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This Week In Muay Thai: Khunsuklek's Dominance Continues
Khunsuklek Boomdeksian firmly established himself as the top fighter in Muay Thai with his April win over Kumandoi (#3 P4P) for the Rajadamnern 118lbs title. This time he was taking on #8 pound-for-pound fighter and Rajadamnern 122lbs champion, Petchsiam Jor.Pattreya. Khunsuklek entered this fight on an insane 39 fight unbeaten streak, while Petchsiam had won his last 12.
The fight felt like a throwback to a bygone era, as both fighters displayed a high level of skill and activity. Kicking exchanges went deep with constant counters and re-counters, the ending of one exchange and the beginning of another bled together in the sort of fireworks only two elite strikers can produce. The incredible balance on display allowed seemless offense and defense off both legs while both fighters manouvered around in the pocket to find angles.
Petchsiam started strong, leveraging his length and slick rear kick to success on the counter:
Though he’s a while rounded fighter and an ambidextrous kicker, Petchsiam’s bread and butter is the counter rear kick. He excels at blocking or pulling back from his opponent’s kicks and instantly snapping up the rear leg, always keeping himself in position to land it. Throughout the fight you’ll notice him taking short L-steps and split steps to quickly take angles and change distances without putting his weight in a position that leaves him unable to land the kick.
Khunsuklek was initiating most exchanges, but Petchsiam defense and counter kicking allowed him to score off Khunsuklek’s entries, and his depth and balance allowed him to keep up with Khunsuklek as the exchange grew deeper.
While Petchsiam took the first round, Khunsuklek started adjusting before the round was even over. We often talk about the importance of closing off the open side against a slick distance kicker, by bringing the rear leg forward in a check, filling the space with your own kicks, or marching forward to jam up the kicking lane. What was interesting with Khunsuklek’s performance is that he worked through a progression of tactics to close off the lane of Petchsiam’s rear kick.
He started throwing marching combinations, stepping forward into southpaw after his first kick was defended and countered:
The marching combos let Khunsuklek give something back to Petchsiam in exchanges, forcing Petchsiam’s kicks to fall on the less impactful closed side, but they weren’t exactly ideal as they still involved trading kicks.
In the second round, Khunsuklek added footsweeps onto the end of his marching combinations to punish Petchsiam’s counter kicks:
He’d show Petchsiam the same opening he’d been exploiting previously, then step forward and take out his base while he was on one leg. At times he’d show a short little feint or throwaway kick to get Petchsiam biting on counters, then just step through into southpaw and gently bring him to the mat with the footsweep.
The next step for Khunsuklek in taking away Petchsiam’s primary weapon was bringing out a forward floating check. He would enter with his right kick, but instead of touching the kicking leg down and giving Petchsiam the opening for his counter, he would immediately thrust it in front of him in a block, forcing Petchsiam to kick into the shin.
At one point, Khunsuklek entered with his right kick and Petchsiam pulled back, making it miss. Almost anyone else would have rotated too far and lost their balance, giving up a free, high-scoring kick to the back. But Khunsuklek simply kept his weight over his plant leg, externally rotated his kicking leg right as it past by Petchsiam’s body to halt its momentum, and drew it right into a floating check, catching Petchsiam’s counter kick on his shin and allowing him to step into his own leg kick.
Karuhat Sor.Supawan is the most notable purveyor of this sort of forward check, and it’s not hard to see a little bit of Karuhat in Khunsuklek.
Petchsiam wasn’t helpless either though. He started targetting Khunsuklek’s plant leg when he brought his rear leg forward, threatened with punch combinations, and relied more on his lead leg to counter, kicking around the forward check. But Khunsuklek forcing Petchsiam to rely on the closed side kick more was a win in itself - strong southpaw open side kicks cut off distance in a way few other attacks do, physically blocking their recipient from stepping in and returning. When Petchsiam landed kicks to the closed side, he was forced into closer range engagements as Khunsuklek could step through it and rattle off a punch combo or return his own kick.
The final step in Khunsuklek swinging the momentum firmly to his side was implementing a consistent forward march to take away Petchsiam’s time and space.
Khunsuklek would enter behind the raised rear leg, touching it down abruptly to snap into quick kicks off his rear side or march into lead leg kicks, throwing out teeps occasionally to keep Petchsiam off balance. Petchsiam’s kicks continued falling safely onto the blocking right leg, and once Khunsuklek backed him up to the ropes he would attack with jumping knees and kicks.
Midway through the second round, Khunsuklek started an exchange that would forshadow the finish:
Khunsuklek steps in with a teep, which is deflected and countered by Petchsiam’s rear kick. Khunsuklek anticipates the rear kick however and switches his feet to put his right leg in front, taking the kick on his closed side. This makes the kick easier to catch and puts his left leg in the rear, setting up a powerful open side kick to Petchsiam’s arm.
Only seconds into the third round, Khunsuklek built on that sequence to land a fight finishing head kick:
Khunsuklek checks a rear kick from Petchsiam, then lifts his right leg up, showing both a check and a kick, bouncing it into a quick kick that gets through. The feint let Khunsuklek seize the initiative and now Petchsiam is slow to react with his counter kick that Khunsuklek easily checks. Petchsiam then kicks with his lead leg, anticipating a check of Khunsuklek’s right side, but Khunsuklek takes it on his arm and scoops underneath it, passing the leg across his body to land a clean counter. Petchsiam finally sees the opening for his counter rear kick, but he’s still operating on Khunsuklek’s initaitve and the move was fully anticipated. Khunsuklek draws his left leg back into a southpaw stance, making Petchsiam’s kick fall on the closed side and into an easy catch. From there, Khunsuklek takes a slight angle to the inside and counters, but this time his kick goes upstairs, dropping Petchsiam for the finish.
Every step of the exchange is remarkable from Khunsuklek in terms of positioning, initative, anticipation, and balance. But what made it even more successful is that it built off their prior exchanges, where Khunsuklek conditioned Petchsiam to expect the body kick counter, before switching up to the head.
Khunsuklek is now on a 40 fight unbeaten streak with wins over our pound-for-pound #3 and #8. He has proven himself both the present and future of Muay Thai. At only 18 years old, he has all the makings of a generational talent and I can’t wait to see what’s next for him.
