Muay thai is a lot more than meets the eye. It is a complex art but with relatively simple techniques.
Within the art of muay thai itself, specialists exist who aim to exert their style on their opponents. The beautiful and technical muay femur style, the hard punching style of muay may and the relentless forward pressuring muay khao style.
Muay khao literally means knee fighting/boxing.
This style is essentially the polar opposite of the tricky and technical muay femur style that is based on managing and exploiting distance.
Attributes of Muay Khao
Pressure, strength, force, relentlessness and insitency are some of the words that can be used to described muay khao.
Although translated as knee fighting/boxing, muay khao embodies much more than just knees.
Though devastating knees are a major component of the muay khao style, heart and constant pressure and ‘hunting’ down the opponent are key attributes of the muay khao style.
Muay khao fighters such as Yodkhunpon and Yodwicha are also known for exploiting the close distance and suffocating attacks with multiple and damaging elbows.
Constant forward pressure
The muay khao style is unrelenting forward pressure. The mindset of the muay khao fighter is that they “cannot be interrupted” – no matter what.
A relentless hunter, the muay khao fighter will not let up until they get a hold of you and unleash their power and strength by tangling you up in the clinch.
Suffocating the Opponent
The muay khao fighter wants to take away distance. This contrasts the muay femur style that relies on being creative with distance and maintaining distance.
Dominance over the opponent rather than a point scoring attack is essential to this style.
Exhausting and tiring out the opponent is a key feature of this style and strength and conditioning including muscular strength for stand up grappling and a big gas tank and endurance are needed for this style of muay thai.
Making Your Opponent Uncomfortable
This style of fighter wants to fight where they are comfortable and make their opponent very uncomfortable.
This is in close distance and smothering their opponent with unrelenting pressure.
Think of a BJJ guy who wants to take you down to the ground where they are comfortable.
Legends of the style
Below are some of the muay khao specialists who are also some of the greatest fighters and champions in muay thai.
Yod Khun Pon – The Elbow Hunter of a Thousand Stithces
Yodkhunpon earned the name pran sok roi khem or Elbow Hunter of 1000 Stiches.
Showcasing this style of fighter, he was an unrelenting forward pressuring fighter.
Fighting in the Golden Age of muay thai in the early 90s, Yodkhunpon was both Lumpinee and Rajadamnenrn stadium Champion and is known as one of the best ever pressure muay thai fighters.
Dieselnoi
Dieselnoi is one of the greatest ever champions in muay thai.
He was known as “The Sky Piercing Knee” and used his height and long limbs to great advantage by hunting down and clinching up his opponents and unleashing his devastating knees.
After being undefeated Lumpinee champion for four years, Dieselnoi at only 25 was forced to retire due to a lack of opponents as nobody was willing to fight him,
Petchboonchu FA Group
Petchboonchu is one of the most decorated muay thai fighters ever with 14 titles to his name when he retired at the age of 26.
He has three notable wins over one of the pound for pound greats, Saenchai in the classic muay khao vs muay femur match up.
He is considered one of the greatest clinch and knee fighters of all time.
Yodwicha Por Boonsit
A phenom in muay thai, Yowicha became Omnoi and Lumpinee Champion at the young age of 16. His legacy is already cemented as one of the best ever clinchers in muay thai with wins against Saenchai, Petchboonchu and Sam-A.
The sky is the limit for this young fighter and he has already become renowned as one of the greatest muay khao fighters.
His growing list of titles include:
- Omnoi Stadium Champion
- 2012 Lumpinee Super Featherweight Champion
- 2012 Sportswriters of Thailand Boxer of the Year
- 2013 Thailand Lightweight champion
- 2014 Thailand Light Welterweight Champion
- 2016 Topking World Series Tournament Champion
- 2018 Army Games -71kg Tournament Champion
Facing the Muay Khao Style
The muay khao fighter can strike fear into the heart of the greatest muay thai fighters. Fighting this style is a practice in endurance, courage and technical proficiency.
Evolve MMA has a great article titles “How to Combat a Muay Khao Fighter in Muay Thai” that covers the needed attributes, skills and strategies a fighter must train and consider when facing this relentless style.
The essential take away points in terms of strategy are valid against any muay khao fighter and include:
i) Becoming Proficient in Escaping the Clinch
The clinch game in muay thai is a whole art in and of itself.
Gyms in Thailand are known for spending a huge amount of time in clinch sparring and up to an hour of clinch sparring per training session.
In this time the crucial aspects of body weight placement, grips and off balancing and escaping the clinch are perfected.
In order to face a muay khao fighter, escaping their grips and their biggest weapon – the clinch – is crucial.
ii) Using Angles
As the muay khao fighter is continually stalking and moving forward with pressure, its essential to be able to move offline and create and use angles to your advantage.
This requires good movement, anticipation and of course solid footwork to be able to create angles and move off line of the constant forward moving pressure.
iii) Counter attacking while moving back
This is a specialty of the muay femur. This backward countering action and using angles are key traits of the femur fighter that are crucial against this style.
This is also the reason why muay khao vs muay femur make great match ups as the contrast between strength and pressure and movement and technique make for an entertaining spectacle.
The ability to move back in balance and throw accurate counter attacks are a key skill needed to face the the clinch style fighter.
