The UG Blog is proud to showcase the work of guest blogger Lawrence Kenshin. His focus is on striking, notably the application of striking in MMA. Here he does a breakdown - his longest ever - of the first American Kickboxing vs. Muay Thai bout that was broadcast to a wide audience.
The vlog was inspired by a piece at MuayThaiPros.com that detailed the importance of Rick Roufus vs. Changpuek Kietsongrit.
"I really changed my opinion after I saw my brother Rick fight Thailand's Chuengpuek," said famed MMA trainer Duke Roufus later. "I did an interview after the fight and put down the leg kicks, and said that they did not require much skill. I went to a few seminars that used leg kicks and it changed my mind very quickly."
Cool video. Duke was clearly quite upset with damage his brother took. It's clear that if more rules are required to make a particular style more effective then it is not the more effective style.
Check out Manson Gibson VS Kiatsongrit for an American beating a Thai, twice, in that era. Kiatsongrit also fought full contact Karate in Japan in the pre-cursor to what became K1. He was fighting heavy weights. I think it was called Seido Kai Kan from memory. I think Maurice Smith might have fought in it too.
69stang - Check out Manson Gibson VS Kiatsongrit for an American beating a Thai, twice, in that era. Kiatsongrit also fought full contact Karate in Japan in the pre-cursor to what became K1. He was fighting heavy weights. I think it was called Seido Kai Kan from memory. I think Maurice Smith might have fought in it too.
IIRC, Seido is an offshoot of Kyokushin which still had no punching to the head? Andy Hug came from Seido i think
If American KB did not have leg kicking until after this, what about Japanese KB since it was largely derived from Kyokushin which had leg kicks, correct?
