Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
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Posts posted by Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu
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Thai Drag
For a long time Sylvie and I have just privately referred to some Western fighters in Thailand as doing "Thai Drag", which are these hyper stylized relaxations or over-exaggerated stylistics that indicate for them "Thai Style" when fighting in Thailand. This is difficult, in the sense that these fighters really do value and respect Thai style, and the values that drive that style and make it effective....and they are on the opposite end of the spectrum of people who come to wail it out in aggro-styles of Western combo fighting...though, some Thai Drag is kind of combo heavy, as these fighters often are "all about technique" and are very focused on precise exemplifications of "proper" technique, something they then then practice and drill in (non-Thai-style) combinations. Not relaxed at all: read my Precision – A Basic Motivation Mistake in Some Western Training Seeing another Thai Drag example just now, it calls to mind the difficulties of Westerners (from another culture) have in respectfully and accurately taking on the fighting style/s of Thailand...but there is a dimension of this which is kind of Drag Queenish (a supporter of trans- and drag- sexualities, so not saying this in a demeaning way)
Below Dekkers in an interesting short convo talked about Western fighters at the time trying to fight like a Thai. "You're not a Thai, so don't fight like them, they are much better than you." he says:
I don't think Dekkers is talking about Thai Drag, at this point, which involves a sort of emotive, and physical signaturism, but he is bringing up the point of trying to adopt a foreign style. I'm not really a fan of what Dekkers brought to the sport, in terms of how much he probably spearheaded its eventual distortion into today's Entertainment Muay Thai, but for those seeking the "true" heart of Muay Thai, in both its ethos and its effectiveness, this question of Drag is an interesting one.
I think also of Skarbowsky's style, which is not pretty at all, but is quite relaxed and slowly pressuring. He lacks almost all visual signatures of "relaxation" as a stylistics, he isn't imitating relaxation...but he is very relaxed. He also isn't really bringing a Westernized Kickboxing to the ring either. He seems to have found his own, personal stylistic path within the deeper ethos of the art. He trained at the famed Jocky Gym, one of the most femeu gyms in Thai history, with fighters like Somrak in the fold at the time, but he isn't imitating a "femeu" style.
I'm not providing Skarbowsky as an ideal type or style, but he does create a contrast with Dekker's answer to Thailand's Muay Thai, without passing into drag. Andy Thomson, legendary farang trainer of Lanna in Chiang Mai who trained many, many farang over the years, used to say that everyone has their own Muay Thai, there are thousands of Muay Thai.
This isn't a criticism of Western fighters who fight in what might be seen as a kind of Thai Drag, every fighter is sincere in developing their style, but this is rather to share our own thoughts about Western ethos and Thai sensibilities as expressed in style; we realize "technique" loving styles or imitations often are affectively posted at the opposite end of the very aggro- handed, volume combo-fighting that Westerners can also bring the Thailand (an end of the spectrum we also recoil from), but also see that the "answer" to learning Thai style and effectiveness, in that there may be one, is found somewhere between the two extremes.
There is a sense in which the ultimate principle in Thailand's Muay Thai may be tammachat, naturalness, which is kind of unforced aspect of movement. How you walk down the street is tammachat for you. Westerners can be caught very much in the beautiful of Thai striking, and credit much of that beauty to the physical lines it creates, almost bio-mechanically, but the true inner secret of that beauty is in their tammachat quality. In some sense if you approximate Thai techniques or stylistics without tammachat, you are missing the whole thing. You are doing "drag" in a way.
This may mean that the tammachat version of Thailand's Muay Thai, for non-Thais not raised in the culture, or begun from a young age in the kaimuay, looks and is different than it would be for Thais who have been. There is a tammachat version, but its won't be indistinguishable. That's one reason why I find the Skarbowsky version kind of interesting.
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Edit in: We asked Arjan Surat about this and he says what the article below describes never happened. This would suggest that this article was a public pressure article by SongChai. Either Samart chose not to go, or Sityodtong stopped it, or both. Kept the discussion of it though, instead of deleting because its still an interesting event in the politics of Samart's comeback to Muay Thai.
Interesting detail found by Sylvie today. SongChai says that he's sending Samart over to Arjan Surat to train him up, talking about a warm up fight in November, and then a Lumpinee fight on the King's Birthday in December. from Muay Siam, October, 1987 (fights that aren't recorded as happening). In three months Samart would make his comeback to Muay Thai, fighting Panomtuanlek.
machine translate the 2nd page:
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Smart lost his WBC World Boxing Title to Jeff Fenech in May of 1987, and here he's seen as undergoing thorough health evaluation, apparently to begin serious training. Samart is famous for not training hard at this point in his career, so its notable that he's being sent to Arjan Surat, with a house being rented nearby. Arjan Surat was renown as the boxing trainer of World Champion Payao Poontarat, but even more so for being one of the toughest trainers in Thailand. They seem to be basically moving Samart out of the Sityodtong gym, at least for a stretch, to keep his mind of training and toughen him up. Also, the emphasis on the full medical examination, could this mean that the story that the deep weight cut for the Fenech fight (which was claimed to have weakened Samart) created the impression of possible damage? Thais do believe that strong weight cuts (with Samart's admission of the use of diuretics because he was having such a hard time with it) can permanently affect your health, Dieselnoi believes this of his cut vs Samart. The medical evaluation could be in answer to those concerns.
If the machine translate is right, SongChai is talking about Samart becoming World Champion again (which could be translated as "champion of a 2nd era), establishing a budget and lining up two fights (he would end up becoming the 1988 FOTY he never fought for the Lumpinee title in the coming year), I'm not sure what that phrasing means, because he would end up re-starting his Muay Thai career in January.
It also seems quite stark that Thailand's most famous promoter, SongChai, seems to be taking Thailand's most famous fighter, Samart, out of one of its most famous gyms, Sityodtong, for this comeback. This doesn't seem like a politically neutral act, unless Derjat and and Sityodtong had a working relationship of sharing training, like many non-Bangkok gyms do with Bangkok gyms. (Wangchannoi, I believe told us that when he was younger he used to spar with Samart at Muangsurin gym, if I recall. Which would mean that in Samart's comeback he fought at least 3 fights vs former sparring partners.) This political dimension makes me wonder if Samart even ended up going to Dejrat gym, and if this article was a public pressure article. The two announced fights in it were never recorded as happening.
The well-known Panomtuanlek fight:
My portrait of Arjan Surat just last week:
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8 hours ago, Jameson said:
I am really confused between manop and sitjaophao . I want to improve my techincals . I have spoken to someone who has train at both this places and he said tht he like sitjaophao more because everyday they give emphasis on cliniching, sparring and technicals . Can anyone else share their view on the two gyms please . Thanks
*as a mod I've edited your title to be more informative to readers as to what it's about, its always good to present the topic substance in the title
Both gyms are popular with students looking for "technique" and correction. Unless you find someone who has recently been to both (in the last year) and has your overall needs, it will be very hard to be able to gauge was it better for you. We've been to both, but a while ago. Sitjaopho was kind of remarkable in that it does provide a kind of authentic, but still technical environment (partly because all the farang there are themselves very into technique, so it creates a culture) but does this all in a very crowded gym. I don't know how they do it, I've never seen it elsewhere in Thailand. Crowded, but high level, creative and technical. Manop's we haven't been to in a while, but we found it a much smaller gym, so you might (???) get a more one-on-one, or looser feel for training, which might be good for you. But I'm just going off of vibes from a few years ago, and what I saw.
If you are only training for a month, Sitjaopho might be best in that there is an entire culture of training there, including the long time students, and it will be easier to slip into a "way of life", because everyone's on that page? It takes about a week or 10 days to even acclimate yourself if you've never trained in Thailand before.
But, we haven't really seen Manop's gym in a while.
Generally, its very hard to take the advice of people online. They just are different kinds of people, see and experience different things, and gyms change very quickly in Thailand. Even 3 months can change a gym if a trainer leaves, or a group of students come or go.
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The Influence of Diego Velázquez' Portrait of Juan de Pareja (1650)
I hadn't thought about it while writing this series until now, but I've been surely influenced by Velasquez's incredible painting. In the past I've called it my favorite painting, and I've visited in person more than once, staring at it. Not only does it hold that dark, luminous light, and a red-green fire color palette, the power of the eyes really elevates its accomplishment.
I realize now that the painting, from decades ago, has shaped this current experimentation with portraiture, and you can see it in the color edit I did of another frame of Dieselnoi in this shoot, looking to publicly present color for Thai social reasons outlined above. The parallels are unconscious for me, and its been a while since I've thought about this painting, but it always is speaking to me. Side by side you can see the very strong influence.
It's kind of remarkable when put together. It isn't just the soulful treatment of the eyes, but also in this case that green to red, the skin tones, and the specular highlights on the face, which also are seen as emphasized in the Deep Black style.
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Dieselnoi Portrait
I'm enjoying this neutral palette portrait of Dieselnoi today. I usually push for contrasts, colors and forms, but I wanted to see something simple as a glass of water, and look at this wonderful man and fighter for a second.
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Japanese Fascism and Kickboxing
Reading up on the history of Japan's ethno-Shinto Fascism, to get a better sense of where Japanese Kickboxing grew out of, and what it represented in the Yakuza-ultranationalism that produced it. This should also give some insight into Thailand's Muay Thai and ethno-centrism it might reflect. It is not uncommon even today for Thais to speak of how Muay Thai is in their blood. Recently a kru explained to us his belief that Thai fighters were like fighting chickens, bred in a sense to fight (explaing why farang and Japanese aren't very good). We couldn't very well explain that this has to do with how much embodies Thai culture (and not genetics). This concept of blood and nation runs through Thai mythos, and Thailand itself had a history of Fascism, to which Muay Thai was not immune.
The above from the following book on Japanese ultranationalism.
Japan's Holy War_ The Ideology of Radical Shinto -- Walter Skya.pdf
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11 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
1972 Kyu's brother Osamu Noguchi, after being banned from promoting boxing due to fight fixing, invents Kickboxing, and opens a high-end Muay Thai gym (and cafe) in Bangkok. But he is run out of town by rioters (photo below). - Osamu is 38.
Here is a bit of follow up, and detail, coming from Osamu's Japanese wikipedia page (credit to Lev):
The English language report of the event in a 1976 book is here:
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5 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:
The Noguchi Family, Kickboxing and Thailand
- 1962 the Japanese Boxer Kyu Noguchi fights the famed Thai Pone Kingpetch for his world title...but loses (video above) - Osama is 28.
I don't know enough about Japanese politics in the early to mid 20th century to know the accuracy, or even possible political bias in the author/s, but below is a Google translate of an article in Japanese which details the ultra-Nationalist roots of Noguchi gym, and Osamu's ultra-Nationalist boxing father, who had been jailed for an assassination attempt. The family had moved to the recently Japanese-captured Shanghai so Osamu's father could run nightclubs for the Ultranationalist and underworld figure Yoshio Kodama. Keep in mind, this is machine translated, and there may be inaccuracies. In terms of the history of Thailand's Muay Thai, and its relationship to Japan's Kickboxing in the 1970s-1980s it does give important socio-political context to the rise of Japanese Kickboxing, and also the concept of its fusion with televised Entertainment.
you can find the original article in Japanese here (found through wikipedia footnotes)
Also, read the wikipedia on Japanese ultra-Nationalism (Fascism): Shōwa Statism (國家主義, Kokkashugi) is the nationalist ideology associated with the Empire of Japan, particularly during the Shōwa era. It is sometimes also referred to as Emperor-system fascism (天皇制ファシズム, Tennōsei fashizumu),[1][2] Japanese-style fascism (日本型ファシズム, Nihongata fashizumu)[2] or Shōwa nationalism.
"...between 1921 and 1936 three serving and two former prime ministers were assassinated"
Keep in mind, Thailand has had an extended period of Fascism, beginning with the Phibun dictatorship in 1938. And it has been argued that Thailand's Bangkok Muay Thai also played a role in that ideology during those decades. Imperial Japan's occupation of Thailand during WW2 was an impactful event in the relations between the two cultures, and likely shaped how Japanese Kickboxing was received in the 1970s and 1980s.
The translated article:
My father was both the "strongest boxer" and a "fervent patriot"
Noguchi Osamu's father, Noguchi Susumu, was a star in the early days of Japanese boxing.
Born in Nezu in 1907 (Meiji 40), he was an Edokko (Tokyo native) who was strong from an early age, boasted of his fighting prowess, and was a Yokozuna in amateur sumo. As an adult, he worked hard as a stevedore in Yokohama, and was called to take part in "Juken matches," where Japanese and Westerners competed against each other in inter-school competitions held at gambling dens and churches.
At the beginning of his career, he belonged to the "Teikoku Boxing Association Kendosha" (now Teiken Boxing Gym), which was founded by Tanabe Munehide (the half-brother of Hankyu Toho Group founder Kobayashi Ichizo, who later became the president of Korakuen Stadium and founded Korakuen Hall, the mecca of boxing). However, when the dojo closed due to lack of funds, he joined the "Dai Nippon Boxing Association," which was founded by the rising power and Kobe boss, Kano Kenji, also known as "Pisu Ken" (nephew of Kano Jigoro of the Kodokan).
At first, the cards were arranged as a match between judo and boxing, and a judo-boxing match, but as people grew tired of it, promoter Kenji Kano switched to boxing events. In
1927, in the main event of the first boxing event held at the Kokugikan, Noguchi Susumu defeated an American boxer and became the Japanese welterweight champion.
Nicknamed "Lion," his aggressive fighting style and strength made him popular, and Naoki Prize-winning author Daikichi Terauchi, who watched Noguchi's matches live as a boy, called him " the greatest, biggest, and most heroic boxer in Japanese history, who will never be seen again."
Although he was a popular boxer who attracted tens of thousands of spectators to baseball stadiums around the country and fought more than 50 matches in total, Noguchi Susumu also had another face. He was
Toyama Mitsuru of the Genyosha, the source of the right wing in Japan. He also belonged to the right-wing group Aikokusha, founded by his successor Iwata Ainosuke, and in addition to fighting, he was also involved in political attacks, making him a national patriot = terrorist. An
astonishing two-sword style that is unthinkable today.
What is particularly noteworthy is that he did not retire from boxing to become a national patriot, but rather performed both roles at the same time.
In the midst of the winds of the "Showa Restoration" before the war, not only were there the May 15th Incident and the February 26th Incident, in which military personnel attacked government officials, but there were also frequent outbreaks of terrorism in which right-wing hitmen attacked politicians.
In 1930, HamaguchiYukiOsachiThe Prime Minister was shot at Tokyo Station. Hamaguchi survived, but died nine months later from bacteria that had entered the wound. The shooter was Sagoya Tomeo (later Yoshiaki) of the Aikokusha.
Sagoya Tomeo was paroled in 1940. After his release, he became the son-in-law of Iwata Ainosuke, and later became a leading figure in the right wing after the war.
Noguchi Susumu was also like an older brother to Sagoya Tomeo.
In 1931, the residence of the then Minister of Finance, Inoue Junnosuke, was bombed. The main culprit in this case was Osawa Yonekichi, a senior member of the Aikokusha, but Noguchi Osamu was arrested along with Inoue's younger brother, Osawa Busaburo, Akao Satoshi, Kodama Yoshio, and others. At this point, Noguchi Osamu and Kodama Yoshio had met. In
1933, Noguchi Osamu was also involved in the attempted assassination of former Prime Minister and Rikken Minseito President Wakatsuki Reijiro. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
When the protagonist, Noguchi Osamu, was born in 1934, his father was in prison.
Moreover, during this period of confinement, he reunited with Kodama Yoshio, who would later become "Japan's number one mastermind" and who
was in the same cell as him at Fuchu Prison, and they developed a strong friendship. While his father was incarcerated, his mother and son were looked after by the Osawa family of Ueno, who were senior members of Aikokusha. Incidentally, his younger brother Busaburo was involved in boxing and rakugo performances, and the profits were used to fund the Aikokusha.
Noguchi Osamu was imprinted with boxing and performing arts performances during his early childhood.
After his release from prison, during the Second World War, the family was invited by the Kodama Agency to live in Shanghai.
However, his role was not to procure supplies, but to perform performing arts.
He established the Noguchi Entertainment Department, which invited singers from Japan such as Dick Mine and Noriko Awaya, as well as the rakugo performer Torazo Hirosawa and a swordplay troupe to military entertainment facilities, and the family became involved in it.
The foundation for Noguchi Osamu's involvement in the entertainment industry was already laid in Shanghai during the war.
From the beginning, the author skillfully organizes and writes about the rise of boxing before the war, the complicated human relationships in the early entertainment industry, and the motives of the terrorist Susumu Noguchi's crimes.
In other words, the essence of entertainment is to repeatedly make hostile and reconcile within the principle of competition, to follow the principles of obligation and humanity, to settle things, and to build a mutually supportive relationship.-
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On the other hand, as Rajadamnern stadium's RWS promotion seeks to accommodate itself in ruleset to Japanese fighters, Western fighters, and their audiences, they to their credit also have pushed hard toward preserving the distinctly Thai cultural heritage and meanings of Muay Thai, distinguishing itself from ONE (at Lumpinee) which sought to remove almost all Wai Kru and Ram Muay. ONE was pressured by legal action to change how they treated the traditional pre-dance. RWS on the other hand actually put a mandatory Wai Kru / Ram Muay into the contract, and even imposes a 20% purse penalty if you don't perform one. A fighter will have to actually learn one, if they don't have one. This is quite remarkable, aligning RWS with preservation efforts.
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The Noguchi Family, Kickboxing and Thailand
- 1962 the Japanese Boxer Kyu Noguchi fights the famed Thai Pone Kingpetch for his world title...but loses (video above) - Osama is 28.
- 1972 Kyu's brother Osamu Noguchi, after being banned from promoting boxing due to fight fixing, invents Kickboxing, and opens a high-end Muay Thai gym (and cafe) in Bangkok. But he is run out of town by rioters (photo below). - Osamu is 38.
- 2024 - A Japanese Kickboxer with only one Muay Thai fight on his record attempts to defend his Rajadamnern Muay Thai title, having never fought in Thailand before, under modified rules to help foreign Kickboxing styles, and entertain foreign crowds.
Now the Noguchi vision of hi-so, upper class Kickboxing in Bangkok has taken hold of the sport in its Entertainment versions, and in the shifting popularity of the sport among the wealthy in the Capital.
In about 60 years the Noguchi family legacy has worked through a strange arc. Osama had not even thought of Kickboxing when his brother lost to Pone Kingpetch, but he had a vision which has proven very far ahead of his time.
Speculatively. An interesting detail in Osamu's biography is that he was raised around night clubs in Shanghai run by his father (a former boxer of interesting, ultra-nationalist history), entertained by the legendary singer Dick Mine, who sang in a translated Western and popular style. Could these very early hybrid-culture experiences (up to maybe 12 years of age?) of classy entertainment, along with his father's Nationalism, have shaped his own vision of the sport much latter?
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4 More Deep Black Portraits in the Series
These photos, other than that of Chatchai, have more light than the those of Ajran Surat and Takrowlek, I'd like to keep the style very dark, but I'm just exploring now, and those of Dieselnoi, Karuhat and Kongtoranee are very beautiful. I'm not sure of where I'll go with this, if I want consistent lighting characteristics, or a landscape of differences between men.
Chatchai
Dieselnoi
Kongtoranee
Karuhat
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Accounts of Thais vs foreigners in the 70s
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Here is a throat choke Dieselnoi said he used on Sagat, which you could do in smaller gloves.
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Perfectly legal kick to the groin. Interesting to see it displayed as its own technique.
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Camp with 50 fighters in Chiang Mai. Looks like it's in a (school?) gymnasium with a basketball court. Seems the author reports mostly? from Chiang Mai experiences?
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Hmmm. Interesting stuff...or lore. But we have film of Thai heavy bag traing since the 1930s. Hitting bags of rice has been told as common if heavy bags couldn't be afforded.
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No training on the weekends in the 1970s? Hmmm. Maybe in his Chiang Mai gym? This seems dubious. Pudpadnoi described his camp life in the 1970s as "worse than the army".
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This is inaccurate, as we have video evidence and first hand report that rope grabbing was permitted in the major Bangkok stadia, perhaps until the early 80's. It casts a bit of doubt perhaps on the author's other detailed descriptions?
Edit in: here we go a little later. I don't know, it seemed common enough to be deployed as an actual tactic. Not sure where he source on official rules is. Even by 1990 all fighters didn't know rope grabbing was illegal.
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This is hard to guess at. He wants to really push the hyper violence for his readers, and claims to have watched thousands of fights...often both covered in blood, and no progressive nature seems quite fantastic.
A short while later he emphasizes knockouts, but not sure what the grammar is here? 8, 9, 10 knockouts per card? Or is he imitating a 10 count?
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I missed this little bit, higher up. Already the traditional kaimuay as a place that houses its own fighters is seen as disappearing. Who knows what the author is basing this on, in their in person experience (Chiang Mai?), or a complaint of older fighters/krus?
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Women in Muay Thai
I've read a lot of the history of women fighting in Thailand (there isn't a lot of it on record, but I've probably read everything in English) and this is one of the most substantive reports pre-2000s. There was rumor (reported in a documentary) that women actually briefly fought in a secondary ring in the 80s-1990s (?) at Lumpinee, but I've found no collaboration.
This report below seems to be quite from afar (little in person awareness) and combined with varying degrees of sexism you might expect from an American serviceman in Thailand in the 70s. The story of the Ali vs Norton fight is interesting! (1973), but seems also dubious, or only partial in detail. There were, as far as I know, no National televised broadcasts until 1988, so I'm not sure where this was televised...or if it was on tape. And it seems pretty unlikely that someone would follow up the Ali v Norton fight with 5 female bouts (???). But, maybe there is some truth to it, maybe a taped broadcast on a local channel, someone trying to promote female fighting?
Also, finally I have the source for the very sexist/racist comment I heard from a well known American Muay Thai coach whose female fighter beat a Thai female fighter, somewhat outrageously claiming that female Thai fighters were just in the ring to avoid prostitution. Well, I guess they read this book. Here though, it comes from a paternalistic Thai who is saying that fighting gives women an alternative to prostitution, trying to make an argument for the moral improvement of Muay Thai, an argument that is made for young male fighters as well (keeping them off drugs, or out of gangs).
Who knows about the relevance of this polemical claim, but that fact that it traveled 30 years at least to the mouth of an American Muay Thai coach is disheartening, and just shows how exoticizing and demeaning the picture some Westerners keep of Thailand.
Most interesting, perhaps in the broad brush, is the idea that female Muay Thai fighting was popular in local scenes, and that its National interest may have been something that came and went, possibly for decades and decades.
But women have been fighting in Thailand, in rings, for over 200 years. It's a shame that so many do not credit them with their own National art and excellence.
First recorded female fight 1809
First Photographed Female Muay Thai fight 1929
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Interesting numbers, though not sure of their accuracy. 500 Bangkok gyms, 10,000 regular fighters in the mid 1970s.
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Already with internationalization efforts underway, the line drawn in the sand then was the name itself. As ONE proved, this is no longer a barrier, the name Muay Thai name liberally applied to very Kickboxing-esque versions and rulechanges for foreigners.
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The First Japanese Kickboxing Invasion: Noguchi Gym 1972
This is just one of the most fascinating events in the history of the sport, the father of Japanese Kickboxing driven out of the country, and forced to close his very posh Bangkok Kickboxing/Muay Thai gym in 1972, under threats of violence. It seems that at least some Thais felt like he, or the Japanese were trying to steal Muay Thai from Thailand. At this point, I believe, Japanese Kickboxing already had imitated Muay Thai in Japan and even became a regularly televised show of great popularity. Anti-Japanese sentiments seems to be running high.
Also so interesting just how fancy a place the gym was, with serious money behind it. I'm guessing this was maybe the first "hi-so" kind of gym in all of Thailand.
What is so extraordinary about it all of course is that Lumpinee (and even Rajadamnern) stadia, the National Stadia, 50 years later have radically altered the rules of Muay Thai to more approximate Kickboxing, and steered promotional Muay Thai to the foreign fighter. Just a month or two ago a Japanese Kickboxer was defending the Rajadamnern title, in Rajadamnern, having never fought in Thailand itself.
Noguchi was very far ahead of his time.
In a small, but interesting family detail in Japanese vs Thai relations, Osamu's brother was the boxer Kyo Noguchi who fought the great Thai fighter Pone Kingpetch, Thailand's first World Boxing champion for his belt: "On May 30, 1962, Noguchi challenged Pone Kingpetch for the flyweight world championship, but Noguchi lost by unanimous decision."
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Journaling - Readings, Muay Thai, Concepts and Articulations
in Kevin's Corner - Muay Thai, Philosophy & Ethics
Posted
Entertainment Impacting the Stadium Style
Watching a great young femeu timing kicker being turned into a Muay Maat slugger.
Boxing is built from the center out, and in the footwork of angles. It's about the control of space.
Not from combos on the pads.
Entertainment Muay Thai is impacting even stadium Muay Thai, in the way that Thais even think about what punches are, and what they mean.