Notes from Thai Championship Boxing

In April 2015, I attended a local amateur fight night and came away with some thoughts about the fights and fighters. First let me say that none of my thoughts should be taken as, in any way, disparaging the fighters who had the nerve to climb in the ring and risk real hurt. I have only respect for them.

In no particular order, my observations:

-Too many fighters throw 1 or 2 punches/kicks and just stop, this is noteworthy because we all do it while sparring and everyone I have trained with to date is adamant to keep going and add moves. I know from some hard sparring that this can be tough but it was really striking how few real combinations seemed to be thrown. I think the ability to sustain complex sets of strikes may be a real key to success here.

-There is some kind of negotiation around protective gear and allowable strikes but it is not clear if this is based on some formula of total fights, fighter preference or what. Interestingly, the elbows seem to be a particular area of compromise. Many of the newer fighters are not permitted to use elbows at all but there are others who are fighting with protected elbows, which seems to remove them as a cutting weapon while retaining them as an impact weapon.

-In Round 3, very few of these fighters have much left. It was striking how conditioning was a factor, and one I believe I already have an edge in. At least half the fighters seemed fully gassed out by the start of round 3. someone who isn't is really going to have a substantial advantage.

-I can do this, these amateurs really are amateurs and I may not win but I can fight. I was prepared to back out of this whole endeavor if I wasn't convinced of this. The thing is that we mostly just see professionals on T.V. do this sort of thing, and they are much, much better than the folks fighting these amateur bouts (who I should add are much better than I am in many cases).

-Even the best folks are making the same mistakes that we make. By "we" I mean all my fellow kickboxing cohort who have no interest in competing. They drop their hands, over-extend, throw themselves off-balance and walk into strikes by not moving off the center line. Particularly notable was how fighters would try to chase and catch low kicks, leaving heads wide open. The winning fighters make less of these mistakes but they are apparent among all but the best fighters in the group I watched.

-Changing angles will save your tail,which deserves special mention. I particularly noted this when a couple of middleweights fought. One of these guys was scary tough looking and basically a wall of muscle, but his opponent won by not standing in the pocket and slugging it out. he kept changing the angle and decided when and where to fight. That is the kind of fighter I want to be.

-Even the best prepared fighter can go down with one shot. Watched a fighter go down 21 seconds into round 1 with one punch, leading me to conclude that we are all (or maybe most) one strike from the canvas. Defense, movement and hitting them enough to keep them from lining up a textbook move is critical because anyone you face can put you down.

Altogether an incredibly useful experience (and lots of fun).