Pajunsuk vs Lin Jian Shen 2003

Chinese and Thai promoters will sometimes host events matching San Da athletes against Muay Thai athletes. Results are mixed. The events sometimes produce exciting bouts, but often the styles clash and frustrate one another. The regulations also leave something to be desired. Rules are inconsistent from event to event and even, on occasion, within one event and scoring tends to favor San Da fighters with throws heavily valued. Good fights do happen, though, and sometimes the techniques of both styles come through in a match. It's also a good showcase of China's San Da athletes who rarely venture into foreign promotions. In the past few years it's been more common to see these events being held by Chinese promoters. This is from an older event in 2003, however, when promoters were more willing to put on events in sequence in China then Thailand.

A lot of the Muay Thai fighters seem to go into these matches unprepared to deal with San Da takedowns and lose lopsidedly because of it, even if they deal more physical damage to their opponents. Pajunsuk is the rare nakmuay with experience in San Da. Since leaving Thailand to fight internationally, Pajunsuk has fought a wealth of opponents and it does not surprise me that he decided to take some time to train San Da. The throws would benefit his style in particular as he's been noted for employing pretty spectacular clinch dumps. He's big for a Thai Muay Thai fighter, being about 5' 10" and fighting as high as 75 kg. It is the case in many of these matches, though not this one, that the Thai fighter seems to give up height, and even weight, to the Chinese fighters.

Lin Jian Shen is a relatively unknown fighter, not having Pajunsuk's international experience. Keep in mind, though, that China tends to send quality representatives from the San Da circuits to these competitions. And judging by his presence in the ring and disciplined technique, he seems an experienced athlete. He wears the red shorts in this, and Pajunsuk the white.

Part 1


Part 2


The momentum of this fight seems pretty one-sided, though Lin does bodily throw Pajunsuk out of the ring in round 3. I'm guessing it raises Pajunsuk's ire because he starts to aggressively move Lin to the ropes when they clinch. For most of the fight, Pajunsuk's fast teeps and left kicks keep him in the lead at a distance and his ability to prevent the takedown and end up on top when they both fall neutralizes Lin's clinch offense. Neither fighter really opened up with punches. It's common to see a fighter in Muay Thai or kickboxing go for a knockout win if they're far behind in the last round, but I suspect takedowns make this much harder to pull off in San Da. Either way, it was a fairly dominant, grinding fight from Pajunsuk. Neither fighter seemed to be able to open up fully, but Pajunsuk definitely did better in that regard and as a result was more able to impose his game.