Dieselnoi vs. Samart: Storm of the Sky Piercing Knee
The white whale of Muay Thai fanatics and collectors was discovered recently, as footage emerged of the legendary fight between “The Sky Piercing Knee Kicker,” Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn, and Samart Payakaroon. Both fighters are on every short list of Muay Thai greats worth listening to, with each one regularly heralded as the greatest fighter in Muay Thai history. The release of their fight is a momentous occasion, representing not only an important moment in Muay Thai history, but giving us a glimpse into what may be the finest performance of the fabled Dieselnoi.
Tape of Dieselnoi vs Samart was found on a VHS in an old gym, before being thankfully immortalized on the internet. Muay Thai chronicler Sylvie Von Duuglas-Ittu describes the circumstances surrounding the fight:
There's very little footage of Dieselnoi online, some highlight edits from scraps of video, or "show" fights against non-peak opponents. Almost nothing of him fighting in his prime. The "Holy Grail" of fights would be his "super fight" against Samart Payakaroon, on Christmas Eve of 1982. That fight was never supposed to even happen. One of the top promoters of all time, OneSongchai, appears in a documentary about Samart's career, saying that he didn't agree with that fight and never would have allowed it himself. Indeed, Samart was the best Femeu Fighter of all time, and Dieselnoi the greatest Knee Fighter of all time, but they weren't in the same weight class. Both were unbeatable. For this fight to happen, Dieselnoi had to torture himself down to 129.7 lbs, losing 19 lbs in just a few weeks (he was 135 lbs Lumpinee Champion) and Samart weighed in at 133 lbs (he was 126 lbs Champion). This fight, in addition to being between two absolute superstars of all time, would determine who would be awarded the Fighter of the Year for 1982. Samart had won it in 1981 and Dieselnoi was undefeated as Lumpinee Champion throughout the year... it was a huge deal.
It was a super-fight to rival all super-fights. Both men were not only champions on the most prestigious stage in the sport, but had already built legacies as two of the best to ever do it.
The styles of the two fighters aligned just as perfectly as the circumstances. Dieselnoi’s aggressive Muay Khao stylings against Samart’s silky-smooth Muay Femeu footwork. There is perhaps no other style matchup that so captures the essence of Muay Thai as that between the Muay Khao (aggressive knee and clinch fighter) and the Muay Femeu (technical outside fighter). A struggle between chaotic fury and elegant grace: the Muay Khao seeks to close distance and drive a high pace, while the Femeu tries to slow the fight down and dazzle with finesse.
Dieselnoi was the Salsa to Samart’s waltz - the rapid expansion and closing of distance, frenzied motion on the inside, all designed to take away the Femeu’s graceful lateral movement and capitalize on exchanges. But there was a duality to each of their games. Amidst Dieselnoi’s frenetic attack, there was a graceful cadence. A rhythmic, balletic lilt was present in his attacks even as he swarmed Samart and smothered him with piercing volume. Likewise, Samart knew when to halt his graceful pivots and bear down in the pocket to back the swarming Dieselnoi off.
This fight is the most thorough, elucidating piece of film we have on Dieselnoi. There is no better representation of Dieselnoi as a fighter, or the Muay Khao style in general. Once thought lost forever, one of Muay Thai’s most meaningful fights (as well as one of its most impressive performances) has been recovered for future generations to study.
Storm of the Sky Piercing Knee
In a Muay Thai fight, the first couple rounds tend to be slow. Scoring is weighted toward the final three rounds, providing the fighters a grace period to establish a rhythm and allow gamblers to place their bets. Dieselnoi came out of the gate pressuring intently, but not aggressively. He spent the early rounds racking up attritional damage with kicks and forcing Samart to expend energy in avoiding his clinch.
Samart had success avoiding Dieselnoi’s potent knees and clinch attacks early using his impeccable footwork. When backed up to the ropes, Samart would adopt a square stance, allowing him more effective lateral movement, before shifting or pivoting out the side when Dieselnoi stepped in. Constant direction switches kept Dieselnoi hesitant to pressure aggressively, lest he lose his position and allow Samart to escape from the ropes.
When a fighter who prefers to strike on the outside fights an opponent looking to close distance into the clinch, it’s vitally important for the distance operator to control the clinch entries. This means not only disrupting the opponent’s attempts to clinch, but ensuring that, when a clinch exchange inevitably happens, they are in a strong position to exit safely.
Hello, World!
Dieselnoi’s attempts to clinch were frustrated by Samart’s savvy in the early rounds. Samart would often initiate clinches on his own terms, securing inside position before Dieselnoi could get his grips. With his hands inside of Dieselnoi’s, Samart was in a strong position to push off and reset. When Dieselnoi took the offensive and attempted to reach for Samart’s neck, Samart would parry his hands away while circling out.
While Samart was able to nullify the brunt of Dieselnoi’s offense for the first few rounds, he had far less success converting on his own offense. Dieselnoi’s ungodly height and length, as well as his crafty long guard, made punching around or through the gangly mass of limbs difficult. Shrewd kickers can often alleviate pressure through feeding their opponent a steady diet of round kicks, forcing them to plant their feet in order to check or block, but Dieselnoi was able to keep Samart moving backwards consistently enough to nullify his kicking game.
Instead of stopping to check the kicks, Dieselnoi would march through them. He would lift his rear leg high and shift forward into the opposite stance. This not only allowed him to close distance and push Samart back off his own kicks, but the high knee acts as a counter to the kick as well. Samart would find his leg shelved on Dieselnoi’s as he tried to retract it, forcing him off-balance and opening up counters and clinch entries. If delivered quickly, the high knee also deals attritional damage, hitting the soft underside of the leg and disincentivizing further kicks.
Dieselnoi was not pushing a high pace in the first two rounds, but he was establishing the tools he would later build on. He walked Samart down and cut off the ring, forcing the smaller, more nimble man to expend energy while picking away with kicks and the occasional knee. Though his clinch entries were limited early, his pressure would open up more opportunities as the fight went on.
Samart’s offense was largely stifled by Dieselnoi’s pressure. Here Dieselnoi uses his long guard to close distance while blocking Samart’s punches and cuts off the ring with a round kick, before forcing Samart off balance and landing a kick.
Around halfway through the second round, Dieselnoi started finding his clinch entries more consistently. Whereas Samart had been able to largely avoid Dieselnoi’s work from range, he was no match for the giant in the clinch.
Dieselnoi began responding to Samart’s inside clinch position by locking around the back of his neck and pivoting to the side. While Samart was still on the inside, he was left unable to leverage the position due to the inferior angle. Samart was forced to turn and square up to realign himself, which gave Dieselnoi an opportunity to lead him into knees.
Samart’s own urgency invited even more clinch work from Dieselnoi. He knew that merely avoiding Dieselnoi’s offense wasn’t a viable path to victory and picked up the urgency after the first round. The more Samart attempted to plant his feet and score in exchanges, though, the easier it became for Dieselnoi to grab hold of him.
Without Samart’s arms occupied fighting Dieselnoi’s hands, his head was open to collar ties. Once Dieselnoi achieved a lock, he would exploit it ruthlessly. Devastating knees pierced Samart’s body, while Dieselnoi continually broke his balance to create openings for more strikes.
The Muay Khao strategy sits on a dangerous precipice, as practitioners walk straight into the fire with the expectation that their opponent is less suited to it. And it tends to be true - if you’ll excuse a bit of reductionism, knee-fighters often present a difficult matchup to slick outside strikers, but tend to struggle with heavy punchers. This is because the footwork that is so useful for closing distance and creating chaos - the large marching steps forward - also necessitates spending a lot of time out of stance, where a clean, heavy punch can have disastrous effects.
Samart quickly abandoned the outside game once Dieselnoi started swarming and instead committed to a pocket fire-fight. It would seem that power is a more reliable strategy than finesse against a man willing to abandon stance to track you down, but Samart had little success with this adjustment. The Muay Khao style is so aggressive that it’s rarely synonymous with impeccable defense, but Dieselnoi was untouchable. He thrived in the chaotic exchanges he created not only offensively, but defensively as well. It is the single most sound defensive performance I’ve ever seen out of a Muay Khao, and a testament to how a fighter can blend extreme aggression with risk mitigation.
Dieselnoi approached Samart with a long guard, smothering the hands to set up clinch entries and deny punching opportunities. He frequently dipped into a variant of the long guard called the dracula guard, in which the rear arm folds over the chin to block punches, while the lead remains extended to find range and cover the chin.
Up til this point, I’ve seen the dracula guard used mainly as a static guard to close distance into the clinch. But that isn’t how Dieselnoi used it. His guard was incredibly responsive - flashed on for a brief second in order to cover an opening he saw Samart about to exploit, but never held long enough that it could be worked around. The primary mistake modern fighters (such as Yodpanomrung above) seem to make with the guard is a lack of responsiveness. If the guard is held too long, the cracks become visible, and opponents can work around it to manipulate your hand positioning.
Dieselnoi never fell into that trap, instead remaining ever-cognizant of exactly what purpose was behind his actions. When he used the guard proactively to close distance, he would take a shot or two on his forearm and immediately counter to break Samart’s rhythm, before moving in to occupy the space. He used the guard reactively too, and would often convert the folded arm into a frame to create distance, before using his kicks to reinforce the distance and prevent Samart from swarming.
For Dieselnoi, the dracula guard is not a static tactic for closing distance, but a key component in a complete defensive system. Its utility was based on its linkages with other tactics built into his game. He found success using the guard to close distance in the clinch:
Note the responsiveness of Dieselnoi’s movements. He doesn’t rely on the guard to do the work for him; he sees the shots coming and adjusts as necessary. When Samart tries to hook around the guard after landing a straight on the forearm, he simply shoulder rolls. The guard flows perfectly into clinch entries, hand-fighting, and balance-breaking turns and pushes; after he’s done blocking Samart’s shots, he unfolds his arm and frames wherever necessary while continuing to eat up space.
While most of Samart’s defensive work was simply a more advanced application of commonly-employed techniques, he did do one thing with the dracula guard I haven’t seen from any other Nak Muay, at least not with any degree of consistency or success:
Dieselnoi was using the folded arm not only to catch shots, but to actively parry them. He would swat Samart’s hand down after taking the shot on his guard, allowing him to more effectively counter or transition into the clinch.
Despite his reputation as an aggressive pressure fighter, Dieselnoi showed some moments of finesse on the outside as well.
Dieselnoi plays with Samart’s sense of distance, keeping him at bay with a teep, before stepping into a long switch knee with the same preliminary motion of his teep. Samart staggers back from the impact, and Dieselnoi enforces his distance with a sharp jab. Another teep is parried by Samart, inviting him inside, but Dieselnoi is immediately ready and intercepts him with a collar tie, forcing Samart’s head to the side to break his balance and setting up a powerful clinch knee.
Although Samart had trouble finding his footing amidst Dieselnoi’s relentless pressure, he had some success countering the Muay Khao on the way in.
Samart’s most consistent success came on the counter, either through catching Dieselnoi’s kicks or through throwing back-stepping uppercuts or overhands as Dieselnoi chased him in search of the clinch. However, the counters were a double-edged sword, as they gave Dieselnoi an opportunity to close distance and land his knees.
After getting behind early in the fight, Samart knew he had to pick up the pace. He started fighting out of a southpaw stance more often and looked to land overhands to Dieselnoi’s open side as he closed distance. However, Dieselnoi adjusted brilliantly to Samart’s southpaw offense:
Dieselnoi began shifting forward into southpaw more consistently as he threw his knees, while extending his right hand and dipping his chin below the shoulder. The shift into southpaw would often take him out of the overhand’s trajectory, but even if it didn’t, his chin was covered by the shoulder and he was free to counter with a knee or clinch entry.
As the fight wore on, Samart’s exits from the clinch became slower and his outside footwork more labored. The more Dieselnoi found the clinch, the easier it became for him to do it again. Steady knees to the body in tie ups helped puncture Samart’s gas tank, while the consistent pressure forced him to work constantly. One of the most beautiful things to watch in Muay Thai is a Muay Khao drowning his opponent through pressure and clinch exchanges, and here Dieselnoi was doing just that to perhaps the greatest fighter in the sport’s history.
Dieselnoi’s clinch starts long before he actually makes contact with his opponent. The long guard allows him to close distance safely, as his extended hands tie up his opponents and prevent them from punching while he jostles for hand-positioning. When opponents try to punch around his guard, they tend to hit shoulder and give him a direct route into the clinch, as he can shoot his arm directly to the back of the neck if his opponent doesn’t fight hands. His constant shifting helps him rapidly close distance into the clinch, and gives him a dual threat with the knees. If opponents back up, he simply shifts forward and fills the space. If they plant to counter, his marches put him in perfect position to step into a hard knee to the body and intercept their momentum. Over time, as opponents become worn out from the knees and pressure, they tend to grow gun-shy and are more likely to back up in panic, anticipating a possible knee coming with every forward march.
Dieselnoi’s unique build allows him to initiate the clinch from outside his opponent’s range and play with frames effectively. He uses his extended hands to physically force his opponents back, putting them on the ropes and leaving them vulnerable to his clinch. He’ll also use the frames after stepping in with a knee or kick to disrupt his opponent’s balance as they throw a counter.
One integral part of Dieselnoi’s long-distance clinch game is a sort of arm-lever he uses to destabilize opponents. His arm shoots out past the opponent’s head and whips inward, throwing their head off-center, and with it, their balance. As his arm moves, he pivots in the opposite direction to add weight transfer into the lever and to open up his hip for a knee or kick. The opponent is left out of position, off balance, and open to a follow-up strike.
Dieselnoi is incredibly versatile with this lever. He uses it when closing distance in order to open up strikes or secure the clinch, as well as on exit from the clinch to land a parting shot or prevent his opponent from capitalizing on the separation. Incredibly, he can also time it as an intercepting counter, slapping on the lever as his opponent steps in to break their rhythm and set up his own offense.
Dieselnoi is famous for his use of the double collar tie in the clinch. Traditionally, the double collar tie is used infrequently in Muay Thai as it is relatively easy to defend. The parallel arms create a clear center-line that can be attacked, either through thrusting an arm or shoulder between them, or crossing the arm over from outside. As such, the double collar tie is usually avoided entirely or used only as an interstitial grip to land a quick strike or two before transitioning to something else. Dieselnoi used the double collar tie as a lock, controlling opponents with it while dealing heavy damage.
His ability to control opponents with the double collar tie is due to his freakish stature as well as a unique adjustment he makes to the position:
Rather than keeping his arms parallel and using them both to pull on the opponent’s head, Dieselnoi will angle one arm slightly and use it more to push laterally, while the other hand remains centered behind the opponent’s neck to pull. This grip helps squeeze his elbows together more tightly, which closes off the opening between the arms somewhat, but it also changes the angle; now the opening in his elbows is off-center from his body, which means that by trying to force through it, an opponent will be moving away from Dieselnoi’s own center-line, unable to exert weight directly onto him. This grip also allows him to more effectively destablilize his opponent’s balance by simultaneously pushing his head off his center of gravity and pulling it down toward him. With their posture compromised in this way, it becomes much more difficult to cross an arm over to break the lock, and their weight becomes more open to manipulation. All the while Dieselnoi’s head is pressed in tight to keep his opponent at a distance where brutal knees can be continually launched.
The push-pull aspect of Dieselnoi’s double collar tie provides great control of his opponent’s momentum and balance. When they attempt to resist his sideways pressure, he simply reverses his grip, using the opposite arm to push them in the direction of their momentum. He can do this as many times as necessary, switching directions and tossing his opponent’s head back and forth while landing devastating knees.
Once Dieselnoi started finding his clinch consistently, the fight snowballed out of control for Samart. Samart’s active movement was the first to leave him, as he became more static and open to the clinch as the fight wore on. After that, his exits from the clinch came slower and Dieselnoi was able to adjust to maintain control. Long stretches of the final rounds involved Dieselnoi walking Samart down, trapping his hands and wreaking havoc on his balance using frames, before grabbing hold of him and kneeing his body over and over.
Samart put up a valiant effort in the final round, fighting back with a handful of sneaky head kicks and some attempts to throw down in the pocket, but he was unable to keep Dieselnoi off him long enough to make something big happen.
These sequences are among the best Muay Khao work you’ll ever see. Dieselnoi combines every tactic I’ve discussed so far, making his entire game work together to create a flurry of knees and pressure. He’s marching forward to close distance, using his guard to frame off and deflect Samart’s counters, using hand traps to create openings for knees and clinch entries, and constantly manipulating Samart’s balance with frames and ties, never permitting him a single moment of rest.
I can’t possibly overstate how important this discovery is for Muay Thai, nor how impressive Dieselnoi’s performance was. The ultimate Muay Khao vs Muay Femeu fight - each man a paragon of their respective style unmatched by any in the sport’s history.
Dieselnoi is a tricky fighter to study, as his best and most well-known performances have mostly been lost to history, or on a dusty shelf somewhere in an anonymous collector’s house. We have far more in the way of myth and legend to analyze than concrete tape. The available film on Dieselnoi is little more than highlights and beatdowns of over-matched foreigners. With the emergence of the Dieselnoi/Samart fight, we can all bear witness to a historic first: Dieselnoi fighting an elite opponent and a fellow legend of the sport.
Watching this legendary fight so long after it took place gives me hope that more footage from Muay Thai’s golden era may emerge in the coming years. While we’re all waiting for the release of Dieselnoi’s famous fights against Sagat Petchyindee, I’ll leave you with a video of Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu demonstrating a style of knee she learned directly from Dieselnoi: