Jump to content

Kingsanglek Tor. Laksong - How Top Thai Fighters Progress in Today's Muay Thai (video included)


Recommended Posts

This highlight compilation of Kingsaklek Tor. Laksong was posted on one of the Thai Language Muay Thai pages I follow. The titling is mine, I added it somewhat unnecessarily as he's always the red corner, but you never know whether links will be shared with the same context that an original share writeup offers.  (Unnecessary information, but maybe you find it interesting: he's likely always the red corner in these chosen clips because the red corner is often (not always) the opponent who the odds favor before ever stepping in the ring. That means if it's a rematch, generally the red corner is who won the last fight. Or the more famous fighter between the two. Odds change all the time, at the drop of a hat, at a drop of rain, if a fighter looks left instead of right when he gets in the ring (meaning almost arbitrarily or even superstition), so for the "favored" fighter to be red, that means the odds favored them upon the making of the program and might no longer be the case by the time the fight starts.)

There are a number of things to learn from this highlight, the first of which is that, without the indication of which fighter he is in each clip, you'd still be able to figure out which he is because highlight edits are designed to show the dominance of one side. That's one of the reasons I don't use or trust highlights for myself - they never tell the story of a fight, which is what I like about watching fights. Even the great OneSongchai tapes that are responsible for nearly all the Golden Age footage that most of us have seen on Youtube, they often edit rounds 1 and 2 together and then quickly get to the "action" of the important scoring rounds of 3 and 4, and the resulting "conclusion" of round 5. Often I'm frustrated by this, yelling at the screen about the edited first two rounds because, I mean, I want to know "how did we get here?"

Kingsaklek is clearly very, very skilled. He's amazing and he's been so since he was just a kid. By the age of 14 he was already commanding a 140,000 Baht fighter fee. I'll put that in context: a mid-level fighter of decent skill and fame could command around 20,000 - 25,000 Baht fighter fee, maybe 30,000 Baht if they're the main event.  And he was 14 years old 7 years ago, so that amount was even more impressive, taking inflation into account. I'm not arguing in any way that his talent is not superlative. But the edits, you'll note, are very quick. This means he's explosive, but likely not aggressive and relentless, the way the end result of this highlight video conveys. To be sure, there are a good handfull of moments within a single fight that can be clipped out and put together to make a really exciting highlight, so he is able to have many of these "highlight worthy" moments in a single fight and, indeed, a number of them are knockouts. But, as I yell at my TV screen, "how did we get here?" All those moments within the context of actual rounds and fights, where his opponents are also doing something to him, is much more impressive - in my eyes - to see how he was able to have that moment of dominance while the whole machine is on, rather than in a vacuum, so to speak. 

And finally, this is the most important point for me and one that Kevin and I have maybe touched on in a Muay Thai Bones podcast episode when talking about phenomenal "child" fighters. These fights span Kingsaklek's development over the years. Most of the fights are at Rajadamnern, the one where they're in yellow is at Omnoi and was likely a tournament of some kind. You can see his opponents get a bit better as the compilation goes on, indicated by how long the edits from each round are (meaning they went the distance, even with his dominant moments), and some have actual exchanges where the opponent gets a few good strikes in on him before he shuts them down. But something else you can see, if you have eyes for it, is how he becomes a bit more conservative as the compilation goes on. Yes, part of that is that his opponents are solid competition, but much of it - and I say this out of an estimated assumption about how money and Muay Thai work together in high-level stadium Muay Thai - has to do with the stakes. His flamboyance of movement in the first couple clips, when he's just a teenager, are outstanding. He takes risks and they pay off. As he gets bigger and visually older, he's more conservative; he's still confident, but takes far fewer risks so it's less performative. This is very illustrative of the progression of superstar "child" fighters to headline young men in stadium Muay Thai. Gambling, while a very important part of Muay Thai, is entirely at fault for this "cooling off" of young talent. 

Right now Yodpetek is probably the number one child fighter in Thailand. He's turning 13 this year, so near the age that some of these clips of Kingsanglek are. But he looks much younger than his age, Yodpetek still fights sub-40 kilos, meaning he's not allowed in the National Stadia yet. Since he's still fighting on the outskirts, the gambling is definitely already in place - in fact, the side bets are announced and boasted about in every single fight - but much of the money is coming from small-time or even de-centralized players. Once you hit the National Stadia, the money is huge but it's coming from bigger guns. It's a bigger deal if you lose, and so the flamboyant performances simmer into a more conservative fighting style. People watch Yodpetek and say he's the next Saenchai, so good at such a young age, imagine where he'll go! But look at Kingsanglek as the precedent, and he is one among countless: he will not stay what he is as he grows. Part of that is that his opponents will become better (fighting at 38 kg means most of his opponents are younger than himself and extraordinary talent at 12, 13 years old is more rare than the top fighters at higher weights and of more similar age and experience at the stadia), and part of it - a big part of it - will be the restrictive pressure of gambling money.

I have no "conclusion" for this post. I just had all these thoughts while watching this pretty incredible highlight compilation and wanted to share what I see and think, the context I put it in, so you all can watch it with those eyes and contexts as well. To me, the progression of a "child" fighter is far more interesting than the out-of-context flare of a highlight video. I absolutely enjoy watching how amazing and skilled Kingsanglek is, no doubt, but I always prefer to see that skill in its "natural form," in the context of each actual fight. So, to youtube I go to stalk the origins of these clips, haha.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Most Recent Topics

  • Latest Comments

    • Muay Thai, Colonialism and "Techniques" not a competition, its a celebration There is a lot that is culturally complex in how the West (and others) interact with the traditional Muay Thai of Thailand, and honestly it is worth of analysis and thinking about. It's likely full of contradictions, and doesn't present only a single picture of motivations, but...there is one thing that is pretty common place and intense, and that is the way that fighters, coaches and various purveyors of information on Muay Thai to the West, usually in the form of demo'd techniques, simply present themselves as "experts", as if their knowledge, what they came to is simply something OF them. It becomes the signature of their authority and value, especially in social media contexts where a lot of platform reach comes from "demos" of one kind or another. This is just a serious trend, a pattern. But really it is almost inexcusable when sharing or teaching others not to share where and even more importantly WHO learned something you are demoing from. Almost uniformly, it wasn't something you learned from yourself. This means, with every share you are actively erasing the past, the actual lineage of that knowledge, you are erasing the people who actually knew something more than you, and you are removing their importance for anyone who might be interested in what you are sharing. This is pretty extreme, in that it is quite widespread. One of the biggest problems Muay Thai has right now is that as it internationizes, as it reaches for more commercial markets, so many of its roots are being erased...it has less and less concrete rootedness. And while this may help it spread quickly, charged up by the popularity of influencers and such, soil without roots will just wash away when there is a change in season. The roots are what holds everything together. Further of course, if you aren't naming teachers, krus, padmen and coaches that gave you that bit of information you are undermining the entire hope of Thailand in sharing Muay Thai in the world. You are erasing the very thought that you have to go to Thailand to learn specific things (or, in other countries well educated krus and gyms), the notion that to learn something better or more completely you should go further down the coaching tree, further into the roots. This was a huge motivation for pretty much everything Sylvie has done. Her path started learning kind of psuedo-Muay Thai from a strip mall gym that had a lot of TDK in the mix, but there was the photo of a guy on the wall who had taught the head coach of the gym his Muay Thai. This was "Master K", Sylvie's first Thai teacher. What do we do? We go to the teacher of the teacher. And this is exactly what lead us to Thailand, eventually to the Muay Thai Library documentary project itself. It's been an instinct from the beginning, but also a motivating value. Shine the light backwards. The teacher always will know some things the student will not. Because the teacher's knowledge comes from something very complex, a lived experience that is full of details and reasons and contexts that don't get filtered down into the particular technique. The teacher is full of richness and intensity...and its our job to raise up and preserve the teacher, to pull them into the present, and thus into the future. And this should be done with every share of technique possible. It should be just regular, not only etiquette, but also passion to bring the sources of what you know forward with you, and build a picture of knowledge that immediately causes people to look past you, before you, when they learn something. The krus, coaches and padmen need to be known. If you've been to Thailand and trained seriously you already know that many Thai padmen in gyms in some ways know more much more about Muay Thai than you'll ever know, even if you are a very experienced fighter. Muay Thai needs for us not to erase its own past, it needs to stop cutting off the vines below the flower. It is just amazing to me that so many shares of technique do not automatically tell of where it came from...who it came from. This doesn't mean you have to authorize your knowledge, because you got it from someone more famous, or more esteemed than someone else. As I said, there are so, so many in Thailand who are just brimming with knowledge who are almost completely unknown to but a few. Common padmen just walking experts of Muay Thai, padmen who don't have even much social standing in their own gym. Lift these names. Inspire people to connect to your own knowledge tree. It's not a competition, its a celebration.  There are many krus that we've documented in the Muay Thai Library who are not or were not social important krus or padmen, but they are full incredible knowledge and wisdom. Raising their names, and sharing their muay is absolutely vital, and can change their lives as well. There are so many example of this, even very famous names now. Sharing can be something as simple as: "Point your toes up on checked kicks, this is something learned from Kru Big at Sinbi [made up name] and a few other places as well" or,  "Hook-lowkick is a great go-to combo, this is a mainstay of the Sitmonchai style started with Kru Dam" or, "Kru Toi always told me to use the teep more in fights, and its something I've had success in when I did it".   It's just a way of talking about advice or demonstrated knowledge. Also, if this became more regular it would undercut just people cribbing demo advice from other content sharers, other influencers or breakdownists of varying quality, something that thins out the knowledge base. There isn't must wrong with learning from other sharers, but maybe just mention that you have? Create and build lineages, and inspire others to do the same. Muay Thai itself needs this.
    • "I don't know anything about tennis, but the one hitting the ball harder is clearly winning." Sylvie's brilliant encapsulation of Western advisements of how trad Muay Thai should be fought.
    • I put together this compilation of little notes Sylvie has taken in a stretch of training and sharing Muay Thai, and was surprised that there is a full 30 minutes of these. I'm just struck and really almost shocked at how much knowledge she drops and the nature of it. These are not "demos" of techniques, but looking beneath or within techniques, something that comes from being closely connected to techniques for many many years, and her self-transformation. I can't think of another person in the world who could drop notes like this, of this much variety, because this just comes out of her path. These are like reading notes of Muay Thai. It's a very interesting, and kind of inspiring level of knowledge. She's a walking encyclopedia of experience and knowledge.  That foot-drop taught by Manop is just this kind of thing. It's not "technique", its a piece of a technique, but its related to a generative principle that informs all sorts of other techniques, and even can touch all of your Muay Thai. There are so many of those.   
  • The Latest From Open Topics Forum

    • Hi all, Does anyone know of any suppliers for blanks (Plain items to design and print a logo on) that are a good quality? Or put me in the right direction? thanks all  
    • The first fight between Poot Lorlek and Posai Sittiboonlert was recently uploaded to youtube. Posai is one of the earliest great Muay Khao fighters and influential to Dieselnoi, but there's very little footage of him. Poot is one of the GOATs and one of Posai's best wins, it's really cool to see how Posai's style looked against another elite fighter.
    • Yeah, this is certainly possible. Thanks! I just like the idea of a training camp pre-fight because of focus and getting more "locked in".. Do you know of any high level gyms in europe you would recommend? 
    • You could just pick a high-level gym in a European city, just live and train there for however long you want (a month?). Lots of gyms have morning and evening classes.
    • Hi, i have a general question concerning Muay-Thai training camps, are there any serious ones in Europe at all? I know there are some for kickboxing in the Netherlands, but that's not interesting to me or what i aim for. I have found some regarding Muay-Thai in google searches, but what iv'e found seem to be only "retreats" with Muay-Thai on a level compareable to fitness-boxing, yoga or mindfullness.. So what i look for, but can't seem to find anywhere, are camps similar to those in Thailand. Grueling, high-intensity workouts with trainers who have actually fought and don't just do this as a hobby/fitness regime. A place where you can actually grow, improve technique and build strength and gas-tank with high intensity, not a vacation... No hate whatsoever to those who do fitness-boxing and attend retreats like these, i just find it VERY ODD that there ain't any training camps like those in Thailand out there, or perhaps i haven't looked good enough?..  Appericiate all responses, thank you! 
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      1.4k
    • Total Posts
      11.4k
×
×
  • Create New...