Naksu: MMA in Thailand

At Pinsinchai Gym, occasionally, a friend of the owner visits and makes pictures and videos from the fighters. He uses them as footage to promote his own organization, Naksu. As I talked with him many times, I asked him about this organization. What they do is organize Mixed Martial Arts fights in Thailand. I believe it is unique in his kind. Although MMA is not really big here, like it is in the US, they do have it in Thailand. On Saturday the 18^th of June 2011 was the latest tournament of Naksu. It was held in the Asawindum Stadium, and the entrance was free. I got an invitation to join and come see the fights. Naturally I accepted the invite and I was there at 1.30 PM. The fights started around 2 PM. They told me there are 70(!) fighters from 7 different nationalities all stepping in the ring this day. At first I felt this was quite a lot, but the fights are 2 rounds of 2 minutes, so they will be short and explosive. The typical MMA gloves were already put on for some fighters, but they also wear headgear.

The first fight proved to be real entertaining as two huge guys got ready to fight. I always love to see heavyweight fights at this sort of events, especially because in Thailand there are not much heavyweights. They did not let me down and the referee had to stop the fight because one of them got heavily punched in the face and headgear or not, he got it bad! At this point I would like to give props to the referees of the evening. There were three of them of I recall correctly, one Thai and two foreigners. They were really focused and always stepped in at the right times and although some fighters protested when they lost because the referee had to step in, in my opinion the calls were very accurate.

The fights quickly followed one after another, keeping it interesting for me to watch. Whenever I did not like a fight, it was no problem because it was over before you knew it. There were several more heavyweight fights and some really put on a show, stamping real hard on the canvas as they jumped in the ring in an attempt to intimidate their opponent. One thing what stood out was that the heavyweights all tried to keep the fight standing and not go to the ground with their adversary. The fighters were from all different weight classes you could imagine and the lighter weight classes also put their mark on the event. There the styles were much more mixed and you could see the fights going to the ground many times and I have to admit I saw some beautiful takedowns, slams, but especially submissions.

The level of the fighters varied enormously, some were clearly just not very experienced and some had a definite background in Muay Thai, grappling or other martial arts. There were some good Muay Thai fighters who stepped into the ring to test their game at a different ballgame. The results were varying. Some fighters totally over classed their opponents, particularly when the fight remained in a standing fashion. I believe Muay Thai is the strongest martial arts standing and in the ring I doubt that there are better styles. However, this being said, some fighters showed an excellent display of fighting intelligence. This were the most interesting fights to me, when a Muay Tahi fighter faced a grappler you never know what to expect. If the grappler has him on the ground, it will be very hard for the nak muay, but before it gets to that, try to remain active while hard kicks and knees rain down your body. Unfortunately, there were no elbows allowed so the fights could have been different because of this. Nonetheless, I recall a fight in which the grappler was waiting in his corner as the Thai boxer performed the wai kru, staying true to his tradition. When the fight started, the grappler quickly closed the distance, meanwhile catching a kick to his ribs on the way, and literally climbed in his opponent, putting him in what I can only describe as a hanging guillotine choke. He forced him to the ground with this and seconds later, the nak muay tapped out.     

Off course the opposite happended as well, when somebody tried to make it into a grappling match, he got a good kick on his head and the referee stopped the fight. One fight that stood out was when a Japanese fighter who clearly practiced Aikido, judging by the way he was dressed got into the ring. I had real high expectations and even though he did not meet them, his nose was broken in the second round, he put on a great display of fighting spirit as did many other fighters that day. All together it was very entertaining event and the next time you get the chance to visit an event of them, you should. It has nothing of the allure and spectacle of the show they put on in the US, but you will see some entertaining fights. You can look them up on Facebook, there they will probably announce their next event. Most of it is in Thai, but you can see some promotion coming up before the tournament in English. If you would like to know more, you can send them a message or visit their website www.naksufight.com

As always, thanks for visiting the site, let me know what you think.

In strength and peace my friends,

Signing off,

MTD

Copyright pictures : By BaSuKeTtO-bOrU