Badr Hari vs. Glaube Feitosa

I posted a training clip of Badr Hari before. Here is the latest fight clip of him. This is him against Glaube Feitosa of Brazil in the opening round of the latest K-1 wgp 2008. He has amazing explosive power for a heavyweight. Haven't seen the rest of the event yet but this match really impressed me so I thought you guys will enjoy it as well. Great striking combinations, explosiveness and power.

Mike Tyson Training Highlight Reel 2

Another Mike Tyson training HL clip. I love his head movements and punching combinations. What a waste of talent.

Little kid boxing training

A friend forwarded this clip to me. Amazing! The kid's boxing skills in pad training is better than most guys I've seen in training. In my experience women and children tend to learn at a faster pace than guys as they're not concerned about power. This clip certainly tend to reinforce that experience.

K-1 World Max ~ Nemesis ~ by shunsuke

Shunsuke is a pretty well known internet personality that's famous for creating some of the best K-1 Max highlights. This is his latest one in preparation of the upcoming K-1 Max event in July. He does not disappoint. It's an awesome HL clip and showing alot of action of one of my favourite fighters, Andy Souwer, the reigning K-1 Max champion.

Rob Kaman - Low kick

Rob Kaman is one of the two most well known Ducth pioneers of Muay Thai. The other being Ramon Dekkers which I've posted about before.

This is Kaman showng how to train low kicks using a square kick pad. I'm posting this to show you guys how to improve your low kicks. Rob Kaman was known for his powerful low kicks. Low kick is one of those techniques considered essential in kickboxing/ Muay Thai. You don't have to be the best at it but you do need to have one the opponent will respect and thus need to shin check.

2001 Sanshou in Hong kong

Good example why you must keep your guard up, especially when you're going forward. Ouch!

Off topic, I didn't HK hold sanshou events like this. You HK guys in the club should find out more. Looks like fun to watch and maybe compete.

Mongolian wrestling

We were talking about the Sanda champion Baoligao which I posted a clip of him against a Muay Thai fighter earlier in my blog. I mentioned Baoligao is very different to the typical Sanda fighter in that he is very power orientated and particularly very strong in the clinch. This is because he is not ethnic Han Chinese (the group most Chinese belong to) but rather ethnic Mongolian. Mongolians have a very strong wrestling culture as is typical of all horse nomad tribes. They were brought up on wrestling. Even today wrestling champions are well respected and can earn a good living in Mongolia.

Every year in Mongolia they have what they call the naadam festival where they have archey, horse riding and wrestling competition. Above is a footage of the wrestling competition. The rules are no ground wrestling, first one to touch the ground loses with three points of the body loses, there are no rounds and no weight divisions. They were the special costumes reminiscent of the undergarment the Mongolians used to wear as calvary warriors. You may have seen the Mongolians in these costumes during the Olympic ceremonies as they walk in. If not, look up for it. They always make people's heads turn!

In north China, wrestling is or was a strong tradition. Mongolian wrestling is considered one of the four main branches of Chinese wrestling.

Liu Hai Long vs Robert Kaenorrasing

This is a match that took place in a Sanda vs Muay Thai event in Guangzhou, China back in 2003. The match is supposed to be 85kgs class but I know that the Muay Thai fighter Robert Kaenorrasing used to fight 75kgs. I'm not sure if the Muay Thai group are just supremely confident in their fighting skills or was tricked but it really is not a fair fight in terms of size and power. Even the rules itself slightly favours the Sanda fighter more as elbow pads are worn and the limited clinch time. Liu Hai Long is a very good Sanda fighter but I wish that he would go up against a quality Muay Thai fighter to test himself.

Kickboxing in Burma

Time to introduce you guys to Burmese boxing or lethwei as they call it. The Burmese still fight using the old bare knuckle rules that were used in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. It's not exactly the old style rules but it's the closest to as you can see here. Only handwraps are used. Punching, kicking, knees, elbows, throws and HEADBUTTS are allowed! When a fighter is KOed that is the end of the round. The KOed fighter will be revived and given the chance to continue or not. There are five rounds. There are no judges. The winner must be the only one left standing in the ring. If both fighters are still standing at the end of the match, it is declared a draw.

The older rules were even more hardcore! You were allowed to continue attacking a fallen opponent till the referee stops you. It was common to sweep or throw someone down and follow him to the ground by dropping your knee into the opponent. You were also allowed to kick your opponent in the groin back in the old days. Thank god they've modernise abit huh? It's now in a boxing ring instead of a sandpit.

You can see that the fight is very different in pace and style to a typical Muay Thai fight. WIthout the boxing gloves, punches become even more lethal and you can see that the lethwei fighters tend to punch more than muay thai. Also in lethwei you don't see much of the clinching and knees common in Muay Thai. Being allowed to throw and headbutt changes that aspect of the fight game. Lastly the manner of declaring the winner, ie. last man standing I think is the reason why lethwei fighters tend to be very aggressive and active. It's almost like a street fight!

Sanda in Russia

I was just amazed when I saw this. This is apparently sanshou/ sanda in Russia. Not only do they not wear the usual protective gear such as head gear, shin pads and vests BUT they also allow some sort of limited ground fighting! Russians are crazy. They always somehow managed to make a sport more hardcore :). But I like these developments! It makes it more realistic and complete. I would only suggest for knees to be added so it is more complete in stand-up fighting. Sadly I doubt if these developments will be followed in China.

Compilation of Sanda techniques

Nice compilation of Sanshou/ Sanda techniques and skills from the Oakland Sanshou team. I often find the sanshou fighters and training in the US to be more dynamic and skillful than their Mainland Chinese counterparts. I particularly like the fireman's carry and the scissors kick takedown at the end.

Baoligao vs Sitichok

This match took place in Bangkok, Thailand in 2003. It was part of a Sanda vs Muay Thai event. The rules were a combination of Sanda and Muay Thai. Punching, kicking, elbows, knees and throws were allowed. The clinch were however limited to about 3-5 seconds rather than the long clinching time of muay thai. Elbow pads were worn.

Baoligao is a Mongolian Sanda champion. He is known for his strength in wrestling (he's Mongolian after all) and striking power. Not much finesse in his clinching and knees but didn't look like the Thai opponent had an answer for it. I think the Thai crowd were quite shocked at the result. Chinese Sanda fighters are not known for their power and KO ability.