A Complete Study of Karuhat Sor. Supawan

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

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I want to start to lay the groundwork for a complete study of the fighting style, technique and fights of Karuhat Sor. Supawan, one of the most sublime fighters Thailand ever had. Not only have we in the Muay Thai Library & other projects been able to document his style, as he exhibits it and has reflected on it in present day (you can see links to all of our documentation here, probably totally over 50 hours) the video record of his fights is one of the most robust in Thailand's Golden Age. We've known Karuhat for a long time now, and studied and awed over his fight videos, but somehow it never all came together just how many of his fights are out there. They seem like they are spread about and didn't relate to each other. We had put together a playlist of his fights and other videos, but it still felt very inconcordant. It wasn't until marvelous people started putting together very detailed Wikipedia record entries for the Golden Age fighters of Thailand (yes, only a few years ago there was almost nothing, this is yeoman's work) that his career started to take more comprehensive shape. When he fought and beat or lost to someone could be understood in the context of other fights.

Part of this came out of my desire to just sit down and study his fights from earliest to latest, but realizing that there was no way to do it. The thing to do, as a resource, was to align his fight videos to his record. Again, I'm so thankful to those of Wikipedia who have assembled a fairly detailed record for Karuhat, for this next step couldn't be done without it.

Here is Karuhat's record of all of the so-far documented fights with hyperlinks to videos of the fights that exist. There are 35 videos in all out of his 100 documented fights.

I've reversed the order of the record, from earliest to latest, just because this is a tool for my own study and the Wiki standard of running it in reverse just is jarring to me. If you click the spreadsheet word "watch" you'll be taken to the video as it exists out there in the world. (Some videos can't be included in playlists.)

Here is the list in screencap form, just for convenience of browsing it. The fights with videos are bolded, and I'm starting from the first video watch which is his first fight vs Hippy. I've also included his age for fights. Karuhat tells us in this interview that he started pretty late (in Thai standards) in Muay Thai, fighting his first fight at the age of 16 with zero training. He had his first fight when he was 16. Started training and fought Hippy for the 108 lb Lumpinee title in about 4 years. A true prodigy. He would win his first Lumpinee title (112 lbs) vs Pairojnoi by the time he was 21.

 

Again, go to the spreadsheet where the WATCH hyperlink is clickable to see those fights.

I made this spreadsheet originally for myself, as I want to begin studying Karuhat from first fight to last. But, as I started putting it together I realized just how bit a resource it is. Part of the difficulty is assessing the fighters of the Golden Age of Muay Thai, aside from the language barrier, is that we don't have narrative pictures of fight careers, like we do for great Western Boxers. What made Ali great wasn't this incredible performance or that, but really the story of his career, and the way fights were fought in succession, in development, in comeback, etc. With the new Wikipedia detailed entries we are starting to get the first aspect of that. But, the video record of many fighters is sparse. Many know the greatness of Samart from highlight videos, but far fewer realize that we have no video from Samart's prime, which is what really made his so acclaimed. He is still widely considering the greatest who ever fought, but we have little sense of Samart in his actual prime. In the case of Karuhat, his video record was rather rich. As mentioned we have by my count video of 35 fights, out of the 100 documented fights of Karuhat, a sizeable archive.

In building this database there still are probably errors and corrections needed, so please if you find something to add or correct please do! You can message me on this forum. Some of the dates (matching the video to specific fights) was done through discussion with Karuhat, but that process also may have a fallible memory. Any additional information or hypothesis is welcome.

Notes: A few interesting things were discovered in putting this together. Both Hippy and Karuhat disagreed about their record against each other and the Wikipedia record. Hippy says they only fought three times. Karuhat says four times, including a draw (the draw may be the show fight they recently fought?). The Wikipedia instead has a record of 3-1 for Hippy. Hippy says that the 108 lb belt fight occurred only 2 or 3 months after their first fight, so I've removed the 1987 "first first" from the record as Wiki has it. Hippy is pretty adamant about only fighting 3 times, and that the fight before the 108 lb belt fights was a short time before. He explains that this was a OneSongChai predilection, to offer very quick rematches on notable losses, so fighters could reclaim their name/form. Also in listening to the video of Karuhat's final victory vs Chatchai it seems that this was his second title defense of his 122 lb Lumpinee belt, a notable defense to add to his accomplishments, before he lost his belt to Wangchannoi. Quite a run he had there. He beats Chatchai for the belt in December of 1993. In January he fights the impossible Wangchannoi. Has to defend his belt vs Boonlai (does so, a shame we don't have that video), then he has to defend it against Chatchai in March (does so), than is forced to defend it in April vs Wangchannoi (loses it). You can see it below:

The 122 lb belt in the early 1990s was on fire, the whole division was jammed with talent. Part of the reason for this is that the 118 lb weight class was run by different promotions. These were all OneSongChai fighters. So all the 118 lb big names with OneSongChai were forced up into 122. But, Karuhat was even small for 118. So he was really fighting up, up at 122 lb. Importantly though, powerful gyms and connections could protect fighters, and find them favorable match ups. A fighter from a powerful gym or connections could hold a belt for a while, even a a long time, this way. Karuhat did not have the political power to force favorable match up (something to consider in any GOAT conversation). He won that belt and was put right into the meat grinder, and had lost it by April. He would win it again a year later vs Meechok. These are the things that come out when we put the video together with the record.

 

Wishlist fight videos for me are: his final Bangkok fight and victory vs Silapathai at the age of 27. Silapathai was just such a wizard, we have only one fight preserved between them. Karuhat was 1-1; and Karuhat's title defense against Boonlai who was so deft (but had significant size on Karuhat); Karuhat's lone victory vs Boonlai (1-3); also Karuhat's loss vs Lamnamoon in 1993, his win vs Kaensak in 1988, his win vs Weeapol in the same year would be beautiful to see. That being said, it is special that we have so much of Karuhat's career coming together, as of other great fighters of the era we are not so fortunate.

 

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

For convenience I also put together a spreadsheet of only Karuhat's video recorded fights. You can find that here, with hyperlinks:

A Complete List of Karuhat's Video Recorded Fights

Here are screencaps of that:

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Karuhat's First Fight vs Hippy

above, the video of the fight

Study of the Fight

I made the comprehensive fight video database so I could watch all of Karuhat's fight videos chronologically, and study them for myself. He's just such an extraordinary fighter, and we're so fortunate to know him over these years, it seemed that something like this is what I should do. I'm not speaking as an authority, only an informed enthusiast, and sharing my notes - things I've learned from filming and documenting him for perhaps more than 50 hours, filming and documenting the Muay Thai Library and in much discussion with Sylvie.

note: see at bottom my notes on the fight date and whether it was for a Lumpinee Championship

My Notes:

Karuhat vs Hippy - June 24, 1988

This really truly is an extraordinary fight, one of the best documented in Thailand's Muay Thai. Two young, small, incredibly fast fighters who would become iconic to the Golden Age of Muay Thai, meeting for the first time. And all of their speed and skill is apparent, despite the being only 20 and not yet at their prime.

Round 1
Hippy told us that he felt like Karuhat underestimated him in their fight fight at 105 lbs. He didn't feel respected. They were about the same age, Hippy slightly older, both at the age of 20. Hippy was already likely becoming a gate-keeper at the lower weight classes, an in his career rising legends would have to pass through his excellence at the weight. Like Karuhat he was very small even when fully adult. Karuhat must have felt confident in size at 105 (if indeed they are fighting at 105, which lore seems to say they are)...they would fight again two months later at 108 which would have been a concession to Karuhat.

You can feel that immediately Hippy wants to set the respect tone. The first round is marked by lots of high kicks, head kicks, and both fighters exchanging aggressive plows and walk-overs. Its a pissing contest right off. The first round is a round of asserted dominance and self-respect.

Round 2
The space became more compressed in this round, with Karuhat bringing the sharpened femeu attack, several contested exchanges, one with Karuhat driving Hippy into the ropes (but unable to land a decisive scoring blow), one with Hippy able to kick Karuhat to the ground, off a caught kick.

Round 3
Having watched the first two rounds I was really looking forward to Round 3. Hippy got his respect in the round 1 high kick battle, and then got the edge by putting Karuhat down in Round 2, in an otherwise very femeu exchange round. What would Karuhat pull out to step up his game? Was Hippy still holding another gear in reserve? The round is all drama. Hippy puts Karuhat down catching his kick. You never want to go to the canvas, especially as a femeu fighter. Karuhat steps on the gas, catches Hippy's kick in return and driving him along the rope, he has to get that point back. Hippy pulls out an extraordinary skateboarder carve along the rope saving himself, forcing Karuhat to smile and nod. It's a huge moment. The whole question was whether Hippy, one of the fastest fighters in Thailand, could handle Karuhat's acceleration of his game. It feels like the fight is decided right there and then. Hippy then catches Karuhat's kick and puts him back on the canvas, a big redoubling. Karuhat works a femeu exchange using the Saenchai shuffle (not sure I've noticed him doing that before), leaving his artful calling card, but the round was Hippy's.

Round 4
Karuhat decides that because stepping on the gas didn't work he goes to challenge Hippy's speed. It's a round full of kick battle scrimishes, kick and tap backs designed to score small points and show of skills. It's a very good skill show, Karuhat winning a few of them, but after round 3 these feel like small points. Karuhat is toying with the idea of trying to win the fight on style, but Hippy is super fast.

Round 5
In watching round 4 I'm left wondering, Does Karuhat have anything more in his bag? I'm not sure the stuff of 4 could win this fight. The fight itself feels like its Hippy standing his ground as a top 105 lb fighter. Karuhat comes out in the round as if he has the style lead, but then make a big, dramatic plow of Hippy across the whole ring, but misses the big payoff kick. Playing it cool only had lasted a few seconds, he takes a big swing at Hippy and that miss is big. Hippy's face on the miss is hilarious. A few more misses and Hippy checks and an oddly joyous end.

In terms of the study of Karuhat's style, this first fight was a fight of momentum and varied attacks. In Hippy Karuhat is facing someone supremely fast and quite femeu and athletic. There was a lot of Karuhat changing the dial, and Hippy matching him technique for technique, style change for style change. It all came down to particular momentum windows where Karuhat looked to impress himself, big plow moments, or big strike attempts that Hippy was able to escape from. By round 4 Karuhat tried to technique the fight, but he still needed big moments. In another sense, this was a battle of charisma fighters, and Hippy had the sanae to stay with and surpass Karuhat at age 20.

 

A Super Edit of the Fight

This is a Super Edit I made of the fight, just scrubbing through the footage and identifying themes and strategies as I saw them. It's my kind of film editing note-taking of the fight:

note: this fight has been adjusted from the Wikipedia page of Karuhat's (and Hippy's) record, based on what both Karuhat and Hippy have told us. Hippy specifically says that they fought only 3 times, and his record against Karuhat was 2-1 in those fights. The Wikipedia record records 4 fights, and has the date of this first fight in year (no day or month) 1987, while adding a second fight with the specific date of June 24th, 1988. Hippy says that the rematch of this fight happened within 2 or 3 months (and not a year), a quick rematch being something OneSongChai favored as a promoter, which means most likely this fight occurred on June 24th, 1988. I'm not sure which date is correct, but it seemed best to correct toward this date. There is evidence that the account is still not correct, as Wikipedia (and we ourselves in the past) says that this fight was for the 105 lb Lumpinee Belt, but at the end of Lumpinee belt fights the score is read first before the winner is declared, and in video you'd typically see the belt being put on. Neither thing happens at the end of this fight, so it is more likely that this fight was not for the 105 lb belt.  Both Wikipedia and Hippy say it was for the 105 lb belt. It could have been for the belt but the belt customs were not part of this for some reason, or the belt is just part of the lore of this fight somehow, but I've adjusted the record to reflect the 1988 date, and not included the belt, as per video evidence. A further complication in dating this fight is that the OneSongChai video places the date of this fight in the Thai date of 2532 (1989), which does not seem possible according to other accounts and records. In going through Karuhat's record I've seen other apparently OneSongChai discrepancies, so perhaps that was another one. In any case we are pretty sure that this is their first fight, and that in 2 months they would rematch for a fight that is for a Lumpinee Belt (you can see the belt in the victory pose of that video).

Here is personal communication in which Hippy says there were 2-3 months between their first and second fights, as as a matter of documentation:

 

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

I'll just add this in here. I'm not sure I'll be doing this edit style of a fight much more, but I was experimenting with various ways to present and study the action of a fight. The edit in the post above consists of turning, scoring moments and various ways of making them more visible, showing patterns or details. This is the same edit, but slowed down, and put into a grid of six.

 

The idea is that on rewatch the fight can be read somewhat synchronistically. You can see patterns and shapes show across different moments in the fight. For me things like Karuhat's shuffle (proto-Saenchai) and stutters come out, and the dynamic plows. And of course the whipping kicks of Hippy.