Sad thing is Changpuek has taken a lot of damage over his career and is suffering from pugilistic dementia, if I remember correctly. Great warrior but was not as technical as his lighter weight counterparts and frequently had to go to war.
It was a different time. Attitudes toward Muay Thai were not the same as they are now.
Those younger among you who were brought into MA during the post UFC era should count yourself lucky. The 80s was the fucking dark ages. People still believed in Katas and one touch KOs.
agreed Sultan, so many times he could have instinctively thrown knees, elbows and he didn't. Meanwhile they didn't take a single weapon out of Rick's arsenal, and they stand there saying "we'll fight those people by their rules and win". And "it doesn't take any talent to kick the legs". Every statement they made was worse than the last. I mean you got smashed by leg kicks alone, let's put it that way. They are saying "he never hit me with anything, nothing to the body, face", yeah and he STILL fucking thumped you to the point of your legs being jelly and you're talking shit?
CharlesLewis - It was a different time. Attitudes toward Muay Thai were not the same as they are now.
Those younger among you who were brought into MA during the post UFC era should count yourself lucky. The 80s was the fucking dark ages. People still believed in Katas and one touch KOs.
truth... Although we did have great martial arts movies. And I grew up in Shotokan, our dojo was great though. We didn't do weapons other then stick fighting, when we competed it was only in fighting. Not kata, weapons, breaking, etc. And we would still sweep the tourneys even with all the other dojo's competing in all the events...
I too was lucky, found a JKD instructor who was open to any kind of training as long as it was functional... but we were swimming upstream in those days for sure. If you are unsure as to what I am talking about, kids, go download an old Black Belt from the 80s and read it. If you can make it through the whole issue without laughing, I'd be surprised...
4l
Chuck Hull was my favorite announcer. Good to see him in action.
Good fight, Rufus thought he could show the Thai what kickboxing's was about but instead got schooled in M.T. big time, lol.
AnotherTMAguy - Sad thing is Changpuek has taken a lot of damage over his career and is suffering from pugilistic dementia, if I remember correctly. Great warrior but was not as technical as his lighter weight counterparts and frequently had to go to war.
Kiatsongrit also fought in K1 when there were not weight classes and he was definitely a smaller fighter by comparison. Taking shots from those huge fighters over 100kg couldn't have been good for his health. He held his own in a lot of fights, though.
Great fight from Kiatsongrit. He really proved he was on another level of toughness and skill.
Something the announcers did not ponder on: Kiatsongrit was fighting 2-3 weightclasses above his own. That's the reason he got tagged in the first round and his distance was off.
nobones -Running has it's role in fight preparation, a major component of fighting is endurance. Yet no one would jog all day and then claim to know how to fight. That's what the TMA crowd was doing in the 80's. I'm not saying you shouldn' do kata. I don't, but we do transition drills in Kali that are kind of similar, the difference being we can resist one another to varying degree since there are two people working it.Pilot201 -Kata does have its role in fight preparation. A major, major component of fighting is mental strength and visualization. This is one of the main purposes of a kata.CharlesLewis - It was a different time. Attitudes toward Muay Thai were not the same as they are now.
Those younger among you who were brought into MA during the post UFC era should count yourself lucky. The 80s was the fucking dark ages. People still believed in Katas and one touch KOs.
truth... Although we did have great martial arts movies. And I grew up in Shotokan, our dojo was great though. We didn't do weapons other then stick fighting, when we competed it was only in fighting. Not kata, weapons, breaking, etc. And we would still sweep the tourneys even with all the other dojo's competing in all the events...
I did kata/forms for a long time, I think there are far better ways to train, but that's an opinion. What isn't opinion is this: if you learn your style from katas and one-step sparring, or worse NO sparring, you are not qualified to talk about fighting. You are a LARPer, at best.
"It doesn't take any talent to kick the legs" Haha! So pretty much what he's saying is that his brother was destroyed by a "talentless" fighter and Rick Roufus is below "talentless" as a kickboxer.
nobones -Pilot201 -Kata does have its role in fight preparation. A major, major component of fighting is mental strength and visualization. This is one of the main purposes of a kata.CharlesLewis - It was a different time. Attitudes toward Muay Thai were not the same as they are now.
Those younger among you who were brought into MA during the post UFC era should count yourself lucky. The 80s was the fucking dark ages. People still believed in Katas and one touch KOs.
truth... Although we did have great martial arts movies. And I grew up in Shotokan, our dojo was great though. We didn't do weapons other then stick fighting, when we competed it was only in fighting. Not kata, weapons, breaking, etc. And we would still sweep the tourneys even with all the other dojo's competing in all the events...
Uh oh, here we go. Of course it does, that is why kata practice before all fights is done by most ufc champs
Yeah Muay Thai is tough.... I did 12 years of it and all I can say is, win lose or draw.... your gona hurt for a week after the match!!!!
I think if Rick had addressed the kick defence and stance.... he would have won by ko! his hands were much heavier.
Thais have tough bodies but weaker chins... imo.
That thai did not suck he was prety good..
A thai will play the first round and see how you react.... Ricks stance was an open invitation to kick him... the thai only kicked all the time because he knew it was easy to win that way
moonrunrs - "It doesn't take any talent to kick the legs" Haha! So pretty much what he's saying is that his brother was destroyed by a "talentless" fighter and Rick Roufus is below "talentless" as a kickboxer.
You know he is a multiple time world champ right? Also was a cruiser weight boxing champ..
Rick fought in an earlier era, most people on this forum were to young too remember or watch, but all those fighters from that time were were tough as nails and talented.
A good example of Roufus in his prime would be his fight against Stan "the man".. I don't remember how to spell Stand last name. 
moonrunrs - "It doesn't take any talent to kick the legs" Haha! So pretty much what he's saying is that his brother was destroyed by a "talentless" fighter and Rick Roufus is below "talentless" as a kickboxer.
Also my post was not in anyway an attack or saying anything negative.
Amazing how biased the commentators, and ref, were. I mean, taking 3 POINTS because he dumped him! And that wasn't even discussed before the fight. Taking knees and elbows away from a Thai boxer eliminates a huge part of his arsenal. Leg kicks are nice, but that was in no way Rick fighting under "their rules".
Very cool, though. Especially when you think back to that time, and realize that people in the USA just weren't familiar with Muay Thai. Rick does a great job, when you think about that.
Would love to get Duke in on this conversation to hear his side of the event.
Thanks for posting, Pro Ice!
CharlesLewis -nobones -Running has it's role in fight preparation, a major component of fighting is endurance. Yet no one would jog all day and then claim to know how to fight. That's what the TMA crowd was doing in the 80's. I'm not saying you shouldn' do kata. I don't, but we do transition drills in Kali that are kind of similar, the difference being we can resist one another to varying degree since there are two people working it.Pilot201 -Kata does have its role in fight preparation. A major, major component of fighting is mental strength and visualization. This is one of the main purposes of a kata.CharlesLewis - It was a different time. Attitudes toward Muay Thai were not the same as they are now.
Those younger among you who were brought into MA during the post UFC era should count yourself lucky. The 80s was the fucking dark ages. People still believed in Katas and one touch KOs.
truth... Although we did have great martial arts movies. And I grew up in Shotokan, our dojo was great though. We didn't do weapons other then stick fighting, when we competed it was only in fighting. Not kata, weapons, breaking, etc. And we would still sweep the tourneys even with all the other dojo's competing in all the events...
I did kata/forms for a long time, I think there are far better ways to train, but that's an opinion. What isn't opinion is this: if you learn your style from katas and one-step sparring, or worse NO sparring, you are not qualified to talk about fighting. You are a LARPer, at best.
The point is not kata is a major indispensable part of training.
Its that kata can be of use to some. Lol at thinking he's saying its a big must for evryone.
I guess what i should have said was, in the 80's people still believed in the TMA mythology. There were schools who taught PURELY kata and breaking, and claimed to be "to deadly" to spar or compete, and people bought into that. Dillman was treated as a credible martial arts teacher instead of a bullshit artist. Just trying to explain what the MA landscape was like back then. I maintain that it was the dark ages. The height of ignorance about interpersonal combat.