Buakaw vs Chahbari
May 7, 2008 by nopstar
Many Thanks to our Dutch friend Therealestofall for taking the time to rip and share this fight with us. If you haven’t already I want you guys to go fill in the captions for our Buakaw Headlines contest… to clarify, you just need to submit one headline…
Hopefully we’ll get some more submissions this week, I’ll have you guys vote on the best caption and I’ll see if we can’t get Antarai to kick in a shirt.
Anyway, oh to the interesting stuff… this was the white lotus’s latest fight in Amsterdam.I think I saw an earlier comment saying Buakaw looked lazy. I could see how one might think that, but I think Faldir isn’t a bad fighter. I think if he would have stepped up earlier it would have been a better fight. I think everyone is so used to seeing Buakaw walk all over his competition. When he doesn’t people get disappointed. I know I wanted him to…
On a side note. have you guys ever notice that most of the North African Nak Muay’s have the strangest physiques? Going on appearances I wouldn’t say Chahbari looks much like a fighter, he isn’t built like one. We all know that doesn’t mean shit, but I’m always amazed by it. Some fighters who come instantly to mind, Murad Sari, Farid Villaume, Chahbari? Anyway just a random observation.
I think Chahbari was really trying from the start of the fight, and for a while they were trading decent shots. Like many other fights, the better man became evident as the fight progressed. Buakaw is definitely the man!
Kind of unrelated, but I wonder if K-1 will treat Yod the same way they treat Buakaw (walk over your opponent or be forced to fight a 4th round). Yod may be even more mainstream than Buakaw after his Contender Asia win. Just a thought that came to mind.
Buakaw looked very good IMO. And this against Faldir, who is one of my favorite europeans to watch. I actually think it was Faldir who wasn’t his usual self here; he seemed a little frustrated by how easily Buakaw was reading his kicks. He landed a couple of very nice combinations here and there but for the most part looked a little ..intimidated ( ? ).
By the way, what was up with Faldir grabbing Buakaw’s leg after being swept in the 3rd? I also remember Gevorg loosing his cool after a Buakaw throw and seemingly complaining to the ref about something.. Were they pissed by the way Buakaw took his time stepping over them or something?
rafik had a pretty good physique for a North African fighter, and he wasn’t very good at all!
Buakaw simply dominates and shuts down his opponent… but one thing, he always exposes himself when he starts swinging with his hands, like he’s is too much relying on his power.
Other nice fights from the same evening…
This fight could go either way, actually I was expecting 4th round… Warren Stevelmans vs. Gago Drago
Georgio Petrosyan Vs. Chris Ngimbi
Petrosyan fought a draw with Buakaw and won over Pique.
And finally a great KO… Slowinsky vs Saki
Speaking of not looking like a fighter, check Faldir’s fight picture in the beginning compared to Buakaw’s. Faldir’s looks like a bad license photo.
What’s a fighter’s body when it comes to Muay Thai? I’d say Faldir has more of a ‘Thai’ body than Buakaw. There’s not many A list Thais that are as cut as Buakaw. Take Samart, Sak, Namsaknoi, and Naruepol for example.
Sari and Chahbari aren’t muscular but Villaume is as muscular as you can be at his height, fighting at 72 kgs.
Thanks for posting; been waiting for this fight for some time. I am please with Buakaw’s combination improvement; I enjoyed the flury at the end of Round 1. Round 3 was reassuring to me as Buakaw’s button was pushed; you could see it. He was like “Bring It!!!” and fired back with a very hard knee and roundhouse. I still waiting for him to bring back his 2004 explosiveness with his current improvements in technique
Talking about physiques and bodies, is the use of steroids and performance enhancing substances an issue in muay thai? In thailand? In the Netherlands? K1 max? K1 heavies? Is there any actual testing or is it ignored?
Buakaw opens up his guard and drops his hand to his chest. Its pretty common to see this in thai fighters. They don’t always keep their hands up. It seems to signify a break in the action. I bet someone who could draw his hands down and then start smacking him in the brain would do pretty good.
Faldir looked like he changed his stance a lot. What was up with that?
They spelled Giorgio Petrosyan’s name wrong, hehe. It’s either Gevorg (cause he’s Armenian by descent, I think), or Giorgio (like the Italian), never Georgio. Oh well.
I think if Buakaw wanna win K1 max this year, he’d better paunch and kick faster than this. I don’t wanna see Masato beat him again.
colargol
Faldir grabbing Buakaw’s leg… that’s called Faldir’s frustration.
HighRevinMT, “I still waiting for him to bring back his 2004 explosiveness with his current improvements in technique” – im still waitin on K-1 to bring back the clinch and the multiple knees…lol