Saenchai's Glory Debut: Undersized, Underarmed and Still The Best You've Ever Seen

Glory and Bellator both put on kickboxing events over the weekend and there was plenty of decent action to keep a fight fan interested. The Bellator Kickboxing card was headlined by Joe Schilling against Hisaki Kato, while the Glory card was headlined by a lightweight title rematch between Robin van Roosmalen and Sittichai which provided none of the closure that fans wanted after their controversial first fight. The man who stole the show at Glory card did so on the Fight Pass undercard: Saenchai took on a much larger opponent, fought with half of his weapons, and still looked every bit the striking master he always has been.

But first, let's discuss the fate that befell poor Joe Schilling. Schilling was gifted the headlining spot on this card against Hisaki Kato—notable for not being a kickboxer. The two fought in MMA about this time last year and Schilling got the better of Kato on the feet (as expected) before getting taken down. When Schilling started setting his weight to prevent the takedown, Kato hit a forty-yard dash into a superman punch. The idea of him doing the same in the kickboxing ring without the threat of the takedown was pretty laughable.

When the opening bell rang, Schilling clearly wanted to make a statement. He went after Kato throwing everything but the kitchen sink. If you don't know Schilling, he's at his best when he's knocking opponents off balance with push kicks and low kicks, then faking kicks into punches. He is at his worst when he is running across the ring swinging his hands from down by his chest.

In this bout he started with the kicking, then wound up in a brawl with Kato, and then returned to the kicking. Then he realized that Kato couldn't stop him from slapping on the double collar tie and looking to stoop his posture for knees to the face. This is notably legal in Bellator Kickboxing but under the current rules of Glory. So Schilling started hanging off Kato's neck and rushing in wild every time the referee broke them.

After a few minutes of frantic work, Schilling could barely keep his hands up and was gasping for air. He had exhausted himself trying to take the decisive victory that he was expected to. As Schilling grabbed after Kato's head again, Kato clumsily spun into a backfist which failed to do anything. Following the Lesnar-esque spin across the ring, Schilling was still focused on getting Kato's noggin between his mitts. As Kato spun again, his fist clattered off of Schilling's head and the top five middleweight kickboxer was on the floor at Kato's feet once again.

Raymond Daniels kept up his end of the showcase match ups bargain as he easily dispatched Stefano Bruno, again by intercepting back kicks. It was interesting to see Bellator list Daniels' kickboxing record as 28-3: a number which you can only get to if you add the seventeen wins he picked up in the World Combat League to his accepted kickboxing record before this bout. While WCL was a form of kickboxing and produced great talents like Daniels and Thompson, most consider it very much distinct from the K-1 rules which we all recognize as kickboxing as it prohibits low kicks and is thus a completely different kettle of fish.

Probably the finest technical fight of the weekend was Josh Jauncey versus Anatoly Moiseev at Glory. Jauncey has been considered a hot prospect for a while because of his beautiful low kicks and his flowing combinations into them. He is also masterful at playing with timing: feinting the low kick only to hold it back until the opponent's check is coming back to the mat, then slamming in the kick with full force.

Moiseev did a great job at breaking Jauncey's combinations. Countering the first or second punch with a crisp left hook and immediately stepping away, or side stepping off.

He also did well physically pushing Jauncey off when the latter was setting himself to flurry. An MMA fan watching Glory on Fight Pass for the first time asked me what to watch for in judging a kickboxer's performance and I replied "pushing and off-balancing". It is illegal in boxing but completely legal in kickboxing, Muay Thai and MMA. The man who pushes most effectively, even if it is only subtle, understands the most important principle of defense—creating distance.

Moiseev looked a few times for an interesting stepping superman punch that weaved him out to a slight angle on his right.

And this could turn into a nice left uppercut if he got his spacing right.

Moiseev kept his legs largely unharmed and wobbled Jauncey with a left hook at one point. He secured a decision in a back and forth technical fight which these clips do not do justice.

Then came Saenchai. Everyone waited with baited breath to see if he would look so-so in the kickboxing ring as he did in his sole K-1 fight back in 2013. His opponent, Eddy Nait Slimani was far from a slouch and immediately began fighting exactly the sort of fight to give Saenchai trouble. He opened up quickly—as you will always see kickboxers try to do against Nak Muay, who tend to start a little slow—and utilized his long legs with straight kicks and side kicks. But Saenchai soon found his groove.

As always, Saenchai's lovely footwork was on display. He might defend himself like a classical Muay Thai stylist, but Saenchai closes the distance like a points karateka. Always showing that little skipping right low kick to the calf for unbalancing a retreating opponent. This is exactly the sort of kick a fighter should be using when he meets Stephen Thompson.

Soon Saenchai was building off of it and the left high kick was coming in behind it. A left hand through the guard as he recovered his leg allowed Saenchai to send Slimani to the mat in the first round.

From then on the audience were able to sit back and watch a master in his craft go to work. It was in the small subtleties like the floating check which Saenchai performs off of his left kick, anticipating the usual round kick in return.

Or in his kicking to invite a chase, diving in with a left straight and immediately blocking Slimani's return and weaving his arms over Slimani's to lock down a clinch and throw a knee.

But the fight wasn't without drama. Saenchai was forbidden from utilizing his leg catches into foot sweeps—his number one way of punishing kickers. After he performed one in the first round he was warned by the referee. As a side kick came in late in the round, Saenchai instinctively trapped it between his forearms and, while he didn't retaliate, he was immediately docked a point.

From then on Saenchai would find himself instinctively catching kicks and having to drop them like they were red hot. It was a peculiar sight which made me realize that I am fine with a ban on sweeps and dumps and clinch work, but at least let the fighters have the option to catch a kick and retaliate.

But as the fight progressed it became the Saenchai show, and the crowd went bananas when Saenchai threw up the cartwheel kick and cut Slimani's left eye.

An interesting point of the bout was that Slimani clipped the Muay Thai great with a backfist thrown off of a kick as Saenchai came back to upright after a pull away from the kick. Missed kicks and turning techniques remain an unusual pairing for traditional Muay Thai stylists. Certainly it would have been heartbreaking to see Saenchai suffer the same fate that Shilling did the night before. In another universe, where coin flips are reversed, Saenchai was just knocked out for the first time in twenty years.

Slimani later attempted another backfist but connected with his elbow—which highlights how strange it is to allow spinning backfists when elbows are illegal. Most backfists that land end up being forearm strikes anyway.

Finally, Zack Mwekassa picked up another great knockout with the same jab / left hook double attack we examined in video form the other day.

A great weekend for kickboxing and one which reminds MMA enthusiasts why they should take an interest in this stuff. A lot of fans get caught up on "world class striking" and who has "the best striking technique", but the world of kickboxing has as many different and peculiar styles as there are fighters. It's not a game of rights and wrongs but one of pros and cons.

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