This is a little late in getting up but it took a while to get some footage. This is from the july 12th show in paris. I would have liked to have gone to this. On a whole I’m pretty impressed with French Nak Muay’s… I think their movement and technique is the truest outside of Thailand.
Naruepon Fairtex vs. Yassin Venhadj
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On a side note, maybe someone can help explain this to me (Spyda) if my history is correct most of Arab sounding names in France are probably of Algerian decent. Is it me? Or are the only good nak muays coming out of France are of Algerian descent? (Farid Villaume, Murad Sari, Dida Diafat, Raffik Bakouri, Yassin Benhadj)
Anyway I think Behhadj looks good. I think it’s clear if you want to piss off Naruepon or get him fired up all you need to do is keep punching him in the face. I’ve never seen dude so fired up! I’m not sure why they stopped this… I don’t think he looked like he was in that bad of shape? I think Benhadj is about 34 … maybe he realized if he kept going he risked getting hurt from a KO?
Naruepon’s dropped a couple of long knees (Kao Trong) that were absolutely savage.
20 responses so far ↓
1 Fighter X // Jun 19, 2008 at 7:40 am
Narupol was rather cocky in the first roud but you could tell by his stance at the start of the second he was wiser lol.
By the way Nop for your muaythai marketing plan we should use Narupol as the pin up boy as he seems the most marketable…….. to me anyways.
He’s a great fighter, tall (for a thai), has good looks, young, knows abit of english and has whiteish skin (not being racist, just stupid thai culture). which is a beter package than buakaw or Yod.
What you guys think?
2 nakmuay26 // Jun 19, 2008 at 8:06 am
Hey Nopstar!
Don’t forget about one of France’s finest…
Dany Bille!
I’m pretty sure he’s from Cameroon though.
There’s always Scarbowsky too. He’s definately ahead in my book of Farid, Raffik, and Yassin.
By the way, great fight! Narupon’s hands were really sharp.
3 mmcmx // Jun 19, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Algeria, tunez, morocco,…
In spain it’s the same, these kind of sports, only poor people do them(generalitzation of course). So you’ll find the wiser guys in the gyms…Which is a shame. Soccer/football 4 everybody else. Sucks big time you know…
4 Gio // Jun 19, 2008 at 3:10 pm
still you guys have a much bigger muay thai scene than italy. count your blessings!
5 khannie // Jun 19, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Were elbows not allowed in this? Was it K1 rules or something? I saw about 10 opportunities for elbows, but not a single one thrown.
6 Dan from Madison // Jun 19, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Khannie - at the very beginning the ref said no elbows, looked like a K-1 type deal to me as well.
That right cross by Naruepol toward the end was nasty, the sound of that thing was crazy.
7 spydaman // Jun 19, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Most of the people in France with “Arabs sounding names”…lol are most likely either from Algeria, Morroco or Tunisia for the most part.
As far as Muay Thai in France (non-algerian fighters)…. Jean Charles Skarbowsky, Gilbert Ballentine, Moussa Sissoko, Joel Cesar, I think Kamel Jemel is from Morocco, and last but not least Dany Bill one of the best Farangs of all times (Cameroon originally). There tons of other fighters but I believe those are/were the best ones.
The best Muay Thai fighters in France are mostly african (mostly north and central).
8 bilouboy06 // Jun 19, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I am originally from France and the answer is yes, most of the Thai boxing fighters in France are from North Africa,(Algeria, morocco, tunisia). Of course this is a generalization, but it is true.
9 spydaman // Jun 19, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Few points I’ve noticed:
- The breaks were 1 1/2 minutes as opposed to 1 minutes.
- Where was this skilled ” knee smashin’ ” Naruepol when he fought Yod in the “contender” (of my bad…I forgot…the fight was fixed)
- The first 8 count….was one of the longest 8 counts I have ever seen.
- Naruepol’s attitude was more MMA than it was Nakmuay during this fight.
- The commentator actually said that Naruepol got mad because he got swept…but if u pay attention….Naruepol was the first to sweep Yassin.
- Don’t FuCK wit Naruepol in the clinch, I repeat…..Do not Fuck wit Naruepol in the clinch.
- Khannie, No it wasn’t K-1 rules…it was Muay Thai rules (wit no elbows…lol)
- mmcmx….I started to realize that Muay Thai everywhere is mainly taken by the poorer folks (France is no exception)….rich folks tend to lean toward TKD.
- Fighter X, I agree wit u….only one thing is his height might actually work against him as Thai people tend to be on the shorter side. We need someone that everyone can relate too…..someone like…….SPYDA…I mean Kaew or Anuwat,
10 tong po // Jun 20, 2008 at 12:30 am
Funny how Naruepon was the one who landed the telling punch as Yassin was landing more punches initially.
11 Frank // Jun 20, 2008 at 12:46 am
The dude was getting pretty beat up by the knees. Even without getting rocked by the punch, I don’t know if he would have turned out for the next round. Beautiful clinch work. Would have loved to see/(hate to be Venhadj!) elbows, if they were legal in France.
12 tong po // Jun 20, 2008 at 1:14 am
Oh, and Dannie Bille was the shit back in the day!
13 SE // Jun 20, 2008 at 1:17 am
i like how narupol was punching like absolute shit until the finsihing blows.
14 mattlucas // Jun 20, 2008 at 7:40 am
I think its pretty common for ring sports (boxing, and muay thai… mma is a little different) to be dominated by the working class or the lumpen. Its certainly been the case here in America. Most of the early boxers were Irish, now its mainly latinos and blacks.
Irish aren’t as common anymore in the boxing world. That shift came about as the irish became more white and were able to access better jobs.
There’s something about using one’s body for labor, about masculinity in working class culture, about having few other options.
Inversely (in gender terms) we can see that many prostitutes are from poor regions (especially in thailand).
Fighting is a prostitution of the body. Its just not for the typical in and out (there is some quick thrusting motions in fighting though!).
I wonder why that guy got so gassed. Maybe he didn’t knee spar enough prior to this fight?
Spydaman I don’t get the mma comment? What do you mean he was acting more mma? More of a dick? He certainly was taunting his opponent a good deal.
Matt Lucas
15 spydaman // Jun 20, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Wow, MattLucas…..Beautifully put. I think I can second just about everything u’ve said. Except maybe for the “Fighting is a prostitution of the body.” That statement is “Generally” or “Mainly” true…but u also have a few exceptions. U still have those who train and fight just for the love of the sport and not the money. Come to think of it again….I just realized while typing this that I do agree wit ur statement as the example I’ve just stated was an “exception” and we all know every rule has exceptions but that doesn’t necessary make the exception false….lol…hope I didn’t confuse anyone wit my rambling.
Oh and Matt…..There’s nothing wrong wit taunting….Yodsanklai does it allllllllll the time and it cracks me up (watch his fight vs Villaume)….so there’s nothing wrong when there’s a strategy behind it (mainly to throw ur opponent off his game)……but Naruepol was just plain angry and he allowed his anger to dictate his fighting, Naruepol is generally a calm fighter, I’m not sure what happened prior to the fight but he was pissssssed during it. If u watch the UFC…..u’ll notice that a lotta time when the fighters enter the ground….they’ll slap their own head, growl, stare hard sometimes they’ll go as far as not shake ur hand just so they can build that anger for the fight…..Nakmuays don’t do that! Naruepol’s attitude briefly reminded me of that. Just briefly!!!!
16 tong po // Jun 20, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Actually, its fairly common to get “fired up” for a bout- yelling is a common thing. I remember Peter Aerts screaming in his early days before entering the squared circle.
“That shift came about as the irish became more white …” This is hilarious, but very true. As more immigrants migrated to the US during the Industrial Revolution, each group was discriminated against by the groups which were already settled here. Irish became the “new black” as they were one of the new groups coming in. Also, since blacks were here already, some also jumped on the bandwagon and discriminated against the Irish as well. Just a little history around the time of the Industrial Revolution.
17 spydaman // Jun 20, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I don’t cosider Peter Aerts to be a Nakmuay….More of a K1 kickboxer if u ask me
18 spydaman // Jun 20, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Consider*
19 SE // Jun 20, 2008 at 10:21 pm
funny no one mentioned the black irish. which is also the name of a good movie. i second spydas comments in regards to the “fighting is prostituting your body” comment.
20 I // Jun 21, 2008 at 8:15 am
damn!!! never seen naru like that before… I would say I like the calm naruepon better for sure
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