Muay Thai Stuff’s Blog

Round 1
I could not see the difference between two of them at this round. They seems have equal ability and skills to fight, I even encourage John was a little bit better than Yod Saen Klai, in terms of defensive techniques such as grab legs and kick blocks. But when things happens, John got down by a very hard punch, which the announcer mentioned that it was a luck for Yod Saen Klai, but I would see different when John is losing control of his defense when tried to grab Yod Saen Klai’s leg, and Yod Saen Klai obviously saw the opportunity.

Round 2
This round is like a clock-wise situation, I don’t know why Youd Saen Klai lost his control as he seem to be able to keep the situation under control. But when he got a big “set” of punch from John, Yod Saen Klai is no longer advantage. Based on my own analysis, Yod Saen Klai seemed to under estimate John’s ability to recover and skills. This may be due to he believe that he will easily overcome John from the punch that took John down in the first round. And when John had realised the situation that he could bring back the advantage, then many sets of punch keep following. The last minute of round 2 is very important for John, he was shot down again with the obvious that he is losing his power, Yod Saen Klai’s opportunity rise again.

Round 3
Round 3 looks better for John, but also to Yod Saen Klai. Seems both of them were a little bit more careful on what is going to take as they know that one of them could be knocked at any time. While John was using this round to relax and he hope to recover and give his full power to the last two round, Yod Saen Klai seemed tried to finish the fight as soon as possible. The situation like this demonstrated that apart from power, good fighters always work on “strategy” throughout the fight.

Round 4
Round 4 was not exciting as expected. I was supposed to see more aggressive and advanced techniques from both of them but it looks they are completely losing power to fight. Especially for Yod Saen Klai. Once he know that he did very good job for the first two round, then it is unnecessary to hurry or put himself too aggressive, which may be giving John opportunity to strike back. While John was also lack of power, but still looked for a chance to make miracle.

Round 5
John had nothing to lose at this round and he actually did very well and impressive. But it seems not good enough to become a winner. Using clinching and short punch were very good strategies for at the end of the match while the fighter know that he is almost lost the power, but Yod Saen Klai was too good. Tried not to join the clinch and keeping away to find opportunity to attack, this strategy had made Yod Saen klai is the top winner of the Contender Asia. The result of the fight proves that perfect fighter still exist, even though is tournament was just a TV show in any perspective, but the fight is the fight and Muay thai fighters are not for the TV shows they are all fighters who want to fight, no matter what’s it that for.

Picture from www.contenderasia.com

In order to congratulate to the new captain of the blue team of the Contender Asia, David Pacquette, now let’s know more about him. David brings a lot of my attention because he looks strong and tough as well as very understanding person. When searching around, I find that David is not just an ordinary Muay Thai fighter, he is also a qualified teacher too. David have gone through almost all types of martial arts and all types of sport such as running, swimming. Apart from that he is also champion of many tiles both in the UK and internationally. He is the person who play major role and influence all of his team members in the Contender Asia, so let’s look further how well he will do in this tournament.

This name has brought to my attention by his participation in the Contender Asia as well as his friendly but a bit strange personality, then I would like to find out more about him. What T can see from his record is that he may be very new to me, who just first take a look the Contender. But he is very famous Muay Thai fighter in France who gain consecutive champion title since the year 1999-2005!! Apart from that, he also used to fight with Yodsanklai Fairtex in early 2007 and the fight was very exciting and I have to admit that he was better than Yodsanklai at the early stage of the fight and even though he lost KO to Yodsanklai. In my opinion, he can perform all kinds of technique and approach of original Muay Thai as well as speed and powerful attacks, I believe that only the one who used to fight with him is the best person who can tell how best he is.

Picture from contenderasia.com

It finally the time for the fight between John Wyane, the captain of the red team and Rafik, the head of the blue team after both teams had serious argument and seemed that every body wanted Rafik to lose and go as soon as possible, even this may be also the wish of anyone in Rafik’s team!! The fight began with a little bit more advantage for Rafik, but it was not really obvious. Looks like Rafik has speed meanwhile John has power so they were trying to maximize their potential to make an affective attack. Then, again, Rafik did the thing that I personally hate, hands down, and his team mate always reminds him all the time.

John also perform a very good defensive techniques especially his front kicks and very effective to keep Rafiik away and unable to attack him and many times that Rafik down by his front kicks. However, Rafik was so good for his elbow strike, many times that he could make obvious attack on John’s face which finally cause a boldly wound on John’s face. I think if Rafik was more focus on using his effective elbow, he may win.

This fight is very interesting. But not because it is from the most popular Muay Thai reality show “Contender Asia” but what interest me is that Yodsaenklai seemed to get much more advantage over Bruce in terms of both power and strategy but he looked not to use maximum of his advantage and potential to give KO to Bruce. Even though he showed the great power of punches and kicks but I strongly believe that he could do better than that. Bruce also had very good skills of Muay Thaibut still not enough to fight with Yodsaenklai, especially for his defensive technique to block the kicks, as his friend said that he should not use arms to block kicks and use leg instead. However, it was a good fight to learn.

I have just had a chance to see the full snapshot of the contender Asian right from the beginning. So what I would like to do about this series is to review each part of this series and also open discussion about what you think and also discuss on what benefit we will get from see this competition. The first episode that I saw is the “Singapore Feast”, which is a kind of introduction of the series. Even though it’s just the introduction but my feeling is very excited and would like to see how 2 Thai fighters could survive and go through the end of competition. Naruepol and Yodsaen Klai. However, when I went through the introduction of each fighters who join the competition and what makes me really appreciate is that all of them, although they seems to be competitors to each other (of course they do) but the good relationship still maintained and all of them are truly Muay Thai fighter. I have a lot of experience to see two Thai fighters perform the fights in Thailand and still be confident that they will win the competition but what I can say and be sure that it’s will be never easy for them to win and get the title. There are a lot more episodes to be seen and I would like to welcome all of your feedback and opinion about what you have seen I this competition, both bad thing and lesson learnt, let’s use this blog and join the discussion. Even though the competition has gone so far, but never be too late to kick off to start the review here.
Picture from www.contenderasia.com

This first episode featured an elimination match between Trevor Smandych of Canada in the red corner vs. Naruepol of Thailand in the blue corner. Though I haven’t had the opportunity to see Trevor fight, I have read of his career for the past few years. He is one of North America’s premier MuayThai fighters.

While I did not get to see the entire episode, I did enjoy the footage of the two fighters preparing for their upcoming match in the dressing rooms. Trevor had the honor of having one of the greatest international MuayThai fighters in his corner, John Wayne Parr. Naruepol talked of his desire to win for his Mother, as a tribute to her lifetime of hard work.

It was also interesting to make note of the differences in preparations prior to a bout between Thailand and Internationally. As an example, the pre-fight massage with Thai liniment is standard practice in Thailand. Internationally, on the other hand, this is often banned as the oil is deemed a “foreign substance” over fear that it could get into a fighters eyes. Another interesting difference is in the method of hand wrapping. On the international scene, with the application of athletic tape strictly governed. No tape can go across a fighters knuckles. In Thailand, however, fighters begin by having tape packed heavily across their knuckles, and gauze wrapped over it.

I enjoyed how the program took the time to feature the Wai Kru, also called the Ram Muay, prior to the bout, explaining it’s significance. They also discussed the ceremonial headband, the Mongkon, and it’s meaning.

Related VDO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeyudbBQz0s

“From the producers of The Apprentice and Survivor comes The Contender Asia. An exciting new television series to find the first Muay Thai superstar.”

Mark Burnett, the producer of the television hit reality shows “Survivor” and “The Apprentice” has now expanded his scope to include the sport of Muay Thai. In an age where sports broadcasting angles for the extreme, it’s refreshing to see a combat sports program that avoids these overly macho overtones. There is a lot of the human element presented in the programs, often showing how these fighters from different cultures attempt to train and get to know one another. For example, a Thai fighter on the blue “Wild Boars” team named Naruepol speaks very little English, yet the rest of the fighters really extend themselves to make him feel comfortable with them.

If there is anything that detracts from the show, it is the “challenges” that are standard fare in almost all reality shows. Of note, the first episode features a sprinting contest where the fighters run while tied to one of their teammates. One pair of fighters became tangled during the race and fell, causing an injury to one of them that could affect him throughout the contest.

All in all, this is must-watch TV for any martial arts or combat sports fans! This show allows the audience to not only watch some of the best fighters in the world fight against one another, but it also provides a glimpse into their daily lives, both in and out of the gym, which could also provide entertainment and excitement at the same time. It is very good idea to have a kind of programme like this because it helps people to appreciate more about martial arts rather than going to stadium and see the fights, so no doubt that’s why this program is so popular.

The strongest one

During the week, I think there was nothing special after Rafik gone. A fighter is a fighter. After the fight, anger feeling was gone. The loser accepted the referee decision, the winner respected the loser. Like Dzhabar said, “Respect the fight. but not the mouth”.

Turning to the elimination fight, Yodsaenklai was fighting against Bruce. In my opinion, Bruce is a good fighter. He has good skills and strength. However, when facing Yodsaenklai, it was a different story. It is not that Bruce was not good, but it is Yodsaenklai that is very strong. His weapons were super fast, accurate and strong. I think he was not 100% because I see only his kicks and punches. He didn’t use his knees and elbows much.

So far, I think Yodsaenklai will go to the final.

Here is their fight:

This is the good fight between Rafik from France and JWP from Australian in Conternder Asia Episode 3. JWP won by point.