Samart Payakaroon vs Jaroenthong Kiatbanchong

This fight likely took place in the mid to late '80s, around the time Samart made the transition to English boxing. He's in southpaw stance here, a change he adopted in every one of his English boxing fights.

Samart Payakaroon I've introduced before. The short of it is, if you ask anyone in Thai Muay Thai to name the greatest fighter of all time, Samart will likely be named. He was at his prime in the '80s and moved to English boxing in 1986 after winning the Lumpini 126 lb featherweight.

Jarontheong Kiatbanchong is one of the top fighters in Samart's era, what's generally considered the Golden Age of Muay Thai, from the '80s to '90s, when interest in the sport was at a peak. He's also shortlisted one of the greatest fighters of Muay Thai, having beaten a number of champions like Chamuekpet Hapalang, Langsuang Panyupathum, and Panumtuanlek Hapalang.

Samart is in red, Jaroenthong blue.



Thanks to kasakee for the video. Jaroenthong is much looser compared to Panumtuanlek in his match against Samart. Unfortunately, he doesn't have any easier a time landing on Samart. Samart, meanwhile, is able to move in quite fluidly, landing left hand counters, inside leg kicks, and even head kicks off his lead leg. The gap in timing and killer instinct seems quite vast here. Jaroenthong had mounted little in the way of offense before being downed by a right hook perfectly placed in space-time (Yeah.).

What's impressive about Samart is that, like Saenchai Sor Kingstar today, he was able to consistently beat, and even crush, competition that already exceeded other fighters. Panumtuanlek Hapalang and Jaroenthong Kiatbanchong are great champions themselves, as were Chamuekpet Hapalang and Nongkai Sor Prapartsorn, all of whom he beat.

Samart's boxing skills shine through again in this bout, but he wouldn't be able to implement his boxing game were it not for his exceptional skills in other aspects of Muay Thai. He seems as comfortable countering with knees, kicks, and elbows as he does with his loaded left hand. His ability to see the other weapons coming is also very important; his evasive abilities are a famous part of his skillset and doubtless helped in allowing his long career.