How to fight under kickboxing rules?

[LengLeng]

Hiya! Looks like I might have an upcoming fight soon. Rules are being negotiated, I have asked for elbows and MMA gloves but seems like it will be kickboxing rules with regular gloves. 3x3min rounds. Not sure how the scoring will be or if it's KO or draw so I'll go for KO. 

I don't really know how to fight kickboxing. I mean, we do it in sparring all the time but I see it as muay thai without elbows. I understand kickboxing is faster, limited clinching time, no elbows. More moving around. 

Any advice how to use a muay thai background and fight under kickboxing rules? I love clinch and elbows .

My opponent is currently some kg heavier than me but a bit shorter, not sure if she'll lose weight. She has a lethwei and MMA background. 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

7 hours ago, LengLeng said:

I don't really know how to fight kickboxing. I mean, we do it in sparring all the time but I see it as muay thai without elbows. I understand kickboxing is faster, limited clinching time, no elbows. More moving around. 

It depends on if it is just modified Muay Thai (limiting weapons and changing the way aggression is scored) or if it is technically Kickboxing, as in scored as the sport is commonly scored. If the judges are scoring for kickboxing, as a sport, there are some very big differences. The most important one is that in kickboxing you can take kicks on your arms and they don't score, including head kicks. These are some of the most dependable points in Muay Thai and they are more or less null in Kickboxing. This means your upper body guard is important. It also means that attacks to the lower body can score higher in Kickboxing than in Muay Thai (where low kicks only score if they contort the opponent). The graphic below shows some of this. It's not 100% as head shots in Kickboxing score highly when not blocked. Also, broadly, punches score much higher in Kickboxing. At least that's my sense of it. Also, forward pressure is much better regarded in Kickboxing than it is in traditional Muay Thai. Short advice: pressure, throw in combinations, mix in lots of low kicks, maintain a strong upper body guard, punch more than mid-kick.

[LengLeng]

Thank you so much @Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu this is incredibly helpful. As this is in a lethwei community (but lethwei fights not allowed now for reasons I don't understand fully) it seems like the lethwei style of blocking kicks with arms and focus on headkicks and punches to the head would help me. In my gym there is limited English knowledge and my Burmese is very limited as well. I have a friend who is part of the organisation of these fights I'll clarify with him. In my pads training now, I am barely asked to do body kicks (rather lethwei style crosskick) and it's almost 100% headkicks and they want me to do jumping knees (which I struggle with). They want me to switch stance a lot, attacking from both stances and move around more. So my thinking is, it will be more traditional kickboxing rules (based on what I understand from your post) rather than Muay Thai. On the advice on forward moving aggression: this helps a lot as well. I actually have no clue about the judges ability to score properly (unfortunately and without being disrespectful) which makes me a bit uncomfortable to use technique and I feel KO might be my best option. 

Sincere thanks for taking the time to explain! 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

38 minutes ago, LengLeng said:

I feel KO might be my best option. 

Golden Rule: When in doubt outside of Thailand go for the KO. hahaha.

[LengLeng]

14 hours ago, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu said:

Golden Rule: When in doubt outside of Thailand go for the KO. hahaha.

Indeed

[LengLeng]

On 1/5/2022 at 1:46 AM, Tom Riddle said:

Fighters may attack their opponent with punches and kicks, including strikes below the waist, with the exception of the groin. Elbows and knees are not permitted. Clinch fighting, throws, and sweeps are all prohibited.

Thank you!

[LengLeng]

I just found out this fight is KO or draw so I can't win on points. 

The thing is my opponent asked to increase weight to 3kg above my current weight. I agreed. Then she suddenly pulled out (people gossip to me "she ran away"). Which is weird because she is younger, heavier, has more fight experience and expected to be next lethwei female champ. I also know her gym as well, it's a modern gym with focus on technique. Her last fight she won knee KO first round (also smaller fighter). 

Anyhow I went training anyway after I was told my fight was off. Then I was told she changed her mind again and agreed to fight but at a different event 3 days earlier. Apparently this one is more low key with no videos. So I guess it's a great of losing face or whatever. 

So if the fight happens. I need to go for KO. But I've been told that if the opponent just runs away and KO is impossible, I should avoid a situation where I'm chasing her and instead just display technique. This will help me get respect even if it ends in a draw. 

People at my gym don't speak much English. My Ajarn has asked an interpreter to support me to understand. But still, most things I know about this fight is from people writing me giving me bits n pieces of information and I patch them together. Location of the fight is only shared shortly before "to avoid the mil. junta to get hold of the events and start messing around". Which adds another dimension to fighting 55.

Anyhow the training for this fight is (exhausting) but super fun. I learnt a new way of blocking body kicks, for example like the diagonal block, but really throw your knee into your opponent's inner thigh. 

[StefanZ]

I once saw a peculiar match.   Blue was inferior, so she fled to the corner and took her last stance there.  holding desperately a high guard.  Red was furiously attacking and punching forcefully the whole time, although most of the punches of course  were caught in the desperate but good guard.  Blue managed with just barely a couple of counter strikes, which did hit.

to my surprise, the rond (match?)  was decided as draw.

Huh?   Easy,  It wasnt Muay, it was with kickboxing rules...  Where there is essentially boxing rules.  Being dominating doesnt count, what counts is clean hits; and punches do score.

So, Red was overhelmingly dominating, but got none extra points for this..  She had lotsa of punches, but most fastened on the guard, just a few clean hits....  While Blue did managed to hit a couple of times...

Ergo   draw.

 

A side note.   This reminds me about an european fotboll "soccer" match between England and Poland on Wembley, which is Englands national arena in London; about 1974.  The english had a massive dominance.  Lotsa shots on goal.  The polish goalkeeper Tomaszewski was a hero.... Took lotsa of shots!   Even a couple of punishment shots!   Just one goal went in...

And the poles manages with the trick; they managed to send a ball forward; and Lubanski run through whole field, driving the ball with him forward.

1-1!!!   A draw!   History made!   Poland to the World Championship, where they took a good and popular third place.

 

Thus, compare kickboxing with soccer...   

 

 

 

[LengLeng]

4 hours ago, StefanZ said:

I once saw a peculiar match.   Blue was inferior, so she fled to the corner and took her last stance there.  holding desperately a high guard.  Red was furiously attacking and punching forcefully the whole time, although most of the punches of course  were caught in the desperate but good guard.  Blue managed with just barely a couple of counter strikes, which did hit.

to my surprise, the rond (match?)  was decided as draw.

Huh?   Easy,  It wasnt Muay, it was with kickboxing rules...  Where there is essentially boxing rules.  Being dominating doesnt count, what counts is clean hits; and punches do score.

So, Red was overhelmingly dominating, but got none extra points for this..  She had lotsa of punches, but most fastened on the guard, just a few clean hits....  While Blue did managed to hit a couple of times...

Ergo   draw.

 

A side note.   This reminds me about an european fotboll "soccer" match between England and Poland on Wembley, which is Englands national arena in London; about 1974.  The english had a massive dominance.  Lotsa shots on goal.  The polish goalkeeper Tomaszewski was a hero.... Took lotsa of shots!   Even a couple of punishment shots!   Just one goal went in...

And the poles manages with the trick; they managed to send a ball forward; and Lubanski run through whole field, driving the ball with him forward.

1-1!!!   A draw!   History made!   Poland to the World Championship, where they took a good and popular third place.

 

Thus, compare kickboxing with soccer...   

 

 

 

Yeah I want to avoid that situation of running after her. And I think they use lethwei KO timeout rules so opponent has 2 minutes to recover after being knocked down. A friend if mine recently fought under same hybrid rules, he had to knock the guy down 3 times before he got the win but he didn't know about it before. 

Oh I'm hearing so much stupidities about this fight. And from recent pics I see this girl is very very heavy right now. From what I reckon, she's actually not fight ready but it's good promotion for her gym to fight the only white fighter chick left in the country and she'll just go for a draw. 

[LengLeng]

Thank you for advice. 

The opponent's gym changed date again so I called the whole thing off and will wait for proper pro lethwei fight instead or possibly try to get a match in Thailand when I go back there in March. 

[actixTim]

I think it is very hard to fight under different rules.

Sometimes I do sparring with boxers in our gym and I always want to use kicks and knees.

I would have to train for a few months only boxing if I wanted to compete in a boxing fight. And I would have to do lots of sparrring.

[Carlos13th]

Sparring under different rules is important if you are going to fight under them. Even better if you know someone who judges fights under those rules ask them what they are looking for and get them to watch your sparring if you can. 

Obviously this isnt always an option.