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The Fight That Inspired the "Sagat" Character? There is a new series of clips put out by a Japanese collector from the 2nd fight between Diesenoi and Sagat. I will say, this edit was very kind to Sagat, it was a fight that in late rounds he was significantly frustrated and defeated, honestly looking like he was losing heart at one point. Instead, in this clip you see the dynamic clashes. You can watch the new clips here: watch the clip here Who Inspired "Sagat"? The surfacing of the video brings up "eyeball evidence" of the very real likelihood that the actual presiding inspiration for the Sagat Street Fighter character was not essentially Sagat himself - who very obviously was borrowed from (his name), and some aspects of his likeness possibly copied - but rather was perhaps Dieselnoi who won the fight going away. You can see from this photo who was the towering unbeatable fighter between them: The Sagat character is 7'5" (226 cm). Dieselnoi above, upon defeating the heavier fighter Sagat for the 2nd time in a handful of months, was cementing his position as possibly the most unbeatable fighter of all time. It is he who is the towering giant. What I suspect is that Dieselnoi's absolute dominance over Sagat, his relentless, unbeatable style, was fused together with the likeness and proud, prowling nature of Sagat Petchyindee, to make a Muay Thai Frankenstein of parts of greatness. Because the videos of those fights have been lost to us (as well as the video of Dieselnoi beating the legendary Samart, a few years earlier - luckily refound, watch it here with Dieselnoi's commentary) , we, separated by decades, have lost just how incredibly imposing Dieselnoi actually was. He literally ran out opponents in his prime of fighting. We all knew that, but until you see it, you can't know it. Now, it's very clear that the Sagat character is based on Sagat Petchyindee in numerous obvious ways, and it has been painful for Sagat to have never received remuneration for the use of his likeness. And it is also clear that the character possesses fight qualities of Sagat, including his penchant for the uppercut. But, I would suggest, the very spirit of Sagat as a towering unbeatable Thai fighter was in significant part taken from the actual towering unbeatable Thai fighter, and probably even from these two Sagat fights, or this single fight, where Dieselnoi claimed the throne, dominantly. It wasn't a close fight. The Japanese legend of Sagat the fighter was also likely derived from this fight of his in Japan, facing Raktae where Raktae plays the part of a punching bag in what borders on looking like a showfight. Further evidence of Dieselnoi's inspiration? Was this a design clue left behind by the creator of Sagat, giving him a characteristic scar on his chest? Dieselnoi also has a distinctive keloid scar that can be seen in all the photos of him in his prime. Hmmmm. We also have to remember, aside from the Tiger Uppercut, Sagat possessed the Tiger Knee. True, more a flying knee like the one appreciated and borrowed from Muay Thai by high profile Japanese kickboxers. But yes, Sagat possessed devastating knees, perhaps another nod to Dieselnoi. All this is to say that when contemplating the impact on combat sports, because of the lack of fight video Dieselnoi's immense imprint has been significantly lost or diluted. The possible origin of at least part of the Sagat Street Fighter character in Diesenoi stemming from these fights where the two faced off actually got Sagat - who is a beautiful and wonderful fabulist and tale spinner - to state in a much read interview that he had actually beaten Dieselnoi two times out of three (instead of losing to him two times out of two) - that interview has recently been corrected, it was no fault of their own, they were only reporting what was said. It was only when directly asking both Dieselnoi and Sagat ourselves, what the record between them was did we confirm that it was 2-0 for Dieselnoi. In Dieselnoi's laughing response "He talks a lot of shit, he never beat me". Unfortunately all over the English speaking internet, in countless articles like this one, including Sagat's present Wikipedia page, is the claim that he had beaten the incredible Diesenoi twice, almost as proof of his own Sagat-ness. It might be like Joe Frazier stating in a foreign language interview that he beat Muhammad Ali all three times they fought, in their famous trilogy. People in Thailand of course knew the results of these fights, they were famous. But in the English speaking West, to show how far we are removed from actual Muay Thai history, we readily took in this re-write of history, as not only true, but also evidence of Sagat's greatness. We have the great irony through the absence of video record, that for decades Samart became proclaimed the unquestionable GOAT, and Sagat proclaimed the "Sagat" of video game prowess, despite Dieselnoi actually proving his dominance over both fighters in otherwise unseen fights. Because we could not see how dominant Dieselnoi was, the lack of video helped us imagine that it was only size that beat Samart - it wasn't - and to accept the false memory that Sagat had bested Dieselnoi. I love Sagat. He is a spectacular and marvelous man and fighter, deserving of remembrance and celebration. Every time we see him its a joy. But somewhere along the way we lost the incredible dominance of Dieselnoi, a loss that probably reflects itself on the effacement of his likely strong inspiration for some of the most stand out qualities of Street Fighter's "Sagat". He is a kind of the "inner" Sagat. Unfortunately the full video of Dieselnoi vs Sagat has not been released by collectors. But there is great hope that with the release of these new clips one day the world will see the video of the fight that likely helped give birth the "Sagat" character of Street Fighter, where game maker combined all that was terrifying in both of these fighters. Perhaps it would be fair to take the working hypothesis that as the video of Dieselnoi's victory over Sagat permeated Japan in 1985 and 1986, Takashi Nishiyama created a character that brought the two together, which debuted in 1987. It's as if Mike Tyson had famously faced off against an incredible tall, relentless unbeatable fighter, and lost definitively. What if Mike Tyson was the same size and as impervious as this towering foe? Yes, he would look something like Mike Tyson, but he would be something much more. The spirit would be of the unbeatable tower. Because for so long the fight itself has been lost, all we had was the evidence of physical resemblance, and a name passed on. What has been at stake though is the legacy of the most unbeatable Muay Thai fighter in Thailand's history. How he will be remembered for generations to come. You can see Dieselnoi watch his fight vs the presumed GOAT Samart here, a year and a half before the Sagat showdown:

Sylvie makes the interesting point that "Dieselnoi" is not easy to pronounce in Japanese, while Sagat is much more so.

I answered a similar question on Sherdog recently. Kettlebell swings are very good, but in my opinion the best exercise to immediately start activating the right muscles (while building balance) is what Da Rulk calls a 'hopscotch' or jumping lunge. Depending on how strong your balance or muscles are, at the end you'll eventually want to start jumping with this movement. I would also recommend isometric holds, these will improve the height of your knees in addition to your kicks - train the obliques to pull that knee up higher and train the hips to be able to manage those heights. Make sure you do these frequently - but they're not the full story. They'll help with your mobility, balance and strength, but really delivering knees with power, you just want to keep kneeing again and again on repeat, either dozens of times or hundreds of times depending on your experience level!

Sagat is 'inspired' or rather, ripped off from the character Reiba, from the 70s manga 'Karate Master'. Right down to the eyepatch (although to their credit, they put it on the other eye That + taking a recognisable, easy to pronounce name, and a busted moveset = many many broken nintendo controllers.

I can't think of anything that would work really well without something to kick, either a bag or a pad. For a middle kick, just kicking all the way to a 180 turn, then another to get back to where you started. I do this in one of my live streams from my At Home workouts. But with or without a pad/bag, the thing about high repetition is the high repetition. So anything you can do hundreds of would ultimately help with your balance and form, over the long run. You could prop your leg up on something that's the same height as your middle kick and then just practice the arms, twist and rise up on the foot, hundreds of times. Or put a pillow against the sofa and mimic the step over and kick of a low kick, steady and without power, hundreds of times.

Thanks for watching the live streams and for using the forum, for exactly what it's for! There are a few places offering online training. Por Promin in Hua Hin has been offering this and I imagine they'd have a pretty good method going by now; they have English, are used to training all levels, and already have the sessions going. Here's their FB: https://web.facebook.com/porpromin/ Santai has said that their offering PT, as well as free technique live videos on their FB periodically. Here's their FB, and you can ask about privates. I recommend Kru Ten. https://web.facebook.com/muay.thai.gym/

The two fighters facing off before their June bout:

This is not an original observation on my part, but I definitely have been thinking about it and weighing the possibility for some time, gathering evidence. The first time I read the suggestion was in this blog post from 2015, which points out that that in Street Fighter II "Sagat" was much lankier; unfortunately though the author perpetuated the false history that Sagat had beaten Dieselnoi which he takes as a knock against his own suggestion: A graphic from the blog post:

This post contains some of my photographic study of the Diamond Guard, a Muay Thai specific modification of an old western boxing guard often called the cross-armed guard, used by fighters like Archie Moore, Joe Frazier and George Forman. What I'm really interested in here is how photography itself can be used to explore a technique or a muay (a style), and the role that aesthetics plays in developing truly effective fighting skills and approaches. This is a particular interesting thought case because during the covid-19 shutdown Sylvie and I are working a great deal on this guard, something we would probably never do during regular training stints, and in many ways we are kind of making up its applications, and favorabilities, modeling them on Sylvie's muay as it already is trajectoried. Her Muay Khao forward advances, her drive to clinch engagements, the history of Muay Khao styles she models herself on. I shot these photos as a way of taking an aesthetic slice into the work we've been doing. What I'm interested in here is the way that aesthetics (or Aesthetics) - which often can be derided as the poor of a spectrum which holds "efficacy" on one end, and aesthetics on the other end - is actually the inflection point where the affective powers of the soul, the person, come to bear on the practicality of a technique. How it appears, what it feels like, what it communicates cuts into the shoreline of the Real of fighting. If one is to develop a defense, for instance, how it feels, what it expresses, what it looks like, may be vital questions for a fighter if one is going to reach the higher ceiling of one's capabilities, of its capabilities. Aesthetics, ultimately, allow the fighter to draw on the greater resources of the soul, the Self, to tap in a deeper poetry. And, this photo study is asking the question: What role can photography have in this?