When a reporter asked the greatest living kickboxer of our generation (in Buakaw Por Pramuk) who the greatest thai fighter was.. he answered (with ease) "Samart". Although one must be thoroughly grasped in the realm of combat sports to understand what high praise this is, let me just tell you, it's as high as you can get.
For the more Westernized fighters like John Wayne Parr, the influence of Ramon Dekkers will always be a lasting influence. The thing with kickboxing and muay thai is that they get mixed up a bit, but there are no elbows in kickboxing, and for a long time leg kicks were unbewnknownst to KB fighters as a weapon.. and these things alone completely change the complexion of fighting. In dealing with the art of 8 limbs, no one can unjustify Samart Payakaroon as the greatest!
Samart simultaneously competed in both boxing and muay thai at the highest level, and he even attained the WBC Green Belt after a 12 fight undefeated streak allowing him to defend the title two times before losing his first bout. A 21-2 boxing record with the super bantaweight crown to his name along with a 130-18-2 muay thai record make him one of the best combat sportsmen of all time.
Samart's brilliance between the ropes was due to his adjoining of the boxing and muay thai skill he possessed. He would keep range with his hands and slide in and out using a pugilist's footwork unlike the usual moo thai stance which is more bouncy and allows fluidity for easing in and out with kicks. Samart would focus his hands on the enemy and find range with them, but he'd deliver lightning attacks to the legs and body when necessary always seeming to catch the opponent off guard.
Nobody was ready for the the handspeed and rangefinding of a professional boxer in the muay thai ring, and if that wasn't hard enough to deal with, Samart's kicks were just as lethal as the entirety of his gameplan. One must also realize that at super bantamweight Samart was fighting at somewhere between 130-150 pounds every night.. and he was 6 foot 3 inches tall! Samart as an older gentlemen now trains the younger generations in Thailand and globally. He is an absolute gem in the muay thai world, and his influence is nothing less than legendary.
The massive reach of Samart combined with his effortless footwork and boxing capability still makes him the arguable greatest muay thai artist of all time. Many stake claim to Saenchai, and although Buakaw himself has become more of a kickboxer than anything else, I wouldn't mind staking claim to him as the greatest.
When my hero in the White Lotus, Buakaw Por Pramuk says that the greatest muay thai fighter of all time is Samart, I'd better listen!
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