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I wouldn't label him a clinch fighter, although he definitely wants to get his opponents to clinch with him so he can land elbows from that range and have them be busy while he times them. But his full nickname is the "Elbow Hunter of 100 Stitches," and the "hunter" part to me is his style. He's a forward fighter, relentless even though not necessarily pressuring the way Samson did with his insane pace and forward movement. Yodkhunpon is, to me, a Muay Khao fighter with specialties of elbows.

It feels like the one and only contest in western Muay Thai that is commercially, and perhaps socially underway is "who is the most authentic" (which fighter, which org, which gym....)? As long as that is the battle, nobody can really win. Even if you win as "most authentic" or "really, really real" you are set up against a broader background of "not authentic", you are in a field of in-authenticity. It feels like Muay Thai somehow got caught up in a Kung Fu cultural framework, when in fact it is probably much, much closer to boxing. It doesn't help that notions of authenticity and fake in Thailand are incredibly plastic, which plays into the authenticity paranoia from the west.

I'm always wondering about Yodkhunpon's unique elbow fighting style. In muay Thai I never seen anyone who fights like him. In some videos he's catagorized as a muay khao or clinch fighter. But to me he doesn't seem to be like the traditional clinch fighters in that he actually didn't clinch too much. So could anyone please help me catagorize Yodkhunpon's style into a type of fight in Thailand?

I asked Assist Thai Visa about insurance once and they sent me a list. I can't look at those things very well, I've never had insurance so understanding premiums and deductables and all that isn't something I'm familiar with. They're based in Chiang Mai, so you can go to their office when you move there (contact with them before is of course fine). We used them for our visa when we were in Chiang Mai, good group. I've seen news about how pandemic insurance in Thailand is no longer offering lump-sum payments, but I don't know if these companies also insure non-Thais or not. I would assume they do, in order to have the news be available in English, but I don't know anything about what they are or whether having insurance on an "international" level is better.

He did clinch, but he didn't lock, which is the Golden Age style of clinching. His latching hand is very sticky. I think if you see the clinch style of Langsuan, who does this to the extreme, you'll see the element of clinch I'm talking about, where you use grabs to redirect and attack, and not to immobilize. But, you are very right, clinch is not the primary part of his game. And you are also right that it is very likely nobody ever fought like him, before or since. He'd be categorized as a Muay Sok fighter (and Elbow Fighter), but know that these categories aren't real. They are just very loose descriptors. He was maybe generally a Muay Khao fighter (knee fighter who derns) who also used elbows to pressure, and open up his knees. Karuhat once told us he wouldn't be worried about Yodkhunpon's elbows, he'd worry about his knees. It should also be said, even though we in the west love him, his style is I think considered a very "low" style in Thailand, denigrated and without a ton of appreciation. Even to this day he is vastly underrated in Thailand. It is full of art and creativity, and really beauty. But many Thais can or could not see it because of biases about kinds of fighting, a style that elbows very heavily, and is relentless. You can hear Yodkhupon talk a little about Samson Isaan, and why he made his Top 5 list. This is somewhat the story of Yodkhupon as well. Samson's Muay was also not appreciated in his day:

Most ppl in the West probably know their thing they're doing isn't 'authentic' authentic, but still fun to do and cool for the exercise. Plus, make some good friends too, which is always a plus. For that, it's all good. It's not really the average people with the realness paranoia, just the Western gym owners and trainers. And from a business point of view, they might think they got no choice.