cont.)

into his ribs, effecting a KO.

The 3rd bout is the 65kg category fight between Mongolian Sanda World Champion & this year's Sanda King hopeful, Geriletu, the "Grassland Eagle" and Yudtacha Seeyudtong, a fighter with rapid hand & legs. Just 1st round into the bout Geriletu was overwhelmed by Yudtacha's fierce combos, which left him no choice but to desperately try to grab him & fall to the canvas together. The rest of the bout Yudtacha landed so many blows to the Mongolian that it looked more like a Muaythai workshop. Inner thigh, outer thigh, left kick, right kick, punches, an elbow to his face.. yes, Geriletu took all these. He was also knocked down by a right cross to his jaw in the middle of the match & only got up on the
8th count. He managed to sweep/throw Yudtacha to the ground a few times but that was about it. Dazed & heavily injured, at the end of the bout he wobbled and could hardly stand properly. He kept muttering to himself that he had never experienced such a heavy beating before. Mind you, he is one of the best Sanda fighters in the world. Though he is tough enough to take all the punishment he is still as helpless as a child in front of Muaythai's best. With this victory the Thais have already won this Challenge.

The 4th bout is the 70kg category fight between Wang Sanzhen, another fresh Sanda star who spent 3 months in Bangkok learning Muaythai, and Longtakan Bamongpor. This is the giveaway match. As the Thais have already won, I suspect that Longtakan has been asked to lose the bout beforehand as he fought in a totally irrational manner. Throughout the bout Longtakan used only his right leg, and only kicked Wang on his lead side at his mid-section, as if inviting him to grab his leg. Of course Wang took full advantage of this "present" and threw his opponent around. And the punches that Longtakan threw
were all half hearted as compared to Wang, who fought more like a Muaythai fighter than a Sanda fighter. The masses were quiet as Longtakan stood with a blank expression at the end of the bout.
Only the Chinese supporters were jubilating their only "victory", of course.

The 5th and last bout is the 75kg category fight. The Chinese side is represented by Sanda World Champion & Sanda King hopeful, Wan Yubao, the "White Brow Vigilante" who incidentally defeated last year's King of Sanda, Liu Hailong. As some of you may remember, Liu is the supposed "Conquerer of Muaythai" at Guangzhou on Sep 23rd. Wan fought Koontek Songpeipasek, another firece fighter who pummeled him with rapid combos. Wan's techniques, especially his double flick kicks, seemed too fancy and had no effect on Koontek. He also took an accidental kick to the groin area which knocked the spirit out of him. And as expected, he continued to be hit and in the second round got floored by a driving knee to his solar plexus. Seeing that Wan was unable to continue, the Chinese coach threw in the towel, effecting a TKO for Koontek. So the final result is 4 : 1 in favor to
the Thais.


Wan Yubao, perhaps better than Liu Hailong, can be called the best of the best in Sanda. Yet like Geriletu, he was well outclassed by Thai fighters who were well-prepared for them this time. We don't even have to talk about the rest of the Sanda team. Only now have the Sanda fighters tasted complete defeat. After seeing with my own eyes I feel that Sanda's supposed tremendous improvements are
exagerated & it was obvious they still had a long way to go before they can ever come close to being an equal of Muaythai. I also remembered that in the last challenge in Guangzhou the knees & elbows that the Thais landed on the Chinese did not count for points, which was unfair & resulted in their points being significantly reduced. This time in Bangkok they counted these sucessful hits. However, except for the 1st & 4th bout, the Thais won so convincingly that points didn't really mean much. As far as I can see, Muaythai fighters have learned their lesson and seen through all of Sanda's tactics.
From now on, there's no way Chinese Sanda can gain any upper hand from the Thais. Unless Sanda can come up with something new & effective, there's no other way for them to match Muaythai except to improve their conditioning, stamina and striking power the old fashioned way - through ancient CMA methods which may be vague; or simply learn as much as they can from the Thais. I do not think
this loss is a set back to the progress of Chinese Martial Science, but rather it is a loud wake up call and another overdued opportunity for the Chinese Sanda advocates to learn from their weaknesses.
They can beat every other martial art/sport in the ring but they cannot beat the King, the ultimate striking art which is Muaythai, unless they adopt Muaythai! The Dutch Muaythai fighters, who have beat the Thais on numberous occasions through the years, are good examples of this fact. Of course, most Chinese are too proud to follow in the Dutch's footsteps. But it is the Thais who have the last laugh, as I have said in the past. For the Muay Thai Vs Kung Fu challenge, this episode proves that history & destiny continue to be on the side of the Thais. The Chinese have their work all cut out for them..