Muay Thai the art of chaotic harmony
I love Martial arts, and most especially, by far, I love Muay Thai. I can’t begin to express how much it changed me from the first moment I decided to join a Muay Thai gym, 6 years ago after having moved to Madrid.
The art of the 8 limbs is in fact much more than that. It is known obviously for the use of your 2 hands, 2 elbows, 2 knees and 2 legs. Muay Thai is much more than that. It requires you to use your feet and your movement, your body weight, head movement and all of the former if we think about the clinch. It has sweeps, dumps, it is a game of balance, elegance, dominance and detail. It indeed requires you to use all those limbs… plus your big brain.
If I had to define Muay Thai with two words would probably be “elegant paradox”. Because in this art that is extremely violent and prioritizes damage to your oponent, it requires you to be humble but aggressive, focused but relaxed and serene. And all of these attributes almost seem to contradict each other, thus why it is a paradox.
Rodtang a beast who’s named “army tank” for a reason
As an avid consumer of Muay Thai (at least as much as I can!), I of course try to follow most of the events, especially since One Championship brilliantly created a platform where people who love Martial Arts can trully enjoy and feel closer to both the Arts and the athletes. Muay Thai is one of such arts, and ONE has been bringing some of the biggest Thai stadiums champions and stars. For Muay Thai nerds like me this is pure bliss.
One of such champions is Rodtang.
This man is such a dominant powerhouse through all his fights, people quickly became amazed by him. His nickname “Ironman” is not for nothing! Other appropriate names could be “Wrecking ball” or “Wreck-it-Rod”, however due to his super robust and destructive nature nothing better than the original “Rodtang”. Anyone familiar with him know that by trademark he will put lots of pressure in his opponents, stopping at nothing and just wrecking everyone with his powerfull fists.
I personally, even though enjoying his fights, am not a fan of this kind of pressure fighting style, mostly known as Muay Mat (heavy puncher, [not restricted to punches]). It is almost a high risk high reward style, and usually has the most fearless, ruthless fighters of all. They sure are public favourites as “war” is always asured. And man does Rodtang excel at that. There is hardly a fight that Rodtang does not end up taunting his opponents asking them to stop running away and come to the center. It is pure demolition!
However!
The moment I became a full-fledged Rodtang fan
Yesterday I was watching ONE 157 (what a card it was!) and one of the fights was Rodtang Jitmuangnon vs Jacob Smith.
This fight promised to be fire! Two pressure fighters going at it for a chance to go on to the Grandprix semi-final. Jacob Smith a british Muay Thai fighter from Bad Company gym (if you are thinking about another super famous Muay Mat, Liam Harrison, you are correct!) taking on the current Champion, Rodtang Jitmuangnon.
Click to watch the fight.
To be honest I expected the fight to be a slugfest with two fighters that simply do not step back or ever give up. However we saw a different Rodtang. An almost Muay femur Rodtang, more contained, more dynamic, steping in and out, mixing things up. Especially after he found a home for his elbows. There was a mix of elbows and very beautiful sweeps, Rodtang showed an evolution that can be described as scary. This already incredible figher, very experienced even though very young, over 300 fights at 24 years old, showed he is only evolving, there is no limit to this man.
The fight itself was incredible, on one side a masterful Rodtang, and on the other side, as is what makes a fight special, a very tough opponent that showed he was there to win, and if not, to make Rodtang work for it until the last bell.
Jacob Smith, in my eyes, seemed disappointed at the end of the fight. With all reason to be so, as he went in with nothing else but victory in his mind and it showed. I believe if Rodtang fought as usually, we could have seen a different outcome to this fight. If on one side Jacob Smith understandably feels disappointed, he should also feel very proud in the display he put yesterday. One wonders even if the elbows that connected early did not, we could also have had a different fight.
However, that is not what happened, and with all props due to Jacob Smith, I felt inspired to write about Rodtang. The skill he displayed, that of a Muay Femur showed me that I was absolutely underestimating Rodtang’s array of abilities. The scary part is the dangerous combination of a highly durable and strong Muay Mat with the grace and fight IQ of a Muay Femur. The result is a dominant victory against a very dangerous and strong opponent.
Honourable mention
Even though the event was stacked with amazing fights, another fighter that displayed an amazing level of skill was Savvas Michael. This man became water in this fight. So serene, yet made his opponent, Amir Naseri, feel the crushing weight of water, what a skill to witness.
Click to watch the fight.
These young warriors can only make us thrilled for the future given the monstruous skill they already display!
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