THE MUAY THAI LEGENDS OF THE GOLDEN ERA

By Anton Kooshnir

Almost every sport has its “historians” that can pull out great moments and personalities concerning their sport (or favorite team) from literally any era out of their mind.

But in most sports, fans and “historians” usually agree on a time period that pretty much serves as the sport’s “business card” from a certain point. Maybe it’s because people like to romanticize about the past so much…

In Muay Thai, that time period is usually believed to be between the mid-late 80’s and the early 90’s of the 20th century.

Most Muay Thai fans (and by fans I mean people that spend at least a little time educating themselves about the basic history of Muay Thai) know of, or at least heard of, legends like Samart, Sakmongkol or Jongsanan. These fighters made the biggest waves in the Thai scene back then, but many passionate fans don’t seem to know about many of the most skilled practitioners that Muay Thai ever had.

In this article (an...