Top Female Muay Thai Fighters and Fights - Full Fight Video Thread

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

I wanted to start a thread where we can just place video of female Muay Thai fights that are good to keep together. The title says "top" female fighters and fights, but also hard to find video too, like fights of Thai female fighters that lack exposure. Mostly just a place where you could browse and see interesting full rules female fights. You can post video here and on its own thread too, if you like. 

[Edit Update: When YouTubes of fights posted become "unavailable" (are taken down), I'm going to delete that post just to keep the thread clean. If you find another video version of the fight feel free to repost it.]

Relatedly, this is my P4P World Rank List of fighters 48 kg and under.

Little Tiger (WMPF champ) vs Faa Chiangrai

The first one I wanted to put up was this underated fight in August of 2014. Little Tiger who is the WPMF pinweight champion seems to be a little selective about her opponents, and I was surprised to see that she was fighting Faa Chiangrai, one of my past opponents, but perhaps not well known internationally. This was for a WBC International Belt. Faa Chiangrai is a really under-appreciated fighter. Great toughness and quite femur. I think she was robed of this decision, even though it was in Pattaya. You can see she was shocked at the outcome. After this fight though Faa Chiangrai was suddenly ranked as the 2nd challenger to the WPMF belt in the 105 lb division. This is pretty interesting because this is a weight class above Little Tiger, and also is a weight class above Faa herself. She is one of the top 100 lb fighters in Thailand, in my opinion.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Pizza vs Little Tiger

This is another of my favorite fights. I think this was in the Fall of 2013. Pizza had lost in Japan vs Little Tiger and here shows how effective the low clinch can be. Pizza then retired to boxing only, but I hear she isn't really boxing now either. 

[threeoaks]

This is my favorite thread so far.  Thank you.  Off to work for 15 hours (after solo bagwork at home boo hoo) but may have to sneak a fight-watching break.  Great resource!

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Farida Okiko vs Namtan "Sugar" Por. Muangphet - King's Birthday 2013

Watch Namtan just turn it on in the 4th round, with kicks and straight knees. Great fight awareness. Two top, top fighters.

[WaffleNinja]

Great idea Silvie. 

[threeoaks]

I wanted to start a thread where we can just place video of female Muay Thai fights that are good to keep together. The title says "top" female fighters and fights, but also hard to find video too, like fights of Thai female fighters that lack exposure. Mostly just a place where you could browse and see interesting full rules female fights. You can post video here and on its own thread too, if you like. 

Little Tiger (WMPF champ) vs Faa Chiangrai

The first one I wanted to put up was this underated fight in August of 2014. Little Tiger who is the WPMF pinweight champion seems to be a little selective about her opponents, and I was surprised to see that she was fighting Faa Chiangrai, one of my past opponents, but perhaps not well known internationally. This was for a WBC International Belt. Faa Chiangrai is a really under-appreciated fighter. Great toughness and quite femur. I think she was robed of this decision, even though it was in Pattaya. You can see she was shocked at the outcome. After this fight though Faa Chiangrai was suddenly ranked as the 2nd challenger to the WPMF belt in the 105 lb division. This is pretty interesting because this is a weight class above Little Tiger, and also is a weight class above Faa herself. She is one of the top 100 lb fighters in Thailand, in my opinion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CzjduT9p

Oof this was a great fight - thank you.  I have a few questions.  First, Little Tiger threw some side kicks and I cannot get a straight answer about them - "not really Muay Thai but useful as a follow-up if you miss the roundhouse", is what two different trainers told me.  Second, Little Tiger's movement is so boxing (shifting skip steps, side to side head movement and fakes with the head) - is that common?  Finally I LOVED watching Faa Chiangrai - she was amazing.  I particularly love the stillness then explosiveness of good fighters.  Those sweeps or knockdowns accomplished from one leg are kind of astounding (maybe its common and I just don't know but was so smooth to watch).  Big new fan of both fighters, particularly Faa Chiangrai.  Thanks.

[threeoaks]

Pizza vs Little Tiger

This is another of my favorite fights. I think this was in the Fall of 2013. Pizza had lost in Japan vs Little Tiger and here shows how effective the low clinch can be. Pizza then retired to boxing only, but I hear she isn't really boxing now either. 

Love Pizza's timing getting into the clinch too; its like ZOOP and she's in AGAIN.  (That's technical fighting talk you know).  Thanks this was great.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

The Star vs Yodying - May 2013 - Pattaya

If you want to see how a fight is "stolen" by performance in Thai style Muay Thai take a look at this fight. These were two of the best low-weight female fighters in Thailand in 2013. In fact Yodying told me that they fought this fight at only 42 kg. I've fought The Start twice at increasing weight, and now she is maybe up to 55 kg. 

In this fight Yodying was, I believe, world champion having defeated Little Tiger in Japan (don't remember which org). By the end of the 2013 The Star would claim the Interim WPMF World belt by beating Saya Ito in December. 

But watch this fight between very good fighters. Yodying in my eyes inches out the 4th round, but after a few neutral exchanges The Star steals the fight when her corner tells her to dance off the round. This causes Yodying to chase, and a split-hair decision becomes a blow out.

I recently had the chance to meet Yodying, wrote about it here. Hope to fight her before she retires. Maybe the best 100 lb female fighter in Thailand. 

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Oof this was a great fight - thank you.  I have a few questions.  First, Little Tiger threw some side kicks and I cannot get a straight answer about them - "not really Muay Thai but useful as a follow-up if you miss the roundhouse", is what two different trainers told me.  Second, Little Tiger's movement is so boxing (shifting skip steps, side to side head movement and fakes with the head) - is that common?  Finally I LOVED watching Faa Chiangrai - she was amazing.  I particularly love the stillness then explosiveness of good fighters.  Those sweeps or knockdowns accomplished from one leg are kind of astounding (maybe its common and I just don't know but was so smooth to watch).  Big new fan of both fighters, particularly Faa Chiangrai.  Thanks.

The simplest, most concise answer to the question of both the side kicks and the "boxing style" of Little Tiger is: "she's Japanese."  The Japanese style tends to be very hands-heavy and straight punches (this works really well against Thai opponents), and that side kick is not one you'd see in Muay Thai very much but do occasionally - this many times in one fight is a style though and it seems to be more from a more Japanese style art like Karate or something. She's off-balance quite a lot though, which in Thai scoring is terrible. I think Faa Chiangrai won this fight, honestly.

The sweeps from a caught kick are very common. Faa Chiangrai is what you'd call a fee-meur fighter, which means clever, stylish, tactical and technical. Not super powerful or aggressive, but relaxed and can (and does) fight backwards well.  I love her explosiveness, too. That's a signature of Thailand Muay Thai that is almost completely lacking in western appropriation of the art... I want to be like that :)

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Love Pizza's timing getting into the clinch too; its like ZOOP and she's in AGAIN.  (That's technical fighting talk you know).  Thanks this was great.

That is technical fighting talk, I know exactly what you're describing! Her clinch is so wicked in this fight and just f***ing relentless. Aaggghhhhh, I want to fight Pizza so bad. I also love how spritely she is. My trainers for a very long time wanted me to bounce around and be all fast and tricky like this because I'm small and that's what small fighters are supposed to be - like telling a big heavy guy he should punch hard. But I'm not like that; I'm like a giant in a tiny body so it's all backwards. It's exciting to watch her flit around though, yeah?

[threeoaks]

The simplest, most concise answer to the question of both the side kicks and the "boxing style" of Little Tiger is: "she's Japanese."  The Japanese style tends to be very hands-heavy and straight punches (this works really well against Thai opponents), and that side kick is not one you'd see in Muay Thai very much but do occasionally - this many times in one fight is a style though and it seems to be more from a more Japanese style art like Karate or something. She's off-balance quite a lot though, which in Thai scoring is terrible. I think Faa Chiangrai won this fight, honestly.

The sweeps from a caught kick are very common. Faa Chiangrai is what you'd call a fee-meur fighter, which means clever, stylish, tactical and technical. Not super powerful or aggressive, but relaxed and can (and does) fight backwards well.  I love her explosiveness, too. That's a signature of Thailand Muay Thai that is almost completely lacking in western appropriation of the art... I want to be like that :)

Yes I understand the concept of a fee-meur, but am only beginning to develop the eye for it (never mind the body).  Just beautiful.  I want to see a whole list of fee-meur fighters should you be inspired.  Wait, did you already do that on 8 Limbs?  I feel like I learned the concept from one of your posts and it was accompanied by videos but maybe that was another MT community/page.  

I figured the side-kick was karate (I see it in my daughters do jang) but I wanted to get an answer from someone more familiar with Thailand - thank you.  

I am just learning how many zillion ways there are to sweep (just for watching so far).  All I have seen in person at FNF in the city is sweeps from the clinch when someone is defending with their knee while standing on one leg.  The type of sweep FROM the caught leg is just crazy, because its not really a sweep as I understand it (contact to the standing leg), but a sudden shove.  I must not understand this!  Faa's were so frigging fast and the movements so brief it was just beautiful how Tiger went flying at least twice from a little tiny shove of the caught leg.  So graceful.  I was taught caught leg push & pull too early but look forward to going back and actually learning it.

As for Tiger, I cannot help but admire her total aggression but I really don't like the style.  I can see now why my trainer is sort of disgusted at the idea of the jab (I actually have a nasty one but its time to take it away, use the jab for measuring, and quit being a frigging appropriative boxer, as you say).

Thanks so much Sylvie.  This is a gold mine.

[threeoaks]

That is technical fighting talk, I know exactly what you're describing! Her clinch is so wicked in this fight and just f***ing relentless. Aaggghhhhh, I want to fight Pizza so bad. I also love how spritely she is. My trainers for a very long time wanted me to bounce around and be all fast and tricky like this because I'm small and that's what small fighters are supposed to be - like telling a big heavy guy he should punch hard. But I'm not like that; I'm like a giant in a tiny body so it's all backwards. It's exciting to watch her flit around though, yeah?

Yes Pizza SO exciting.  She is fast yet somehow also, laid-back.  Weird smooth combination.  I love it. Must be a Thai v Japanese thing as you explain above.  I love that you are a big fighter in a small body - how cool to have the unexpected style :)  Pizza is retired or retired to just boxing you say?  What a shame.  I bet you could get her to fight.  Do high-profile fighters "call each other out" school-yard style like they do over here?  A little silly :)

[Finn Cartlidge]

Fah's stance is interesting, really like her style though. I wish I was as relaxed as her... 

[threeoaks]

Watched all the fights you posted, Sylvie.  Love to see more (from anyone of course).  Thank you!

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Current UFC Straweight Champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk vs Duannapa Mor. Rattana Bundit

World Muay Thai Angels 2013 Quarterfinals

Action begins at 7:40 - I include this fight here because I only just realized it ever happened, two very high profile fighters on one of the biggest promotions for female fighters in Thailand; though, at the time, I had no idea who Joanna was and probably few outside of Europe did either. For those who don't know, Duannapa was widely considered the best female fighter in Thailand a few years ago, though at the time of this fight she had become fairly inactive and her weight was an issue, and commonly discussed in the male Muay Thai gossip circles. In fact, she was disqualified from this all-female tournament in the finals a few months later (still fought, but could not win) because she did not make the 57 kg weigh in. (So she competed but could only come in last regardless of fight outcome.)

This fight is really interesting because it shows how different Thai Muay Thai is from much of the kickboxing of the world, and also how styles (and matchups) make fights. Joanna, who has been called "a force of nature" or "an animal" as a striker in the UFC, is more or less stymied in this fight by Duannapa's defensive, countering posture. Joanna surely grew as a fighter in the year and a half, but still the fight is instructive.

It should also be pointed out that Duannapa significantly outweighed Joanna here. Duannapa barely cut down to 57 kg, or maybe not even, and Joanna now fights at 52 in the UFC. This is a big deal, even for striking - it can determine confidence, but also how impactful strikes look to the judges. A point of comparison is that the two UFC fighters Joanna recently overwhelmed were I believe smaller than her, both Esparza and Penne, and non-strikers. Also, it's important to know that low-kicks do not score in Thailand unless they affect the opponent, so almost all of Joanna's low-kicks are non-scoring. Also, punches need to rock your opponent to score. Duannapa takes all three rounds in my opinion, with incredible poise, in the Thai style. Count her kicks landing to the body. She basically scores and then neutralizes. For those who don't follow Thai Muay Thai closely, the retreating, defending fighter is usually perceived to be in the lead.

This is World Muay Thai Angels, a tournament style all-female promotion, which has only 3x3 rounds instead of the typical 5x2 rounds for female fights. The breaks seemed really long.

[dtrick924]

Really cool to compare this to Joanna's MMA fights. This reddit link has most of her professional MMA fights. One thing I noticed is that Joanna seems to get stuck against the cage in the clinch. I know Sylvie has talked about western fighters, especially women having a weaker clinch game due to lack of instruction/opportunity to practice.

ETA: I get used to the Thai refs breaking up the clinch after watching all Sylvie's fights. Then I watch MMA and wonder why the ref isn't breaking it up and resetting the fighters when nothing is happening against the cage or on the ground. Of course I don't really know the rules of MMA.

Reddit link to Jedrzejczyk vs Penne.

[amazonmoh]

Sylvie, from an untrained eye, I was puzzled how Duannapa won the fight.
Joanna had more activity, continued to bring the action and with more clean strikes.

What I've gathered is that Muay Thai gives points for better clinching and more effective kicks to the torso?

Could you elaborate with specific timestamp if possible, on how Duannapa stymied Joanna's game?

[Edited a few typos, cause it's killing me!!]

[dtrick924]

Sylvie, from an untrained eye, I was puzzled how Duannapa won the fight.

Joanna had more activity, continued to bring the action and with more clean strikes.

What I've gather is that Muay Thai gives points for better clinching and more affective kicks to the torso?

Could you elaborate with specific timestamp if possible, on how Duannapa stymied Joanna's game?

 

Sylvie gave a good explanation of the Thai scoring from a thread she posted on reddit. 

 

[–]sylviemuayPro fighter[S] 1 point

13 hours ago * 

You can watch this video seminar by Tony Myers which explains the principles of Thai Muay Thai scoring. It's about balance and control.

If you visibly hurt or affect your opponent then you are taking them out of balance and control. In the absence of doing this the opponent who displays more balance and control wins. The advancing fighter is not awarded points simply for advancing. Kicks and knees to the body are a bread and butter of scoring in that they are seen as penetrating the opponent's center.

The biggest difference is the way that aggression is thought about and scored. In the west visible aggression is scored for its own sake, whether it has an impact or not. The retreating fighter can be perceived of as being "afraid" and "not wanting to fight". In Thailand the aggressive fighter is seen as somewhat desperate, and the retreating, defending fighter as being controlling/impenetrable - Duannapa is impenetrable here. Once a fighter has the lead (they have landed solid scoring strikes) and they start retreating and defending it is up to the other fighter to catch them and retake the lead. There are some very aggressive fighters in Thailand, but they must show scoring dominance to 

 

[–]sylviemuayPro fighter[S] 3 points

14 hours ago * 

I explained it in my post. Low-kicks do not score in Thailand, generally. Every single low-kick Joanna lands, take it out of your mind. Also, punches only score if they rock. Basically Joanna doesn't score for almost the whole fight - she starts scoring a bit in the first half of the 3rd round, when she finally starts kicking the body. The most dependable scoring strike in Thai Muay Thai is the kick to the body. Unlike many other strikes a kick to the body does not have to off-balance an opponent to score. Duannapa lands this repeatedly through the bout.

Also, being "active" offensively is not scored in Thai scoring. When you are the aggressor you have an additional burden of being effective. An aggressive fighter has to land kicks or knees above the waist or visibly hurt or rock the opponent in Thailand. You don't get points for chasing. It's the opposite. The retreating, defending fighter is seen as controlling the fight. When you are retreating you (usually) are defending a lead you already have. You've landed scoring strikes. If your opponent doesn't score again you don't have to throw another strike. You already have the lead. If you retreat AND score, as Duannapa does here with her kicks to the body, you are expanding your lead. I think the fight comes under some question in the 3rd because final rounds can weigh heavily and Joanna comes out strong, scoring. If she had continued with this she may have taken the fight. But then Duannapa reestablishes control in latter half of the 3rd.

A key to looking at Thai fights is that they usually start out neutral, with neither fighter chasing, each standing their ground. At a certain point one of the fighters will start to retreat. That fighter is symbolically claiming the lead (often after solid strikes have landed) inviting the other fighter to come and try and take it back. If you follow that fighter you are more or less admitting that he/she has the lead. You have to get it back. You can also refuse to chase and stand your ground, which if the fight is close enough this will usually bring the retreating fighter back to you, to start again. Whether you chase or not can be a complex decision, sometimes involving your corner (late in fights you'll see fighters look to their corners). I take this decision making out of my fights. I go forward the entire fight. Bell to bell. My opponent is symbolically in the lead for much of the fight.

[amazonmoh]

Fascinating!! Thank you dtrick924 for posting that.

[Finn Cartlidge]

Tony Myers is amazing, best EU judge/referee and maybe even trainer.

Anyway, I think Joanna's muay/kickboxing background is what allowed to sink so smoothly into mma, whereas it would be harder for a thai or thai styled striker to go straight to mma. Joanna's footwork was already very active and movey (idk how to explain it) and she used her hands a lot too.
If you look at Joanna's trainers you can see why her clinch game is lacking and why she has more of kickboxing style. Though I've seen her in some fights which between a thai and kickboxing stance.

I honestly believe prior to mma she probably did no clinch work at all... I went to a gym for about 3 months, and we clinched twice when we were there, for about 10 minutes each. This shows just how some gyms in the west really neglect the clinch, and I believe Joanna's gym was really kickboxing/dutch influenced so it would've been similar.

Though her style may just been made more movey/active/boxing just for the European crowd/opponents.

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Anyway, I think Joanna's muay/kickboxing background is what allowed to sink so smoothly into mma, whereas it would be harder for a thai or thai styled striker to go straight to mma. Joanna's footwork was already very active and movey (idk how to explain it) and she used her hands a lot too.

If you look at Joanna's trainers you can see why her clinch game is lacking and why she has more of kickboxing style. Though I've seen her in some fights which between a thai and kickboxing stance.

 

Few western fighters know truly how to clinch and female fighters even less so. Caley Reece is a big exception in that she trained clinch heavily for a long time,probably under the influence of her fighter husband despite not being in Thailand often.

I agree that from what little we've seen what sets Joanna's Muay Thai apart is that she is not just a strait-ahead fighter. Many female Muay Thai fighters, and male too, are used to their opponent standing right in front of them, and struggle when their opponent isn't just moving forward and back. It's kind of crazy that Randamie did not have quick success in MMA. People talk a lot about fear of the takedown. But I think it is much more about the dimension they are used to moving in. She's also really comfortable in space keeping her opponent at the end of punches. She does not hit air a lot, the punch that lands 3 inches short.

That being said, Joanna was undynamic against Duannapa. A lot of it is how your opponent makes you look. Even fighting someone bigger than you, and someone smaller than you can produce really different fights. You are never as bad as you look when you lose, or as good as you look when you win.

I also think there is a big difference between westerners who fight in a "Thai" style, and Thais that fight in a Thai style.

[Finn Cartlidge]

Few western fighters know truly how to clinch and female fighters even less so. Caley Reece is a big exception in that she trained clinch heavily for a long time,probably under the influence of her fighter husband despite not being in Thailand often.

I don't know whether I'd say few, I can't really think of a top English fighter that doesn't know how to clinch... though you did say western which means Dutch and England fall into the same category, when they can't even be compared so this is why it's difficult sometimes to just specify western. So it's hard when I live in England and watch mainly British fighters and pretty much most of them can clinch well, if you watch Dan McGowan even before he spent a year at Petchyindee his clinch game was good, and all the fighters from his gym were too. Same with Dean James who has a solid clinch game and now he has a gym, all his fighters have a good clinch... and going onto Dean's coach Tony Myers, clinching is a big focus of Tony's so all his fighters have great clinch. I mean this is only a select few gyms, but these gyms are all over the rankings. Based on the fighters on the UK rankings I'd say there's about 5 gyms on there that produce fighters with a truly weak clinch game, and there's about 30 gyms on the rankings. 

The thing is it's hard to compare Western to Western as there's just too much of inconsistency, even comparing America itself would be difficult.

 

I also think there is a big difference between westerners who fight in a "Thai" style, and Thais that fight in a Thai style.

The only difference is experience, and that's all there is to it in my opinion.  :smile:

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Adding this Caley Reece vs Tiffany van Soest Lion Fight to the thread. Caley's use of the clinch strategically to neutralize a dynamic, moving fighter. Loved it.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Ran into this action packed Denise Mellor (Castle) vs Funna Groundrat Queen's Birthday fight from 2008 - decision went to Funna (not shown in video)

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

A very young Iman Barlow vs Nongne Sitkruadd, only a clip, of the S1 fight:

 

found this summation:

Aman Jitti gym vs Nongnee Sitkruu-at Aman from England started the fight very determined, coming forward and taking the fight to Nongnee. Nongnee kept a very tight defence though and showed good technique. Aman started to catch the kicks of Nongnee well and land with long knees. Aman kept pushing forward in round 2 punching well. Nongnee though was fighting a technical fight, moving well and scoring with stylish kicks. Every time Aman caught one of her kicks now, she would come in close and lock her arms around Aman’s neck and then drive in a long knee. Aman kept pushing forward for the rest of the fight but Nongnee kept up her stylish game plan and moved around the ring well, picking Aman off when she saw an opening. Nongnee Sitkruu-at winner on points.