Muay Thai - Day 1051 - Fight 4 - Phetchbuncha Stadium - Anton WMC Samui vs Sagetdao Por. Talaythai

Day 1051
Phetchbuncha Boxing Stadium, 15th January 2025
In many ways this felt like my first real fight. My last opponent Komin was experienced, but way out of shape. This time, Sagetdao was similarly experienced, younger, and also in much better condition. As soon as I felt his first strike against me I realised this was a different kind of contest than I had had before. His accuracy, aggression, and intent to inflict damage were obvious from the outset. He came to knock me out. He broke my nose and cut me early in round 2, and from then on I couldn't breathe well and was not really competitive. In general I felt as if there was some kind of force field that I couldn't easily get past. His teeps kept me at bay, and past these were dangerous elbows. I think every fight I get a little more comfortable, a little more graceful, and the biggest point of progress here was that I was very clear minded and relaxed throughout the fight. I had promised a friend I'd wink at the camera for her during the fight intro, which I had the presence of mind to do. My cardio was also very good, but I was reserving energy because I was worried about running out of gas like I did last fight, so there was perhaps an extra 15% that I could have (should have) pushed for. In the end, one thing that most people pointed out was my lack of explosiveness and speed. Slow motion kicks, which I don't think are explained by not being able to breathe through my nose. This fight is still painful for me to watch, I'm not yet fully at ease in the ring. Of course it's easy to look worse against better opponents, and Sagetdao was clearly the most challenging opponent I have so far faced - and he outclassed me throughout the fight. I have been told that his record is really 100+ fights, I'm really not sure where the stadium gets their numbers from for some of these guys. He asked me my age as we were sitting on the seats waiting to fight for some reason, I told him, 32. I asked him his, and the reply: 23. Our ages are the reverses of one another, yet it felt the other way around in terms of maturation within the ring. Result: a victory for him and 3 stitches and a slightly different shape of nose and head for me. But also much learning.
Despite this, my preparation actually went very well in general. There were a couple of wrinkles, such as a staph infection which meant I couldn't spar or clinch for a while, but I think how deeply I dug, demanding extra pad rounds, running fast and far, working hard - I think this impressed my coach Lek, so I am glad about that, and he seemed disappointed when I told him I had to leave Lamai to head back to Australia for a little while after this fight. But there are two things I think I will change, other than adding some more S&C focusing on speed and explosiveness. First, both this fight and the previous one involved way too much weight gain between the weigh-in and the fight itself. For this fight, I weighed in at 76kg, and fought at around 81kg. For both of the last two fights I was slow as hell after being able to shadow box very sharply the day before, so I think a 5kg+ refuel is way too much. Second, a longer deload, maybe an extra full day of rest to allow my body to recover better. As ever, the same flaws are dogging me: I jump backwards too much. I need to stay inside and throw more shots rather than one and done. I also need to protect my face better from elbows. Two fights now, where my low hands have admitted strikes that damaged me badly. At the same time I would like to learn to throw elbows like that too. It would also be better to fight more frequently, but we'll see how much of this life allows.
Chapters
00:00 Fighter Introductions
3:10 Wai Kru
6:45 Round 1
11:30 Round 2
16:25 Round 3
21:30 Round 4
26:35 Round 5
30:00 Decision