Put Lorlek – Muay Thai Legend
November 17, 2008 by nopstar
I thought we might reach back into the archives this week and check out some classic fights from legendary fighters.
Put Lorlek was dubbed the “Angel Boxer” and was dominant from about ’70-’77. Put Lorlek was one of those boxers who was so dominant that he would almost have to give up weight to find opponents. To give you some perspective Appidej Sit-Hirun who’s legendary, was 1 for 3 against Put Lorlek.
Like with many other phenom nak muay’s Put Lorlek eventually turned to western boxing to find fights. He quickly adapted, and was ranked as high as 6th in the world by the WBC.
I’m not clear around the details, probably a dispute with his owners, Put’s career was cut short when he left his camp to be an independent fighter. Very sad, but apparently he fought out the rest of his career in small provincial stadiums.
Supposedly he moved back to his home in Trang, where he’s involved with rubber plantations, and cockfighting. I’ve read that he’s still involved in Muay Thai training young fighters out of Trang. I’m not sure what the camps name is, but if anyone knows… please feel free to chime in.
I’d like to add that Panya Kraitus who has seen many different era’s of Muay Thai had said that Put Lorlek was the greatest of all time. Quite a few oldtimers that I had talked with had him as number one also. It’s funny that this is so because his body is a lot softer that what it is defined to be a Nak Muay. He is probably the only one to get away with not having a six-pack and being so thick for the weight divisions he competed in at the prime of his career.
I had wondered why Put had never fought Poodpardnoi since they had so many common opponents, I found out later it was because they were from the same gym. They were both great fighters but Put had the better career. It is said that Poodpardnoi use to be able to push around Put in the gym though. One of the things that was important to Put was to not get hurt so he valued avoiding exchanges and inventing subtleties that gave him greater advantages.
There is a Thai TV special on him that Vincent Giordano has for sale among many rare muay thai videos. Put was very instumental in developing a lot of fighters careers from Mai Mongkhorn’s camp Kiatbangchong. Ole Kiatoneway is indebted for the things he learned from Put.
As far as great boxers go, there is no shortage of literature or footage of his career. Check out his website too. lorlekmuaythaiboxing dot com.
lol @ 6:47 dragon uppercut
Wow. His sidestep alone is textbook, imho.
He looks like he fights with more the boxing footwork than the traditional MT style.
Tough and smart fighter.
Any more footage of him?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bng1DlLk2qM
This was a very memorable fight for Put since Igari Genshu had beaten a whole bunch of Thai fighters. He had just knocked out Satanfah Sor. Prateep who was a strong and talented champion. He not only gave away weight to Igari but he put on a clinic and knocked him out.
On the Best of Songchai Vol. 10 they have his fight with Seansak Muangsurin. They have this disc for download in the K-1fans multimedia section. Seansak is another dangerous fighter. He cleaned out the division and would have been the best if Put wasn’t there. Seansak captured the WBC boxing title in only his third boxing fight. Seansak is the classic story of a crash and burn boxer, super famous and then vanishing into obscurity, broke.
I can go on and on about Put’s resume. It’s a “who’s who” of other great fighters at that time.
Forgot to mention there is a VCD on lorlekmuaythaiboxing site that has 9 of his fights.
Cool to see so Old School fights, Thanks Nop, and I assume Put is the Small fighter ;-)
GKfromMTA,
thanks for the info and link!
I like his style, he’s calm, cautious and super dangerous with legs.
Hi guys, anybody know what happened to the site or is the camp still running. Wanted to get that vcd as well,
Just checking in for any updates? I guess not.
I did locate the muay thai super dvd series 1-8 and the old time muay thai fights 1-5 dvds, Thanks for the recommendation GKfromMTA. Well worth owning, so much info, the email to get them is blackdiamondcobra@yahoo.com if anyone wants to get the set.