Living in Buriram for over two years, I’ve watched a lot of children step into the ring to fight. It’s fairly standard. Buriram is one of the many areas where a number of great nak muays began their careers and here in Isaan, they begin young and they fight often, meaning generally a couple of times a month, sometimes more.
That being said, rarely do I see a fight at 18kg/39.6lb that provokes me to jump up and start filming. Meet:
Lekla Sit Songsompong (Red)
and
Kaichon Simpayam (Blue).
I was seated near the red corner. As a result, Kaichon (translated as Chicken Fight), who was waiting in the blue corner was in clear sight. He looked pocket-sized, shifting his weight from foot to foot, his eyes the size of apples and visibly stressed. His manner was one that made me think two things, this kid is either going to choke and this fight will be over in the first or second round, or little man is a killer.
The bell rang and within a few seconds Kaichon tightly clinched Lekla and started throwing beautifully placed straight knees. What you are about to witness is the rest of the fight.
Please note, the few second break you will witness was due to a man from the crowd getting so riled, he climbed onto the ring (beside me).
For those of you not familiar with muay thai, particularly how it’s practiced in Thailand, both fighters are displaying solid basic skills, rhythm and pacing, particularly for their age. Muay thai is meant to be a mental game, not just two people slapping each other around like a hockey fight. There is an appreciation of beautiful form, ring intelligence and mental strength, an aspect of the latter being the ability to control one’s emotions and subsequently the expression on one’s face.
This was the first fight of the evening.
Enjoy.
SPOILER: The win went to Lekla Sit SongSomPong (Red). I have to learn to keep the camera rolling until the winner is announced.
For more information on Buriram, please visit my other website Buriram Info. It’s a complete travel guide which offers hotel bookings, information on how to travel to Buriram, as well as multiple options of things to do.
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