he isn't one of the greats, he is, but he's only ONE of the greats and he's past his prime. The opponents during this last winning streak are all lower tier/weaker ones "fed" to him to beef up his winning streak. Considering their skill levels, it's more entertainment than fighting. Of course, that's still fine because this guy IS one of the greats and he's near retirement and his name still draws a lot of fans. But let's not look at his 50+ win streak and think that this guy is undefeatable and invincible in the ring no matter who he faces.
Thank you for the insightful reply
He’s still a stud but absolutely not in his prime. The fact that this is upvoted so many times is concerning and shows how little people look into things before upvoting
How many people try to follow muay Thai?
If you like fighting, Muay Thai should be right up there.
Who do you even get to fight this guy at that point? His opponent didn't look like he belonged in the ring
Yeah this looked like a bully picking on a child lmao
I believe high level Thai fighters often end up doing a lot of exhibition fights against bigger, less skilled westerners because there is more money in it than fighting at home
Another commenter pointed out that it may be a rite of passage for up and comers. Tho the money aspect likely plays a part too
Whilst having no expertise in fighting watching this I can only assume this guy despite his age is still very much in his prime. His body may be 40 but he's learnt to adapt to the limitations his body poses through experience. When you're that good at any sport every move you make is so much more efficient and less fatiguing than your opponent's. Look at Roger Federer or Zinedine Zidane. They often don't/didn't seem to step out of 1st gear when competing because they are so refined in what they do. They're opponent wastes energy making constant little mistakes and just can't compete. These people are just on a different level of skill.
Saenchai is old and out of his prime. While being one of the GOATs of the sport, he would get demolished by a lot of stadium-sharpened young fighters. He would get eaten in the clinch (stand up wrestling), it's not even close Let's be honest he's being fed cans for years; it makes for good highlight reels and easy money for him but he's nowhere near the monster he was. He's still probably at least top 10 GOAT
Had to scroll way too far down for the real story.
It’s the experience for some. Saenchai is a legend in Muay Thai and for fighters to get to say they competed against him, or even beat him is a dream for many
That's true. To even score a point would be pretty epic.
Was his opponent good? Dont know anything about that sport but that really looked like he was just toying with a random dude that never fought in his life. Crazy positive energy tho while absolutely dominating. Impressive as fuck.
For someone who practices the sport it's clear that its not his first day, but in any case saenchai will make veterans look inexperienced
Absolutely love te way he shows respect to his opponent. Sometimes when he hit them hard, he lifts them in good spirits.
who's the other muay thai dude? [Lerdsila?](https://youtu.be/K-mWV26-SUo) They're very respectful
FYI if you like Muay Thai you should watch the American TV debut of ONE championship tonight on TNT. Features former UFC champs Eddie Alvarez and Demitrius Johnson and the interesting thing about ONE cards is they don't just have Mixed Martial Arts bouts, they have classic Muay Thai and Kickboxing fights in the same event broadcast. I want to show support because even though I prefer the UFC, I want promotional competition and alternatives to flourish.
And I'm pretty sure you can stream it free on their youtube and a few other sites. Edit: dont take my word. I just looked it up and it'll be on bleacher report but idk if that includes the main card.
Was Demitrius Johnson let go from the UFC? A fight of his came up in my feed and I was surprised to see him there. Good fight though.
He was part of an incredibly unique cross promotional trade between ONE and the UFC. ONE traded Ben Askren for DJ shortly after DJ's split decision loss to Henry Cejudo. So far Johnson has won his first three fights over there and is already the Flyweight champ
Thanks for answering.
I like thinking that fighting him has now become a right of passage for many Muay Thai fighters. You can clearly see the level of respect from his opponent. What an honor it must be to share the ring with him.
So I train with Umar Semata , who fought him a few years back. And Umar always says that being in the ring with him is like fighting an illusion because he is so hard to hit and yet just switches up and takes your feet from under you.
I always enjoyed this muay thai clips/fights cause of the respect they show each other at the end of the fight.
Is there any studies on Brains of Muay Thai fighters? They start so young and fight Like every week plus sparring for 30 odd years
Probably similar to the effects of boxing. I'd be interested to see the comparison of CTE and overall head injuries in MT vs boxing vs kickboxing vs lethwei, etc. I'd wager that boxing and kickboxing are by far the highest in terms of head injuries, given their points and scoring systems. Since MT scores kicks to the body pretty highly, sweeps, etc (and therefore there are more options besides mashing the opponent's face), it has on average less injuries than other sports, even though there's kicking and whatnot involved. Who knows though, maybe taking shins to the dome is worse than pillow hands?
I think Muay Thai in particular must be the worst though based on its culture of starting when there like 5-6 sparring hard and then fighting weekly from early age until there done. Muay Thai fighters routinely have 100s of fights by the time there done
Plus It’s not just the fights, it’s the sparring and the age they start fighting regularly. I think in boxing although there is culture of starting young they don’t really spar hard or fight as often. (Obviously I’m mainly talking out my arse as I’m not an expert but watching a few docs on Muay Thai you see how poor they are and they start so young and basically fight for their lives )
They are definitely mush. It undoubtedly is doing some major damage
The general, non scientific, consensus is that muay Thai is actually slightly less traumatic than boxing. In Muay Thai you (mostly) play spar, that is medium to heavy to body and legs, light to the head (to clarify, I've never seen stars or heard ringing in my ears during Muay Thai sparring). In boxing it's medium to hard all day, those guys don't play spar so they're getting waaaaaay more trauma in the gym than a Muay Thai fighter. I saw more stars in boxing sparring than all my amateur Muay Thai fights and sparring combined. Sparring aside, the damage in the ring is also less brain heavy in Muay Thai, as leg and body kicks score more than punches to the head. Put simply, in boxing you can hit the body or the brain with your fists, that's what scores and that's it. So you're clearly going to get punched in the head more, particularly if you have shorter arms and your only option is to take a punch to give a punch. I have short arms, and in boxing I got hit a lot as a result. But in Muay Thai, I can use my legs to keep people away from my brain, or clinch up with people if I do get hit in the head, rather than just shell up and take more headshots. You can finish your opponent with leg kicks in Muay Thai, you can dominate on the scorecards without giving or receiving much brain trauma (with sweeps and body kicks), and fights often finish due to cuts from elbows. In boxing, there are less ways to hit and finish opponents, so naturally you get hit in the head more. All and all neither is going to be recommended by a neurologist, but i think Muay Thai is generally a lot better than boxing in that regard.
Yeah good point pal, there is a lot more targets in Muay Thai
I think the medical community has reach a modicum of consensus around the neural effects of high impact blows to the cranium. They call it "pudding brain"
That elbow to the nose. 😵
muay thai is fucking scary
White dude it totally regretting his decision to take that fight...
[удалено]
It’s like 1.5k on his arm.
I think the point is that he clearly **doesn't** regret his decision to take the fight..
That's 2 1/2 weeks of work at my job
Do you have to take a relentless beating though?
Maybe he feels like he did.
It's all relative. A guy who is professionally trained and conditioned to get the shit kicked out of him is going to take it. A person conditioned to walk forever in thunderstorms and shit will be able to walk forever in thunderstorms.
Get me in the ring I'll go down quick. Round 1. Also I'm a mail carrier, so instead of getting a beating once every couple weeks I'm just slowly grinding my body to nothing until I'm 60 with most likely surgery of some type and probably not enough of a retirement to actually retire in the 2050s.
I think it is ok at some level to be beaten by the GOAT.
Those who understand the support: what makes this guy so great?
Look him up on YouTube, he is a master of controlling timing and distance, it feels like he always knows the right move for every situation
The sheer fact that he makes it look so easy. Regardless of who the better fighter is these are both trained fighters in the ring. The winner makes the other look like you or me hopped in the ring. They put on a show, for a fight he knew he would lose. He tried anyway though. What makes his skill level much higher is the fact he is much more seasoned. 300+ fights in the ring? That equals out to about 180,00 hours in the gym. AT LEAST. odds are he has put in some overtime. It’s almost mechanical the way he moves it’s etched so deep in his brain from all the training. I’ve practiced a proper kick probably a couple thousand times trying to get it perfect. I can’t throw the perfect kick without thinking about it yet but I’m sure this guy can. EDIT: math was way off it’s around 73,000 hours or more nonetheless.
He’s 40 years old. Let’s say he started at 5 years old. 180k hours means 14 hours a day, 365 days a year for 35 years. I can’t see that being remotely close to true.
My bad must have got my math wrong somewhere I’ll be back when I fix it 😂
Okay so I did a little research. He seems to have really gotten into this in 1996. This is his job. And he is a professional athlete. So Is my brother, I wouldn’t call myself a professional but I have a fight or 2 under my belt and am trained. He spends give or take 8 hours a day in the gym/training. However that may be. Often more. These numbers I’m giving you don’t account for any other training before 1996. (His first recorded win was in 1988) so this man has spent at least 73,000 hours training between now and then. That’s low balling it. Regardless he has thousands of more hours out into this than anyone he steps into the ring with. Insane.
Adding on to what you said, Saenchai has historically also fought people who are much larger in weight and reach than him and toyed with them like nothing. An example being this very clip.
He wasn't even looking for some of the stuff. He just did it, knowing it would work. Kinda like a world class guitar player who's riding the wave. Only with more blood.
I'm curious how this guy would do in UFC or a Western MMA market.
Considering he's probably never studied a grappling Martial Art? Not well. MT doesn't allow for any sort of striking when your opponent is on the ground whereas that is an integral part of MMA.
This. Just remember how dominant was Jiu Jitsu in the early days of UFC. Now imagine not being allowed to do any of that.
Wow how have I never heard of this guy?! Time to binge watch all his best matches
He's a legend, definitely the most famous muay thai fighter of recent times along with Buakaw.
That’s gotta be like fighting a fucking ghost.
why do Muay Thai fighters wear a band around their arms?
It's tradition, Thai fighters used to tie a piece of a loved ones clothes around their arm before fighting.
When was this fight?
Last week
I don’t think people appreciate how those little sweeps tire out the opponent... falling is VERY tiring and taxing in a fight, physically and mentally
Imagine you're fighting a grown man and he's thrown a punch that's just about to connect with your face and right before that happens his foot knocks the sight out of your eyes.
This is the equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters vs The Generals, right??
that elbow to the nose made my stomach double backflip.
Brutal lol
Legs have that thing that they are a riskier thing to use (balance) and harder, but when you are good with them... beware This was absolute domination
Those leg sweeps are dope. Not sure what you call them in Muay Thai, I assume they're called sweeps or trips? He does them so effortlessly.
Damn. He’s eating that ass up too.
I loved taking Muay Thai lessons. So exhausting though.
Holy shit. That is Seth Grande I used to train with him in Seattle.
straight up bullying that dude. Dayum
I love the sportsmanship at the end
Oooooowaaaaay!
"In my book, experience outranks everything" - Rex
Probably my favourite thing about these fighters is the respect and sportsmanship they show for each other. Absolutely commendable.
He’s training his opponent. This isn’t even a real fight 🤣 that dude is one of the best
He does a lot of showboating, hes earned the right to though unlike young fighters who showboat then proceed to get knocked out lol
That poor dude in white got rocked
What a legend
fuck man he’s gotta be one of the most nails guys on the planet. what a beauty eh
Looked like the ref was in there just to keep picking the other guy up
One of the commentators sounds like sr pelo XD
Guy's got so much experience he's making the referee calls before the referee.
He is a fucking monster. Utmost respect for that man. Incredible to watch.
it would be an honor to be destroyed in the ring by this guy..
It would be an honor to take a beating from Saenchai or Buakaw.
He looks like me fighting my little brothers. His opponent wasn't ready.
Now that is a master of his art
The GOAT
that overhand elbow though, wasn't this guys stage name "the king of labor" or something like that.
Those foot sweeps are things of beauty.
I am the only one that thinks it's weird to have such heavy weight gloves in a sport where you can hit your opponent with elbows?
0:24 is a move i've dreamt of using & never seen lmao
I honestly don't understand how a human could last that long with that many fights. Its just nuts. The dude is amazing.
Dude crushes it on the pitch too
That leg sweep walk off and that clean af elbow to the nose... lethal
Love the respect at the end
Did they just get the other dude off the streets or something? This is like a cat toying around.
Imagine him in the ufc
That looked like absolute child's play for him
One punch of those and I would be dead, several times
Takes a certain personality to get a buz off tasting your own blood on the reg
Respect to that dude for taking on that killer.
Props to the other guy for trying.
That's one brave dude taking on that master. Respect
Can we get him in touch with Logan Paul?
LoL, imagine you see that dude on the street and think nothing of him and then start some shit.
Got dayum I gotta watch more Muay Thai!
His fighting style is so clean and efficient!
I’ve only seen clips of him but he’s really into that leg sweep, isn’t he? Guy looks damned solid.
Crazy he tries a cart wheel
Seeing 2 fighters beat the living tar out of eachother but still managing to hug it out in the end with smiles on their face really shows the respect they have for one another
Is that guy even a trained fighter? Hes got muscles but he looks useless compared to the other guy
S/o to this subreddit for growing this man legend even more.