This may be old but I saw Kit Cope as I was channel surfing, it was of him fighting Bare-knuckle in Thai Land. What's the deal with these bare-knuckle fights?
His opponent seemed to be at an amateur level at best. It was 6 hours out of Bangkok they said. I always thought fighters in Thailand were on another level with their Muay Thai.
These guys seemed scared of Kit. Is there an angle I am missing here the guy Kit fought looked like he took a dive, this may not be the case but it looked like it.
Is Kit a real World Champ like he claims, or are these Bare-knuckle fights like a novelty?
I have seen some real Thai fighters from Thailand train and they appeared to be on another level.
I think that the real World class Thai fighter's probably only fight sanctioned fights in Bangkok.
Let me preface my comments by saying that Gong and Kope are/were no where near top kickboxers. Thye aren't guys that are/were at even a competative level when it comes to international fights.
"IF he can fight and beat any K1 Max fighter then he can be called a world champion other ways no."
You obviously dont know much about kickboxing. There is way more to it than just MAX. You could never fight in max and still be 10X more legit than some of the fighters in max, i.e. the major stadium champs.
Furthermore just fighting a thai in and of its self means nothing. Who is the thai? They are not all at the same level. Nothing sillier to me than people who fight a Thai scrub and carry on about having beaten the thais in thailand.
Long story short neither Gong nor Kope are/were anything special in kickboxing.
Both of the guys on that show were fed scrubs for the show. The other guy (not Kit) was actually really pissed about this because he trained his ass off and was ready for a real comeback and when he got there and found out it was a chump.
The real hero of that night was Saul Mitchell who fought the LEGIT Burmese champion. Saul lost, but at least he didn't take some set up fight.
lol @ anyone thinking he was; Alex was great athlete and from what I hear a great guy, but he was nowhere near the level of good European, Japanese or Thai Muay Thai fighters.
Which makes sense--the MT scene here is not that large or established. The Dutch first started fighting in Thailand (at Lumpinee) in the early 80's. The Japanese have been competing there since the 60s.
The only American I know of to fight top competition in Thailand and win is Mark Dellagrotte, who beat the #10 ranked welterweight at Ratchadamnern stadium a few years ago.
Name who Gong beat that qualified him as a top fighter. LOL at your kickboxing ignorance. LOL!!!!!!! I dont want to bad mouth the deceased (and that is why a lot of stuff about Gong is not mentioned anymore)but Gong never really steped up, spent years running from Duane Ludwig after winning a close decision when Bang fought him under circumstances favoring Gong. He ducked JWP who called him out. Parr even wrote in the kickboxing board of MMA.tv about how he wanted to fight Gong.
Gong got worked by Kope when he finaly did fight someone, and Kope is nothing to write home over. Gong ate that teep all night and although I have only watched the fight one time since watching it live I seem to remember Gong looking like crap in that fight. He didn't just lose he had a terrible showing.
Gong never could have beaten a stadium champ or even the top ranked guys. He would have been owned by any of the name fighters in MAX.
LOL all you want but Gong never did anything to deserve consideration as a top Kickboxer. You could debate whether he was even a top American fighter. He was nothing on the international scene.
I eagerly await seeing your contention as to why Gong should be considered a top guy.
I guess the Major Stadium Champs in Thailand, The k-1 guys, the guys from Europe who fight at a high level (are all the great ones in K-1?), Burmese boxers (How are they ranked?), and the Japanese kickboxers (are the good ones not all fighting in K-1???)
Burmese are not Muay Thai fighters in general. They don't really fit in at all since they never compete with top fighters from any other countries.
Muay Thai and K-1 are two very different sports as well. K-1 is more likely modified international rules kickboxing (leg kicks allowed, knees to head and body ok, no elbows and almost no clinching) while traditional MT uses elbows, knees, and clinchwork extensively.
k-1 fighters, with a few exceptions (usually Thai), also rarely use the teep (push kick), which is at least as important as the round kick in tradtional MT.
The Lumpini Stadium champ is generally recognized as the best Muay Thai fighter, with the Ratchadamnern Stadium champ being a little less so. However, a few years ago Ratchadamnern had the best fighters since Somchai, the biggest promoter of MT, took all his fighters out of Lumpini due a dispute. All the top Thai MT fighters are promoted by Somchai so for a while the action moved over to Ratchadamnern.
There are also the King's Birthday fights, which are usually match-ups against former and/or current Lumpini champs and top contenders, often foreign fighters (usually Japanese, Dutch or French). These are AWESOME fights generally.
Finally you've got regional champs all over Thailand as well as a few national titles that are lesser known--ie. Channel 7 which is the Thai sports channel promotes fights and has a champ in each weight class.
gong seemed like a great person and businessman more than a great fighter
i think the cope fight was a work, i actually have a theory that many if not most western/american fighters get a cooked fight...
its win/win/win, master toddy gets paid for setting it all up and training the guy, the western fighter gets an ego/self esteem boost and a poor thai gets paid
copes fight, the osbourne kids fight... seems like a pattern
jack, that is occasionally true, but is more common in situations like Osbourne's and Cope's. More often the Thai will try to beat the living shit out of the farang rather than risk losing. It's an honor thing.
For a "lite" version of what I'm talking about watch what Yodecha does to Jason Chambers after Jason shoves him in their "fight' on the first episode of the Human Weapon show. He gets a little annoyed and basically lays a smackdown on him.
Watch some REAL fights from Thailand and you'll see what I mean.