From Eight Limbs Down to Six: Saenchai Enters the World of Kickboxing

Saenchai PKSaenchaimuaythaigym is one of those rare fighters in a position where almost no one has a bad thing to say about him. There are those who might not like that he rarely knocks opponents out or who dislike his style of fighting, but he is free from the skepticism and downplaying that so many fighters suffer. If you fight in pure kickboxing they say that you are ducking the real fighters in Thailand. If you are a top notch Thai they say you're not brave enough to step up onto the world stage and show the kickboxers what a real Thai can do. It is one of those situations where you just can't please everyone. Saenchai seemingly gets none of that twaddle and a quick read down his list of accomplishments should tell you why.

Saenchai has been a Lumpinee Stadium and WMC world champion (at four different weights), he has fought the best Thais, and he has gone abroad to test himself there. Better yet, Saenchai continues to fight opponents who outweigh him. Fabio Pinca is one of the few non-Thais to hold a victory over Saenchai and he weighed in close to twenty pounds heavier than Saenchai. Despite being built for 135lbs, Saenchai bested Umar Semata to take the WMC's 147lbs title and has beaten a good few men at around that 65kg mark where he will fight in GLORY this weekend. Saenchai's record is made more incredible by his activity as a fighter. As a daft example, consider that since CM Punk signed with the UFC, the Thai legend has had seventeen bouts and hasn't suffered a single loss through them. Yet despite all of that activity, all of that playing with fire and jumping weights, spare a knockout loss at age fifteen Saenchai has not been stopped or even seriously hurt in two decades.

Yet all of that goodwill could rapidly vanish from underneath Saenchai as he makes his GLORY World Series debut. Fight fans are a fickle folk after all. Available to a larger audience than ever before by way of Fight Pass, Saenchai will be introduced to many combat sports fans around the world this weekend against the 60-1-0 Eddy Nait Slimani. Giorgio Petrosyan's case should serve well as a cautionary tale to Saenchai. In one of his first widely available fights, the kickboxing great suffered the first knockout loss of his career in a shocking upset to Andy Ristie. The man who GLORY had been advertising as the Mayweather of kickboxing was blasted into unconsciousness with one good punch and all of that previous work came undone. But Petrosyan had been kickboxing for years, he had competed under full Muay Thai rules but it was as the K-1 Grand Prix champion that he really came to the fore. Saenchai has been competing under Muay Thai rules his entire life, his most famous effort at pure kickboxing rules came in a loss to the largely unknown Hong Kong Xing in K-1 back in 2013.

Kickboxing in GLORY consists of punching, kicking and kneeing. Elbows are prohibited, as are throws, trips and real work from the clinch. This rule set can turn hardcore fans off but seems to be working out well for Glory. It means that they get to promote crossover talents like knockout punching boxers, Zack Mwekassa and Alex Pereira, and karate or American kickboxing stylists like Raymond Daniels. Also the clinch does not always make fan friendly viewing as it is typically an area of attrition rather than out right knockouts. That has always been the point of kickboxing in the K-1 mold—limit the clinches, cut out the filler, show off the knockouts.

The more you take away from one area of a game, the more a fighter has to become creative and round out his skills with another weapon. Compare the hands of a world-class boxer to those of a world-class kickboxer or Nak Muay and the boxer will be able to create and accomplish more with his two fists. The fighters who have the greatest problems adapting from Muay Thai to kickboxing are those who rely heavily on the clinch or on elbows. Nate Corbett, for instance, was a decent kickboxer but was never able to replicate the monstrous performances he gave under full Muay Thai rules where he struck in combination and on the counter with his elbows. But to Saenchai's credit he has always been a very well rounded Nak Muay. Like the great weight jumping Lethwei fighter, Tway Ma Shaung, Saenchai seems happy to lash out with every weapon he is allowed to but doesn't rely heavily on any single one.

Anyone who has seen Saenchai can name the gimmicks of his game. The jumping round kick to the midsection which is almost assured to raise the opponent's guard, the shuffling switching of stance back and forth while doing a jogging motion with his arms, the cartwheel kick. The last one is the iconic strike for which Saenchai is best known. He hasn't made too many clean connections with it but he throws it so often and so beautifully that no one really minds. As it comes through the top of the opponent's guard like Andy Hugs' axe kick it is always a scary proposition for the men he faces.

The cartwheel kick landing a little too heavy in a playful sparring session.

Aesthetically there might be no more perfect technique in martial arts than Saenchai's cartwheel kick. Compare it to some of the some of the fighters who have attempted it in MMA and they stand next to other like a great ballerina and a toddler in a tutu. Whether you believe that this is an old Muay Boran technique which Saenchai brought into the modern era, or an adapted technique from kick volleyball (Sepak Takraw), it is something to behold. In fact under traditional Muay Thai rules Saencahi is often told off for using the technique as it is illegal for the fighter to place his hands on the mat. Saenchai apparently loves fighting outside of Thailand because he can throw his favorite kick with impunity.

But that is really just the moment in every Saenchai fight that the fans are waiting for. Saenchai gets the job done with other techniques. Some which would make you say "that is a perfect application of basic Muay Thai" and some which even the most rabid Thai elitist would not try to claim as orthodox Muay Thai. His masterful use of teeps and nebs, straight pushing front kicks, is just good Muay Thai and perfect fight science. The longest, straightest strikes get to the mark first and can undercut round strikes and jam advances. But Saenchai's interesting side kick which is often performed with the ball of the foot like a front kick and is sometimes affectionately referred to as his 'Tornado Teep' is pretty unusual.

Then there are his scissor kicks or bicycle kicks. Kicks which lead into one another with a hop and no lag. He'll often raise his lead or rear knee to feint a straight kick and then jump in with the other one instead. Another favorite his using a lead leg low kick to pick up his opponent's lead leg (as Saenchai is a southpaw he often finds himself in Open Guard, against orthodox fighters) and follow with a high round kick to the off balanced opponent.

And what about the Taekwondo style reaching axe kicks? They are especially hard to claim as traditional Muay Thai but he has been using them for years to come through the top of the guard just as his cartwheel kick is supposed to. Often being the shorter man he will even perform them while jumping or as part of a bicycle kick pairing.

Perhaps the most promising thing I have seen recent months is Saenchai's improved use of his left straight. This has coincided with his competing in Thai Fight, a promotion which goes back to the old tradition of roped fists fights. Except instead of old school rope the fighters wrap their hands heavily and wear no gloves, leaving the fingers open. Saenchai's left straight used to be a weapon primarily for scoring power punches to the body, and then he would look to step in with the left elbow if he wanted to do some damage with his left to the opponent's head. Through fighting without gloves, Saenchai has been developing his left straight into the kind of speedy, sneaking left straight which can carry a southpaw to a decent career on its own. In his most recent fight, Saenchai's flicking left straight opened a hideous cut on Sean Clancy's eye. Most importantly as Saenchai's left straight becomes a more dangerous weapon in its own right, he can build off of it more effectively with left knees to the body, high kicks and right hooks.

But what will you be denied in Saenchai's Glory debut and in his hopefully lengthy and lucrative future with them? Well there's elbows, he throws those out well and has some great fun with them (such as in these leaping downward elbows in which Saenchai ends up jumping through the ropes by accident).

Most importantly though, Saenchai will be without his trips. Saenchai and Buakaw are both examples of fighters who do well at making their opponents reluctant to kick. Both are masters of catching kicks and dragging the opponent's leg across their centerline in order to place themselves on a dominant angle. Buakaw excelled in K-1 by performing this leg drag and opening up with either body shots or hooks to the head.

Saenchai has always favored dumping his opponent on the back of their head. The old school dump is fairly simple: you deny the opponent the chance to breakfall by attempting to elevate their hips and forcing their head to fall first. The same way you would go about drowning your disappointing child in the bath according to the 1980 film, The Changeling.

By slinging the opponent to the mat whenever they kick, or at least threatening t, Saenchai shuts down many of the bigger men who should be looking to keep him out on the end of their legs. Without this weapon against the gangly and active kicker that is Eddy Nait Slimani, it will be down to Saenchai's still exceptional counter kicking game and ability to crowd and fluster his man. Slimani might not be well known but from what we have seen of him he is far from just some jobber.

Most Saenchai fans and Muay Thai fans will be watching on Saturday with baited breath, hoping that Muay Thai's great living legend can at least give a good account of who he is and what he can do. We could be left with a disappointing fight, we could even see Saenchai go 0-1 in GLORY and never fight there again. But Saenchai has always been the kind of fighter who is there to put on a show and knows how to give the fans their money's worth. K-1 performance aside, Saenchai is also one of the most adaptable fighters in the game, it would not be unthinkable to see him come out and look like he's been fighting under kickboxing rules for years. Either way, the man deserves your time. Watch the fight and see just how long the thirty five year old, three-hundred fight veteran can keep stiff arming Father Time and scoffing at weight classes.

Pick up Jack's new kindle book, Finding the Art, or find him at his blog, Fights Gone By.