I kinda see it more like playing politics with them "It's not your fault we're in charge, you're all cool, your boss just sucked. We'll run things better."
I'm always pretty sad that none of the Muay Thai characters in any fighting games say make any of the fighting/spectating sounds you would hear at any gym in Thailand, and even in a lot of gyms in the west now. I've always thought fighters and their training partners watching them shouting stuff like "oowee" was both really cool and really funny.
when I was learning is was more like "OO-EESH!" or so, big load thing. My instructor said its useful for training yourself to properly breathe and push the full force of your muscles into your techniques
@@Kinos141 it is said during actual fights, but more so by corner men and the audience. Part of the reason they make those sounds is to emphasize when the fighter gets a good hit in so the judges notice. I still think it would be a nice nod to the culture surrounding Muay Thai for the sound to be included in a fighting game
You could make an _entire_ fighting game where the whole roster practice Muay Thai and still have basically all the standard fighting game archetypes represented.
One more thing of note: since Muay Thai was more of a militaristic form of combat employed in deadly scenarios, it was always aimed at being lethal. The use of elbows and knees was not to defend, but to expressly kill your opponent, which makes it one of the only martial arts that was not created for self-defense, but for assassination.
yeah, kinda like how Krav Maga was developed with a focus on practicality and efficiency in real world scenarios like street fights (like teaching awareness of surroundings and any usable weapons you or your opponent may use and targeting weak points of the body which are forbidden in combat sports). For all the coolness of certain martial arts, usually there is a history to them and their movements would be linked to things like prayer, use in demonstrations, etc. Then there are those that are just designed to "kill that motherfucker before he kills you so stop doing a bunch of fancy flips"
There is an older form of Muay Thai that isn't Boran, or Muay Ayutthaya (and similar regional styles and so on) named Lerdrit. Think of it as like MT with battlefield application, hence more "dirtier" strikes that can cause immense pain.
Fun to notice that Muay Thai doesn't have hundreds of different moves and stances to learn, its techniques aren't extremely varied, but this is also a strong suit because you practice fewer moves more. "Fear not the man who practice 10000 moves once, but the man who practices one move 10000 times."
That's why Muay Thai doesn't have many fancy moves because they already got 8 Limbs and use every move out of them. That makes Muay Thai so versatile and adaptive to many opponents.
@@jp3813 The flashy moves came from that fact that Tony Jaa was a stuntman. Plus the Muay Thai he uses is called Muay Chai Yaa. It's closer to the old Muay Boran rather than mordern Muay Thai
Fun fact: Even though you use a lot of footage of saw paing from the anime kengan ashura, he does not practice muay thai but instead Lethwei, an albeit similar fighting style from myanmar where headbutts are allowed
Yeah, but the "God of War" Gaolong hasn't unveiled his his Muay Thai yet, only his Boxing. But good news! Kengan Season 2 is coming out in 2023. I would have like to see Annie from AoT since she does Muay Thai too.
As a guy who trains in muay thai, I hope they demonstrated more the clinch. It is one of the biggest aspects in thai fighting that makes it different from most striking martial arts. Once they get a hold of you, you will get kneed, elbowed, and most importantly, thrown
I honestly really like Muay Thai characters, one that I saw was in Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple with Apachai, he does the sounds and is incredibly awesome with how he acts.
its hard to incorporate in this style of fighting game, but I guess there are throws which are also in Muay Thai and come out of clinches. Id love a MMA influenced 3d fighting game that has clinching, mounting, etc. mechanics incorporated into classic 3d fundamentals to show off shit like Judo, BJJ, Muay Thai, Sambo, etc. to their fullest extent!
I had no idea Muay Thai had such a "ritualistic" background too, kinda like Sumo. In my country the schools and practitioners I've run into all just treat it like a sport and nothing else. The entire cultural baggage was lost somewhere along the lines. The research and breakdown of these gotta be my favorite part of these videos, quick, thorough and to the point. Great series! PS: Do you plan on doing a Swords/Samurai in the future? I can't wait to see characters like Nagoriyuki, Hakumen, Yoshimitsu get a turn at their "bringing a sword to a fist fight" style, lol.
@@frankmendieta3857 Well... Haohmaru is kinda cheating as he's in a game _about_ samurais, lol. I was thinking about more about fighting games with some sword wielders instead of games that are centered specifically around weapon combat (e.g. SamSho, Soul Calibur, Bushido Blade)
Could also cover the rarely represented school of HEMA, maybe roll fencing into it as well. Altho fencing may need its own video, there's a lot to discuss.
When my journey began, starting with a snes cartridge of sf2turbo(that thing changed my life), Sagat was a wall of bullshit. He was beating me due to pure coolness. I've always at least dabbled in Muay Thai fighters since then, sometimes maining them. I even got into a Muay Thai class in real life, because that style is AWESOME. A perfect choice for Style Select, as it is a supremely stylish style!
Sagat did a double ducking fierce into a ground tiger shot that dizzied me and finished me off with a tiger knee that was so powerful it took 50%of my health alone! That was Sagat in subBOSS mode that made him stronger than most main bosses. Love those days my man!
@@djpegao Lol I remember the first time I actually played a SF2 cabinet in the 90s at a hotel in NY state that had a mini arcade I think it cost 50 cents and I immediately got hit with that and was just like "Really that's it?" I didn't even know how to block I was thinking maybe I had to hold a button like Mortal Kombat. Later I went and bought a SF2 cartridge on sega just to learn how to play because trying it at arcades was too costly.
As a muay thai practitioner, I think you covered a lot of the art accurately and presented it great! The detail I appreciated that most people dont cover is your description of the variation of different characters even though they all practice Muay Thai. Favoring a subset of techniques creates your style, whether its muay mat like Brad from virtual fighter to a long range muay femur style like sagat. Thank you for the video!
I think another reason that this particular fighting style is used a lot is because of its prevalence in MMA. There’s a lot of MMA fighters who borrow heavily from Muay Thai, which goes into the whole character expression aspect of it.
Muay Thai has been well established in fighting games since the beginning. Street Fighter 1 had two fighters, with Adon and Sagat, though Street Fighter 2 only brought back Sagat. Fatal Fury 1 had Joe Higashi. Art of Fighting 1 had King. Fighter's History 1 had Samchay. World Heroes 2 had Shura. It felt like if you had a (mostly) unarmed fighting game inspired by real martial arts, you had a Muay Thai character from the start, or at the least quickly added one. 3D fighters kind of dropped the ball. Virtua Fighter didn't bother with Muay Thai until VF4 with Vanessa, then stripped it from her to give to newcomer Brad in VF4Evo. While Tekken 2 added Bruce, he would vanish for the next several games. Tekken then dabbled in giving some Muay Thai moves to other fighters, but it wasn't their primary style, not until recently.
@@projectrain2254 Vanessa was both Vale Tudo *and* Muay Thai when introduced in VF4; she had a stance change gimmick that let her switch between the two movesets. Her Muay Thai moveset was removed in VF4Evo, and a dedicated Muay Thai character (Brad) was added to the roster.
1:32 Saw Paing in Kengan Ashura is from Burma/Myanmar and uses Lethwei. Kaolan, his rival is a Muay Thai champ. Lethwei is similar to Muay Thai but they can use headbutts and no gloves in competitions.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Saw Paing is voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama in Japanese, since he was Joe Higashi's voice in the Fatal Fury anime and then voiced the character from Fatal Fury 3 up to KOF XIII
as someone that practiced muay thai as a kid i fucking love it, often times the characters that use muay thai dont fit my play style in fighting games but their design is almost always amazing
They also used Muay Thai to augment Batman's fighting style in the Arkham games, which makes a lot of sense, given that he's both a peak physical example of a skilled fighter, AND he is ALWAYS in some form of armor, meaning that his shins and elbows would be reinforced by some kind of plating, making blows hit all the harder.
Muay Thai is a badass fighting style in real life plus it's an essential arsenal in MMA. So it would make sense to incorporate that in fighting games as well.
Excellent episode. So glad Muay Thai got picked, it's actually the art I want to commit to and get my black belt (or black rope) in next as it was always something I learned only in part from going to MMA studios that would focus on two arts in particular then mix in techniques from a bunch of other arts. Did my blackbelts in Kali and JKD over the course of 7 years, did boxing for 1 year, did BJJ for an additional year, and in all three of those studios I picked up tricks from various other martial arts whether it be kickboxing, sambo, TKD, etc. But the throughline in all of them was that every studio had their OWN classes for Muay Thai, the art I desperately wanted to get more involved in. For those that don't do martial arts, you're gonna be hard pressed to find ANYONE who doesn't at the very least respect Muay Thai, and for good reason. You can levy a lot of arguments for other martial arts; BJJ isn't really street practical, JKD perhaps is a little too athletics centric and flat out wasn't built for everyone, boxing can be limiting given you only use your hands even though its footwork can be unparalleled. But Muay Thai? It has a little bit of everything and is practiced to DESTROY opponents through sheer power and conditioning, and unlike some other arts there isn't much of an obnoxious echo chamber attached to it like with something like BJJ or TKD. Muay Thai fighters are generally pretty nice and goofy people anyone could get along with. It is the only art I put up there with Kali/Arnis as the king and would advise anyone to take.
Also bjj isn't street practical? You trained at the wrong place my man. There's a difference between street and sport but bjj certainly has some fantastic self defense
While Muay Thai has some excellent striking elements, it also has some wrestling elements as well (the clinch). That said, it would benefit any muay thai practitioner to expand their grappling as well.
Fun fact: There aren't belts for Muay Thai. There is no such thing as a Muay Thai black belt. Gyms might have an armband system to help people track progress, but they arent official recognized rankings like the belt system in BJJ or Judo
@@revbladez5773 right bjj has plenty of standing applications friend. I train somewhere and twice a week is self defense night where you practice doing damage fast and running
Muay Thai characters are some of my favorites. King and Sagat are always ALWAYS one of my mains or a character I can grab and do well with in their respective games.
Funny thing Karateka & Nak Muay seem like they've had a rivalry for a long time. Usually in favor of skilled Nak Muay. This might be why Street Fighter 1 chose a Muay Thai fighter to rival its karateka protagonist (And also funny, Saw Paing from Kengan Ashura actually uses Lethwei, which is effectively the Burmese equivalent to Muay Thai. Main differences being Bare knuckle, headbutts, always ends in KO. Even calls himself a rival to Gaolang, the resident Thai boxer of Kengan)
Karate and Muay Thai have had many challenge matches between them, most notably in the 60s when 3 students of Mas Oyama faced 3 Thai boxers at Lumpinee Stadium. The Kyokushin fighters went 2-1, but it was the fighter who lost, Kenji Kurosaki, whose experience against Muay Thai led to him changing his approach to Karate (breaking with Oyama by believing that punches to the face should be incorporated, among other things) and saw him develop the style which would become Japanese kickboxing, as well as being extremely influential to the development of Dutch kickboxing.
Muay Thai, I'm a big fan of it myself. although I'm out of practice in it. I've trained mainly under two different classes, and the video is definitely right about how differently it can be taught and individual styles. Being a tall guy myself I specialised in kicks and they can be absolutely devastating when you really put your body into them, there were some he didn't go over in the video like low kicks, which work less like a direct attack and more as a tool for weakening your opponents stance and tiring out their legs to make their kicks weaker and slower. a continuous supply of low kicks can end up completely disabling a fighter over time, so they're always important to think about. theres also step kicks, two of which that I learned work as variations to the low kick and the Theep (pushing kicks) outlined in the video [as a side note, my instructor at the second group went over often that the regular pushing kicks get more rare in ring sport, since you rarely want your opponent out of your attacking range and the step kick version is faster and does more damage] step kicks were a fast moving strike with the ball of the foot aimed low (just above the knee) or body (directly at the bladder) to interrupt opponents trying to approach and stagger them. giving you the opportunity to move in to strike. The other big thing we did get a mention in the video about Muay Thai but no in depth (mostly because we dont get it in fighting games at all) is thai grappling, Fighters who specialise in it can end fights really quickly as they become inescapable. just imagining a Muay Thai Grappler in a fighting game makes me feel terrified of those locked in knees and elbows I'm also glad the Rammuay and the cultural side of the art does get some airtime in fighting games.
You're a tall guy. Just practice Khao; clinch and knee your opponents! I am trying Muay Mat: lots of hands with devastating low kicks. Similar to Dutch kickboxing in many ways. 🙏🏼
@@Sevensliders if I got good at clinching now it probably would be very effective with my long grab range. But back when I was learning in my teenage years, I was still a tall guy back then, but reed thin. back then I really didn't have the power to last long close range, so I got good with low and front kicks to disrupt attacks on me, and Roundhouse kicks as my best way of landing hits. When I was feeling especially cheeky I'd do a roundhouse kick slower to bait them into going for a catch and throw a barrage of punches when they only had one free hand.
@@ANewKindOfGamer Vampire/Long guard is such a great strategy for fighters like you who have a long reach; you can pretty much strike at a prolonged distance and teeps are and will be your greatest weapon as well with range. 🙏🏼
Aside from the mentioned characters, my favorite Muay Thai fighter is Prince Doza/Naseem from Ehrgeiz. His combos are just amazing to watch and perform.
As for the choice for next time… kind of hard what I would pick. -Monsters would certainly fit the bill if it is coming towards Halloween, and probably would be as close to a “berserker” fighting style we will get (seemingly swinging wild or biting the opponent with no rhyme or reason other than to put the opponent down). Still, there are certainly a wide range to look at and how some can be rather devious in how they fight. -Robots though would be the most calculating of the three picks. As what we have seen within fighting games, Robots can be more than just “another character to fill the roster” as they could get equipped with a nice range of weapons, lasers, or guns to help them take down their opponents. Could be interesting to see how far that topic goes. -Magic seems the most straightforward of the three picks. While it isn’t to say magic is easy, it is something usually tied to your “long range, zoning, keep away” characters where it is less in your face and more “comboing you from the other side of the screen.” It certainly has evolved as of late, but I wonder how far the talk will go outside of that.
muay thai’s striking is represented amazingly in fighting games, but it’s a shame how the clinch is usually just reduced to a universal throw animation, considering the clinch is so important to MT that fighters will spend hours everyday just training it nonstop. my idea of how it might work apart from just being a command grab is sort of like a mixup grab where the opponent has to choose the right options, much like marduk’s ground tackle or king/armor king’s chain throw 50/50s. the options for the clinch could be like sweep, elbow, knee or toss (maybe remove one because a 4 way mixup off that sounds like too much). clinch almost works like muay thai’s very own RPS situation (obviously with more options than rock paper or scissors lol, and it’s more based on timing and stability), and it’s a shame that a central part of the sport that has such an in-depth meta and potential for cool mechanics is reduced to what’s basically just a cool looking universal throw.
Bruce Irvin is the only character that has a clinch move that goes further in depth. Don't remember thr buttons for it, but you can use it to whip your opponent around. Or go for a knee.
There is one fighting game that has clinching but while it's not a traditional fighting game, more of a 3d arena kind of brawler derived from wrestling games of the N64 era, it does feature clinching albeit in a more streamlined way The game is "Def Jam: Fight for New York" and the clinching is present in characters with "Kickboxing" as their fighting styles
I'd like to say that Muay Thai gets a lot of attention for it's physical aspects of being a powerful martial art and general cool looking techniques but there's a lot of beautiful and deeply philosophical aspects about it that a lot of people don't really get to know. A lot of great Muay Thai world champions come from extremely poor backgrounds but still remain very humble and approachable even after they've earned lots of money and worldwide recognition.
Hot take: the only reason Fahkumram looks like this is only because they probably had Sagat model ready for Tekken X Street Fighter but Bamco saw SFxT flop so they decided to drop that project and reuse/update the model If anything, they should've created modern Muay Thai fighter based on someone like Buakaw Banchamek: small tight fighter (5'8 158lb) that is able to hit like a truck
This was the one really WEIRD thing that stood out to me about his design. Not the Baki inspiration or tattooes, but his sheer height and muscle mass. If you know what Muay Thai fighters from Thailand actually look like, it's kinda've absurd. I still like Fahkumram's design but it is undeniably farfetched.
I'd argue the traditionally most infamous weapon of the art is the high roundhouse kick, famous for ending fights in a single hit and sometimes ending the person on the wrong end as well with a broken neck or mashed up brain. Also dang, NO love for Tekken's OG Muay Thai champ. Guess Bruce Irvin got overshadowed pretty hard by the new giant on the block.
@@fruitylerlups530 Whatever they call it, it's super clearly Muay Thai. He uses some incredibly signature moves that an American style kickboxer, especially in the nineties, wouldn't be using.
It’s weird that none of the Muay Thai fighters in fighting games ever use teeps. Teeps are a huge part of Muay Thai for both offense and defense. And honestly they should be the best “button” or ranged standing attack in fighting games.
Muay Thai is fast and powerful, I feel like this isn't entirely incorporated in Muay Thai characters. My biggest gripe is the lack of clinch, they should be a close range grappler/striker hybrid with no projectiles.
It is probably fair to say if Karate is usually seen as the “most recognized fighting style in fighting games,” Muay Thai is probably right behind it. There’s something special about watching Muay Thai in action as it feels like every strike done is calculated to be as devastating as possible. Yeah, getting punched or kicked will hurt, but the elbows and knees can be particularly brutal as well. That and (as what was pointed out) it is amazing to see how wide the spectrum is for those who use it and how if you tossed all of them into a fight together, they would all have their own special way of utilizing it in a fight.
They're definitely the two styles most guaranteed to be represented in Fighting Games. I can't wait to see ABI cover Karate. Since there's so many different styles of Karate it will be interesting to see how he covers them.
@@IrishKyokushin I'd really like to see some kyokushin, samba, and even if it isn't great by itself I think taido weather it be by itself or mixed with a capoeria fighter would be nice to see and fun to use
My only issue with muay thai in fighting games is that despite being one of the most popular martial arts in the genre, the number of practitioners that are actually Siamese are very, very few. For the next style select im interested to see the analysis on robots. To me they tend to feel really generic; uptight stance, straightforward punches and kicks, and beams. There are outliers obviously, but for the most part thats about it. It supposed to convey them being physically superior than normal humans and doing attacks in the most straightforward and efficient way which makes sense, but it invariably makes them infinitely less interesting as a fighting style compared to characters that uses actual combat techniques.
It kinda sucks that RJ from battle for the grid never got showcased. I really liked how they combined muay Thai movements with his fireballs to create some really fluid animation
I had a guy teach me some of this before the 2020 lockdowns started. Cool style, cool guy. Took what I new into the Army and sparred with a couple other guys in the bays while most everyone else was wrestling. The guy I learned from also mentioned the “height=kick power” thing, as well as thinner fighters are better for the style, because of how their bonier joints cause a lot more damage. I hope the monster video is next, or at the least, is done in October, for thematic optimization
To you point of Thai fighters being thin, according to SuperBon ONE's kickboxing champ, in Thailand there is little to no weight training in Muay Thai gyms. The focus is on technique, conditioning, and pad work. He states that his international success comes from sport science and building up his body. So it's not that thinner fighters are better they just don't see the point in getting jacked
It may also have to do with the mechanics of the kick technique. Thin guys get just a way better "whip" effect on their kicks, and their kicks are FASTER.
One character that clued me into Muay Thai or Thai boxing was PD-4 from The Bouncer. You can play as them in the VS and survival mode of the game. They weren't as strong as some of the other characters but they had longer range due to an extendable arm, a few unblockable attacks and speed on their side. But I don't think they have clinching or grapples, they do use their knees and elbows though in their combos. PD-4's version of Muay Thai is pretty much exclusively a striking art.
As a thai and your subscriber im glad you did this about muay thai in here thailand is largely known for tours i believe but muay thai is something our homeland is so proud of so thank you a.b.i
I was introduced to Muay Tai thanks to Tony Jaa. Since then, I’ve used mauy tai as part of my striking, especially when it comes to stapling and kicks. I’d love to see Magic if I’m being honest
There are a lot of East Asian fighting styles that have been put to the test in sport MMA. And, beyond sport. And, more. Of the striking styles, Muy Thai has proven itself again and again. No excuses, no jokes, no "ifs, ands, or buts". Muy Thai is simply strong.
There is a video on TH-cam from the fight organization ONE where some Pro Muay Thai Fighter react to Fahkumram’s attacks in Tekken. I’m hey had commented that his style was much more like Muay Boran then modern day Muay Thai
@SugarPunch who is the best Muay Thai fighter in video games? Sagat - Thailand🇹🇭 Adon - Thailand🇹🇭 Fahkumram - Thailand🇹🇭 Hwa Jai - Thailand🇹🇭 Payak Sitipitak - Thailand🇹🇭 Joe Higashi - Japan🇯🇵 Bruce Irvin - U.S.A🇺🇸 King - France🇫🇷 Brad Burns - Italy🇮🇹 Zack - U.S.A🇺🇸
Sagat made me want to learn Muay Thai so badly, and I still am trying to. Hopefully I’ll be able to do some classes soon. Currently doing sport wrestling though, been fun so far.
The algorithm blessed me with an episode from this series and I LOVE this. Hearing the history as well as how it is artfully incorporated into fictional media just tickles my pickle.
From a Thai person, not bad at pronunciation, aside from some amusing one that were obviously due to how English only have A E I O U while Thai system have like 24. So they're forgiven. For some fun facts 0:31 That Nai in Nai Khanomtom means Mister, not really a part of his name. Also his name means boiled snack/dessert, which is kinda cute. Though I wouldn't laugh at him considering he just ran through a 10 strong man gauntlet, in one day. 2:10 Muay Boran literally means Ancient Boxing, is an endonym word that Thai peoples used to called any ancient fighting style in Southeast Asian, which can include Muay Burma (Myanmar) Muay Lao (Laos) etc. 2:26 Partial correction: Muay Boran could encompassing street fights but the main purpose was always for military use from the beginning. So Muay Boran is more like a Krav Maga of that time because of their inherent lethality. And we have a separate word for street fight, it's literally translated to brawling. The word Muay are strictly for martial arts, with clear cut system and such. 3:20 Mongkol actually reads as Mongkon. Placing an equivalent of L on the last character to makes you roll your tongue up is a stupid quirk we got from adopting India's Bali/Sanskrit language into our system, along with the monarchy and culture. If you ever saw another Thai word that ended with an L, always assume it's an N. Another fun fact is that Mongkol really means "good fortune" So they are really for that, a good fortune. 5:55 Sok rhymes with Rock, not Choke. 6:07 Chiang means diagonal 6:22 The Loi in Khao Loi means "to float" so the real translation was more like Flying Knee than a Lunging Knee. We have a clear distinction on this: Khao Loi/Flying Knee = your whole body is off the ground. while Poong Khao/Lunging Knee = You speed up and dig your knee into your opponent. Overall, an informative piece. I'd also like to add that somehow, despite Muay Thai do have a grappling system called clinching, most fighting games aren't keen on using them. Maybe they do acknowledged that implimenting a full system of Muay Thai would be very broken?
I was actually going to suggest a fighting style I can really only call "I am a god", but I really didn't think that constituted a fighting style... but seeing the selections at the end of the video I think we're covering something like that no matter which one wins. M.Bison (As of SF5), Magneto, Mewtwo, Zamasu, Beerus... They always have that "floating off the ground, chest out, arms crossed or down at their sides dramatically, a mix of complete dismissal of their opponents or utter dominance using supernatural powers". Only problem I have with the idea is primarily that... there's not much of substance to say, at least not enough to fill a 5+ minute video.
@@notproductiveproductions3504 Eh.... while some characters with this "style" are magical, most aren't. This is more of a specific personality trope in fighting games than it is a fighting style. (Hell, there isn't a single character on the examples I gave that are magicians in any way. It's mostly mutants, psychics and ki-users.)
You forget to mention the various Muay Thai styles. Muay mat (puncher) muay sok, (elbow fighter) muay Khao, (knee and clinch fighter), muay dtae (kicker), and muay femur (the technician). While like you said there’s many expressions of the art, most Thais fight pretty similarly due to the scoring system in Thailand, a narrow stance with a methodical pace of footwork, exchanging kicks and not really moving around very much. Commonly underutilized hands as clinch scores for higher in Thailand than in the west or under kickboxing rules.
In a sense, Fahkumrahn is the Muai Thai dream, being large and ripped to an inhuman degree, while being more agile and versatile than even Tekken's smaller fighters (Also making he hella broken at some point in the game)
Fun fact - his hurtbox is actually more similar to some of the female characters' hitboxes than it is to those of the male characters. This is why some attacks seem to randomly whiff on Fahkumram. Also, going along with his traditional, "pure" style of muay thai (as opposed to the modern muay thai of Bruce), Fahkumram wears the older style of rope gloves instead of modern cushioned ones.
One of my favorite Muay Thai fighters in fighting games is Samchay from the totally not a SF2 rip off game Fighting History. His moves are very direct and simple and just plain effective.
@@KingNerdius Well, in all fairness the very first episode of Style Select was all about guns, so from the very outset by no means was the show limited to real martial arts styles.
I’m just saying, I’d love a video on aerialist/acrobatic characters. Especially the literal ones that actually fight in the air, like kitana from MK or painwheel from Skullgirls. This is if you ever go into more archetypes and specific gimmicks like the guns episode as opposed to actual martial arts
I'm actually interested in seeing how this next video is going to turn out, since none of these are particularly formalized styles and they aren't specific enough to have an established history (Unless you're really going to do a breakdown of robots/monsters/magicians as they appear in fiction). Apart from just laying out a collection of magic/robot/monster characters from fighting games like a list, I'm not sure what you could do with it, but I'm eager to find out!
I'm really keen to see it too, in part because I can already absolutely see where ostensibly very broad concepts end up having a lot of commonalities. There technically isn't anything saying Sektor, Fulgore and Mu should have anything in common moveset-wise, but somehow they do!
I am curious how he'll handle it, true. Feels like "magic" is gonna be heavy on zoning or tricks like teleportation but like, almost all of Guilty Gear's roster uses it in one way or another. Maybe monsters will just be "generally bestial characters" fighting with claws and so on?
@@goranisacson2502 Honestly there's enough monsters that you could go even more specific with it and still have a good selection. There are a *lot* of werewolves in fighting games, for example (John Talbain, Saberwulf, Valkenhayn, Yugo), you wouldn't even need to include other kinds of monsters. Same with Vampires and a few other monster types, I'm sure.
Man, this vid would be a lot more interesting if the person describing would actually fight irl... cause it feels like they don't honestly. What makes muay thay stand out is the usage of knees and elbows most of all. Any martial artist would say that right away and yet this vid just doesn't convey that well. Nonetheless the vid quality is ok. GJ
Can you do a video about FMA (Filipino Martial Arts)? It's a really small in the fighting game scene but interesting fighting style that it should be in more games.
you made a pretty big mistake in your video. muay tai is not associated with range, its kicks have a shorter range than any other martial art that uses kicks due to the simple fact that while all other martial arts when you kick you strike with your foot, in muay tai when you kick you strike with your shin which shortens your effective range. the tall neutral heavy zoning fighting game muay tai practitioner is the polar opposite of real world muay tai.
As someone who recently started learning MT, I'll tell you why it's so popular in fighting games, because it's fun as fuck and looks super cool at a high level.
I like how you put a Clip of Saw Paing from Kengan, a character who doesn’t actually perform Muay Thai, he performs the ancient art of Burmese Boxing or Lethwei.
One of my favorite martial arts. I like it for it's elbow and knee strikes. The anime character shown at 1:30 & 4:34 is Saw Paing from Kengan Ashura who uses NOT Muay Thai, but Lethwei. Lethwei is similar Muay Thai but with two major differences: the sport is practiced BAREKNUCKLE with only tape and gauze & HEADBUTTS are allowed.
As a thai person, you promised and delivered exactly what you said.
You put my entire language through a wood chipper.
My sympathies
XD
He sounds like he tried his best, and that's the important thing, I think. XD
@@canondmajor1488 honestly he did. It's not as bad as some people I've heard lmao.
Just cause im curious how do you pronounce the things here
Tonal languagues are insane.
That intro story tho. “Y’all are excellent warriors. Too bad your leader sucks. Anywho, enjoy a Burmese invasion.”
I kinda see it more like playing politics with them "It's not your fault we're in charge, you're all cool, your boss just sucked. We'll run things better."
Also, Nai Khanom Tom was given a selection of wives (two beautiful Burmese wives or money, he took the wives, money's easier to find) and his freedom.
@@3Rayfire So the guy was basically a badass martial arts gladiator?
@@XellosNi Actually he was a soldier. The Burmese king selected from enemy POWs for the exhibition.
WWI Austria-Hungary in a nutshell.
I'm always pretty sad that none of the Muay Thai characters in any fighting games say make any of the fighting/spectating sounds you would hear at any gym in Thailand, and even in a lot of gyms in the west now. I've always thought fighters and their training partners watching them shouting stuff like "oowee" was both really cool and really funny.
Yoooo it ain't the same without the oowee
Adon is probably the most vocal example.
Isn't Oowee for said during training? It's not said during an actual fight, so the devs are correct.
when I was learning is was more like "OO-EESH!" or so, big load thing. My instructor said its useful for training yourself to properly breathe and push the full force of your muscles into your techniques
@@Kinos141 it is said during actual fights, but more so by corner men and the audience. Part of the reason they make those sounds is to emphasize when the fighter gets a good hit in so the judges notice. I still think it would be a nice nod to the culture surrounding Muay Thai for the sound to be included in a fighting game
You could make an _entire_ fighting game where the whole roster practice Muay Thai and still have basically all the standard fighting game archetypes represented.
One more thing of note: since Muay Thai was more of a militaristic form of combat employed in deadly scenarios, it was always aimed at being lethal. The use of elbows and knees was not to defend, but to expressly kill your opponent, which makes it one of the only martial arts that was not created for self-defense, but for assassination.
yeah, kinda like how Krav Maga was developed with a focus on practicality and efficiency in real world scenarios like street fights (like teaching awareness of surroundings and any usable weapons you or your opponent may use and targeting weak points of the body which are forbidden in combat sports). For all the coolness of certain martial arts, usually there is a history to them and their movements would be linked to things like prayer, use in demonstrations, etc. Then there are those that are just designed to "kill that motherfucker before he kills you so stop doing a bunch of fancy flips"
An actual ansatsuken
There is an older form of Muay Thai that isn't Boran, or Muay Ayutthaya (and similar regional styles and so on) named Lerdrit. Think of it as like MT with battlefield application, hence more "dirtier" strikes that can cause immense pain.
Realistically, if you go back far enough, that's pretty much every martial art.
@@seanwilliams7655 Indeed, it has to be. The very phrase "Martial Art" in more plain language means, Art of War.
Sagat is the reason I decided to learn Muay Thai in high school. One of my favorite martial arts ever.
your sleeping on fakumram from tekken 7
@@1starfalco1 Last I checked, Fahkumram didn't come out in 2016-2017. Still a badass nak muay nonetheless.
Did they teach you tiger shot?
Have you looked up the real life sagat?
Irl sagat is such a cool guy
The beginning is the most anime stuff I ever heard, and the fact is canonically recorded in human history makes the beginning even cooler
Fun to notice that Muay Thai doesn't have hundreds of different moves and stances to learn, its techniques aren't extremely varied, but this is also a strong suit because you practice fewer moves more.
"Fear not the man who practice 10000 moves once, but the man who practices one move 10000 times."
That's why Muay Thai doesn't have many fancy moves because they already got 8 Limbs and use every move out of them. That makes Muay Thai so versatile and adaptive to many opponents.
Yet Tony Jaa managed to add a lot more moves. lol
@@jp3813 The flashy moves came from that fact that Tony Jaa was a stuntman. Plus the Muay Thai he uses is called Muay Chai Yaa. It's closer to the old Muay Boran rather than mordern Muay Thai
muay thai has many stances
As a practitioner of muy thai this is absolutely true, it’s a fundamental but deadly fighting style
Fun fact: Even though you use a lot of footage of saw paing from the anime kengan ashura, he does not practice muay thai but instead Lethwei, an albeit similar fighting style from myanmar where headbutts are allowed
It’s also even more deadly compared to Muay Thai.
One reason I like Leth wei.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that
I was gonna say this
Yeah, but the "God of War" Gaolong hasn't unveiled his his Muay Thai yet, only his Boxing.
But good news! Kengan Season 2 is coming out in 2023.
I would have like to see Annie from AoT since she does Muay Thai too.
As a guy who trains in muay thai,
I hope they demonstrated more the clinch. It is one of the biggest aspects in thai fighting that makes it different from most striking martial arts. Once they get a hold of you, you will get kneed, elbowed, and most importantly, thrown
sanda has more throws focus
I remember getting chain-throwed to death by the Bruce CPU in Tekken 2.
I honestly really like Muay Thai characters, one that I saw was in Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple with Apachai, he does the sounds and is incredibly awesome with how he acts.
Apachai Hopachai was DA MAN!!
APA APA APA APA APA APA APAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
@@nosherkhan3232 the death god of the underground Muay Thai division!! Apachai Hopachi!!
Ah, I see you're a man of culture as well
I'm glad people remember Kenichi.
Man loved that amime. Wish they made more seasons
I think a thing largely overlooked by games is the clinch. Grappling is a huge part of muay thai
its hard to incorporate in this style of fighting game, but I guess there are throws which are also in Muay Thai and come out of clinches. Id love a MMA influenced 3d fighting game that has clinching, mounting, etc. mechanics incorporated into classic 3d fundamentals to show off shit like Judo, BJJ, Muay Thai, Sambo, etc. to their fullest extent!
Bruce (Tekken) had a representation of this with his chain throws.
@@Yuujen Brad Burns from Virtua Fighter also has a clinch grab
Apparently, the Kickboxing style in Def Jam: Fight For New York incorporated this.
@@fruitylerlups530 ufc undisputed 3? Literally the best MMA game ever made.
I had no idea Muay Thai had such a "ritualistic" background too, kinda like Sumo. In my country the schools and practitioners I've run into all just treat it like a sport and nothing else. The entire cultural baggage was lost somewhere along the lines. The research and breakdown of these gotta be my favorite part of these videos, quick, thorough and to the point. Great series!
PS: Do you plan on doing a Swords/Samurai in the future? I can't wait to see characters like Nagoriyuki, Hakumen, Yoshimitsu get a turn at their "bringing a sword to a fist fight" style, lol.
Can’t forget Haohmaru. One of my first ever fighting game main lol Ryu and Scorpion being the other two
@@frankmendieta3857 Well... Haohmaru is kinda cheating as he's in a game _about_ samurais, lol. I was thinking about more about fighting games with some sword wielders instead of games that are centered specifically around weapon combat (e.g. SamSho, Soul Calibur, Bushido Blade)
technically yoshimitsu in a ninja
Ngl, explaining who yoshimitsu is and wtf his fighting style is would need to be an entire video in and of itself
Could also cover the rarely represented school of HEMA, maybe roll fencing into it as well. Altho fencing may need its own video, there's a lot to discuss.
I am mixed with Thai but I honestly want to see Silat represented more in fighting games
Perfect rushdown style.
@@antonsimmons8519 fast punch combos mixed with the tiger swipes of harimau
I always saw a little bit of Silat in Krohnen from KOF hiding in his mainly cybernetic moveset, also Baraka uses it in some of the Mortal Kombat games
Nico in DOA uses Pencak Silat, but she also has uses electricity so I'd say she's not quite the most accurate 😅
@@ripamoramee14 so you were just saying "the tiger swipes of tiger"?
When my journey began, starting with a snes cartridge of sf2turbo(that thing changed my life), Sagat was a wall of bullshit. He was beating me due to pure coolness. I've always at least dabbled in Muay Thai fighters since then, sometimes maining them. I even got into a Muay Thai class in real life, because that style is AWESOME. A perfect choice for Style Select, as it is a supremely stylish style!
Sagat did a double ducking fierce into a ground tiger shot that dizzied me and finished me off with a tiger knee that was so powerful it took 50%of my health alone! That was Sagat in subBOSS mode that made him stronger than most main bosses. Love those days my man!
Ah yes, those old SF2 Turbo matches, who can forget :
*TIGER, TIGER, TIGER, TIGER, TIGER, TIGER, TIGER....* for about 80% of the match
@@djpegao *TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER TIGER- UPPERCUT- TIGER!* (uuuugh-oooo ugh-oooo...)
*Y O U L O S E*
@@djpegao Lol I remember the first time I actually played a SF2 cabinet in the 90s at a hotel in NY state that had a mini arcade I think it cost 50 cents and I immediately got hit with that and was just like "Really that's it?" I didn't even know how to block I was thinking maybe I had to hold a button like Mortal Kombat. Later I went and bought a SF2 cartridge on sega just to learn how to play because trying it at arcades was too costly.
A wall of bull shit? No. A Fucking Walking Mountain of Bull Shit. The Boss by which *all* others are measured.
As a muay thai practitioner, I think you covered a lot of the art accurately and presented it great! The detail I appreciated that most people dont cover is your description of the variation of different characters even though they all practice Muay Thai. Favoring a subset of techniques creates your style, whether its muay mat like Brad from virtual fighter to a long range muay femur style like sagat. Thank you for the video!
I think another reason that this particular fighting style is used a lot is because of its prevalence in MMA. There’s a lot of MMA fighters who borrow heavily from Muay Thai, which goes into the whole character expression aspect of it.
Muay Thai has been well established in fighting games since the beginning. Street Fighter 1 had two fighters, with Adon and Sagat, though Street Fighter 2 only brought back Sagat. Fatal Fury 1 had Joe Higashi. Art of Fighting 1 had King. Fighter's History 1 had Samchay. World Heroes 2 had Shura. It felt like if you had a (mostly) unarmed fighting game inspired by real martial arts, you had a Muay Thai character from the start, or at the least quickly added one.
3D fighters kind of dropped the ball. Virtua Fighter didn't bother with Muay Thai until VF4 with Vanessa, then stripped it from her to give to newcomer Brad in VF4Evo. While Tekken 2 added Bruce, he would vanish for the next several games. Tekken then dabbled in giving some Muay Thai moves to other fighters, but it wasn't their primary style, not until recently.
Vanessa was always Vale Tudo.
@@projectrain2254 Vanessa was both Vale Tudo *and* Muay Thai when introduced in VF4; she had a stance change gimmick that let her switch between the two movesets. Her Muay Thai moveset was removed in VF4Evo, and a dedicated Muay Thai character (Brad) was added to the roster.
The movie Kickboxer is what made me fall in love with Muay Thai and I'll usually try and learn to play a Muay Thai characters in fighting games.
I still remember Tong Po being introduced kicking a pillar
1:32 Saw Paing in Kengan Ashura is from Burma/Myanmar and uses Lethwei. Kaolan, his rival is a Muay Thai champ. Lethwei is similar to Muay Thai but they can use headbutts and no gloves in competitions.
I don't think it's a coincidence that Saw Paing is voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama in Japanese, since he was Joe Higashi's voice in the Fatal Fury anime and then voiced the character from Fatal Fury 3 up to KOF XIII
They also have this terrible rule that a knockout doesn’t end the fight if the losing fighter gets woken up on time
Gaolan is a boxing champion who was previously a nak muay, but switched to boxing a long time ago. Let's keep it to that to avoid spoilers, eh?
How do you pronounce Lethwei?
as someone that practiced muay thai as a kid i fucking love it, often times the characters that use muay thai dont fit my play style in fighting games but their design is almost always amazing
They also used Muay Thai to augment Batman's fighting style in the Arkham games, which makes a lot of sense, given that he's both a peak physical example of a skilled fighter, AND he is ALWAYS in some form of armor, meaning that his shins and elbows would be reinforced by some kind of plating, making blows hit all the harder.
Muay Thai is a badass fighting style in real life plus it's an essential arsenal in MMA. So it would make sense to incorporate that in fighting games as well.
Excellent episode. So glad Muay Thai got picked, it's actually the art I want to commit to and get my black belt (or black rope) in next as it was always something I learned only in part from going to MMA studios that would focus on two arts in particular then mix in techniques from a bunch of other arts. Did my blackbelts in Kali and JKD over the course of 7 years, did boxing for 1 year, did BJJ for an additional year, and in all three of those studios I picked up tricks from various other martial arts whether it be kickboxing, sambo, TKD, etc. But the throughline in all of them was that every studio had their OWN classes for Muay Thai, the art I desperately wanted to get more involved in.
For those that don't do martial arts, you're gonna be hard pressed to find ANYONE who doesn't at the very least respect Muay Thai, and for good reason. You can levy a lot of arguments for other martial arts; BJJ isn't really street practical, JKD perhaps is a little too athletics centric and flat out wasn't built for everyone, boxing can be limiting given you only use your hands even though its footwork can be unparalleled. But Muay Thai? It has a little bit of everything and is practiced to DESTROY opponents through sheer power and conditioning, and unlike some other arts there isn't much of an obnoxious echo chamber attached to it like with something like BJJ or TKD. Muay Thai fighters are generally pretty nice and goofy people anyone could get along with.
It is the only art I put up there with Kali/Arnis as the king and would advise anyone to take.
If your gym gives out betls for muay Thai you shouldn't train there just a heads up
Also bjj isn't street practical? You trained at the wrong place my man. There's a difference between street and sport but bjj certainly has some fantastic self defense
While Muay Thai has some excellent striking elements, it also has some wrestling elements as well (the clinch). That said, it would benefit any muay thai practitioner to expand their grappling as well.
Fun fact: There aren't belts for Muay Thai. There is no such thing as a Muay Thai black belt. Gyms might have an armband system to help people track progress, but they arent official recognized rankings like the belt system in BJJ or Judo
@@revbladez5773 right bjj has plenty of standing applications friend. I train somewhere and twice a week is self defense night where you practice doing damage fast and running
Great editing for the intro. Your use of game assets to tell a story in excellent.
Coming from someone who practices Muay Thai and loves fighting games. Great video guys
I started the video and I immediately recognized the Indivisible OST in the background ✨
Muay Thai characters are some of my favorites. King and Sagat are always ALWAYS one of my mains or a character I can grab and do well with in their respective games.
It took me a while for me to realise that you meant King from KoF.
The weakest part of Muay Thai in video games is really the weak representation of clinch
Easily broken by light button mashing but deadly in real life
Right pretty much every back button combo can break a clinch
Funny thing
Karateka & Nak Muay seem like they've had a rivalry for a long time. Usually in favor of skilled Nak Muay. This might be why Street Fighter 1 chose a Muay Thai fighter to rival its karateka protagonist
(And also funny, Saw Paing from Kengan Ashura actually uses Lethwei, which is effectively the Burmese equivalent to Muay Thai. Main differences being Bare knuckle, headbutts, always ends in KO. Even calls himself a rival to Gaolang, the resident Thai boxer of Kengan)
Karate and Muay Thai have had many challenge matches between them, most notably in the 60s when 3 students of Mas Oyama faced 3 Thai boxers at Lumpinee Stadium. The Kyokushin fighters went 2-1, but it was the fighter who lost, Kenji Kurosaki, whose experience against Muay Thai led to him changing his approach to Karate (breaking with Oyama by believing that punches to the face should be incorporated, among other things) and saw him develop the style which would become Japanese kickboxing, as well as being extremely influential to the development of Dutch kickboxing.
Or karate
Muay Thai looks great.
A martial arts place near me teaches it so I could learn it along with other fighting styles.
Just realize you did my request ! LET'S GO ! OOUUUWWEE
Muay Thai, I'm a big fan of it myself. although I'm out of practice in it. I've trained mainly under two different classes, and the video is definitely right about how differently it can be taught and individual styles.
Being a tall guy myself I specialised in kicks and they can be absolutely devastating when you really put your body into them, there were some he didn't go over in the video like low kicks, which work less like a direct attack and more as a tool for weakening your opponents stance and tiring out their legs to make their kicks weaker and slower. a continuous supply of low kicks can end up completely disabling a fighter over time, so they're always important to think about.
theres also step kicks, two of which that I learned work as variations to the low kick and the Theep (pushing kicks) outlined in the video [as a side note, my instructor at the second group went over often that the regular pushing kicks get more rare in ring sport, since you rarely want your opponent out of your attacking range and the step kick version is faster and does more damage]
step kicks were a fast moving strike with the ball of the foot aimed low (just above the knee) or body (directly at the bladder) to interrupt opponents trying to approach and stagger them. giving you the opportunity to move in to strike.
The other big thing we did get a mention in the video about Muay Thai but no in depth (mostly because we dont get it in fighting games at all) is thai grappling, Fighters who specialise in it can end fights really quickly as they become inescapable. just imagining a Muay Thai Grappler in a fighting game makes me feel terrified of those locked in knees and elbows
I'm also glad the Rammuay and the cultural side of the art does get some airtime in fighting games.
You're a tall guy. Just practice Khao; clinch and knee your opponents!
I am trying Muay Mat: lots of hands with devastating low kicks. Similar to Dutch kickboxing in many ways. 🙏🏼
@@Sevensliders if I got good at clinching now it probably would be very effective with my long grab range. But back when I was learning in my teenage years, I was still a tall guy back then, but reed thin.
back then I really didn't have the power to last long close range, so I got good with low and front kicks to disrupt attacks on me, and Roundhouse kicks as my best way of landing hits.
When I was feeling especially cheeky I'd do a roundhouse kick slower to bait them into going for a catch and throw a barrage of punches when they only had one free hand.
@@ANewKindOfGamer Vampire/Long guard is such a great strategy for fighters like you who have a long reach; you can pretty much strike at a prolonged distance and teeps are and will be your greatest weapon as well with range. 🙏🏼
Do you use the long guard?
Aside from the mentioned characters, my favorite Muay Thai fighter is Prince Doza/Naseem from Ehrgeiz. His combos are just amazing to watch and perform.
One of my fave characters in the game!
As for the choice for next time… kind of hard what I would pick.
-Monsters would certainly fit the bill if it is coming towards Halloween, and probably would be as close to a “berserker” fighting style we will get (seemingly swinging wild or biting the opponent with no rhyme or reason other than to put the opponent down). Still, there are certainly a wide range to look at and how some can be rather devious in how they fight.
-Robots though would be the most calculating of the three picks. As what we have seen within fighting games, Robots can be more than just “another character to fill the roster” as they could get equipped with a nice range of weapons, lasers, or guns to help them take down their opponents. Could be interesting to see how far that topic goes.
-Magic seems the most straightforward of the three picks. While it isn’t to say magic is easy, it is something usually tied to your “long range, zoning, keep away” characters where it is less in your face and more “comboing you from the other side of the screen.” It certainly has evolved as of late, but I wonder how far the talk will go outside of that.
muay thai’s striking is represented amazingly in fighting games, but it’s a shame how the clinch is usually just reduced to a universal throw animation, considering the clinch is so important to MT that fighters will spend hours everyday just training it nonstop.
my idea of how it might work apart from just being a command grab is sort of like a mixup grab where the opponent has to choose the right options, much like marduk’s ground tackle or king/armor king’s chain throw 50/50s. the options for the clinch could be like sweep, elbow, knee or toss (maybe remove one because a 4 way mixup off that sounds like too much).
clinch almost works like muay thai’s very own RPS situation (obviously with more options than rock paper or scissors lol, and it’s more based on timing and stability), and it’s a shame that a central part of the sport that has such an in-depth meta and potential for cool mechanics is reduced to what’s basically just a cool looking universal throw.
Bruce Irvin is the only character that has a clinch move that goes further in depth. Don't remember thr buttons for it, but you can use it to whip your opponent around. Or go for a knee.
@@cynicalnitro8416 NO WAY REALLY??? man i need to go download a tekken 5 emulator and revisit that game, i wanna play him now
@@theoneknownasbam try tekken 6. I believe THAT was the one where I went down his whole command list.
There is one fighting game that has clinching but while it's not a traditional fighting game, more of a 3d arena kind of brawler derived from wrestling games of the N64 era, it does feature clinching albeit in a more streamlined way
The game is "Def Jam: Fight for New York" and the clinching is present in characters with "Kickboxing" as their fighting styles
I'd like to say that Muay Thai gets a lot of attention for it's physical aspects of being a powerful martial art and general cool looking techniques but there's a lot of beautiful and deeply philosophical aspects about it that a lot of people don't really get to know.
A lot of great Muay Thai world champions come from extremely poor backgrounds but still remain very humble and approachable even after they've earned lots of money and worldwide recognition.
Hot take: the only reason Fahkumram looks like this is only because they probably had Sagat model ready for Tekken X Street Fighter but Bamco saw SFxT flop so they decided to drop that project and reuse/update the model
If anything, they should've created modern Muay Thai fighter based on someone like Buakaw Banchamek: small tight fighter (5'8 158lb) that is able to hit like a truck
This was the one really WEIRD thing that stood out to me about his design. Not the Baki inspiration or tattooes, but his sheer height and muscle mass.
If you know what Muay Thai fighters from Thailand actually look like, it's kinda've absurd.
I still like Fahkumram's design but it is undeniably farfetched.
Oh you rework Bruce????
I hope Tekken x Street fighter get made (despite being highly unlikely)
I'd argue the traditionally most infamous weapon of the art is the high roundhouse kick, famous for ending fights in a single hit and sometimes ending the person on the wrong end as well with a broken neck or mashed up brain.
Also dang, NO love for Tekken's OG Muay Thai champ. Guess Bruce Irvin got overshadowed pretty hard by the new giant on the block.
To be fair, while Bruce has some power in his kicks, Fahkumrahm looks like he's trying to just straight up slice people in half with his shins.
did they ever say Bruce was a Muay Thai fighter? He does use muay thai stances but i thought hes always billed as just "kickboxer"
@@fruitylerlups530 Whatever they call it, it's super clearly Muay Thai. He uses some incredibly signature moves that an American style kickboxer, especially in the nineties, wouldn't be using.
@@EmperorPylades Oh yeah, the new guy is cool, but a classic is a classic, no reason there can't be more than one option.
@@gamerbear84 i dont think theyre getting rid of Josie, but imagine all 3 of Tekken's kickboxers in one game. That would be so rad.
It’s weird that none of the Muay Thai fighters in fighting games ever use teeps. Teeps are a huge part of Muay Thai for both offense and defense. And honestly they should be the best “button” or ranged standing attack in fighting games.
As someone who loves both, great video man
Is awesome to learn about these styles and see how well they are adapted
Muay Thai is fast and powerful, I feel like this isn't entirely incorporated in Muay Thai characters. My biggest gripe is the lack of clinch, they should be a close range grappler/striker hybrid with no projectiles.
It is probably fair to say if Karate is usually seen as the “most recognized fighting style in fighting games,” Muay Thai is probably right behind it.
There’s something special about watching Muay Thai in action as it feels like every strike done is calculated to be as devastating as possible. Yeah, getting punched or kicked will hurt, but the elbows and knees can be particularly brutal as well. That and (as what was pointed out) it is amazing to see how wide the spectrum is for those who use it and how if you tossed all of them into a fight together, they would all have their own special way of utilizing it in a fight.
They're definitely the two styles most guaranteed to be represented in Fighting Games. I can't wait to see ABI cover Karate. Since there's so many different styles of Karate it will be interesting to see how he covers them.
Tae Keon Do is up there as well.
@@TheZeroDestroyer Definitely Tae Kwondo as well.
@@IrishKyokushin I'd really like to see some kyokushin, samba, and even if it isn't great by itself I think taido weather it be by itself or mixed with a capoeria fighter would be nice to see and fun to use
My only issue with muay thai in fighting games is that despite being one of the most popular martial arts in the genre, the number of practitioners that are actually Siamese are very, very few.
For the next style select im interested to see the analysis on robots. To me they tend to feel really generic; uptight stance, straightforward punches and kicks, and beams. There are outliers obviously, but for the most part thats about it. It supposed to convey them being physically superior than normal humans and doing attacks in the most straightforward and efficient way which makes sense, but it invariably makes them infinitely less interesting as a fighting style compared to characters that uses actual combat techniques.
It kinda sucks that RJ from battle for the grid never got showcased. I really liked how they combined muay Thai movements with his fireballs to create some really fluid animation
I had a guy teach me some of this before the 2020 lockdowns started. Cool style, cool guy. Took what I new into the Army and sparred with a couple other guys in the bays while most everyone else was wrestling. The guy I learned from also mentioned the “height=kick power” thing, as well as thinner fighters are better for the style, because of how their bonier joints cause a lot more damage. I hope the monster video is next, or at the least, is done in October, for thematic optimization
To you point of Thai fighters being thin, according to SuperBon ONE's kickboxing champ, in Thailand there is little to no weight training in Muay Thai gyms. The focus is on technique, conditioning, and pad work. He states that his international success comes from sport science and building up his body. So it's not that thinner fighters are better they just don't see the point in getting jacked
@@MelonWaterMelon777 They're also fighting like 20 times a year so they're not cutting lots of weight too lol
It may also have to do with the mechanics of the kick technique. Thin guys get just a way better "whip" effect on their kicks, and their kicks are FASTER.
In the future, do a style select on Kyokushin and other Karate forms, how the different styles are employed
I want the robot just because I want to see you talk about KI.
The thing from Dragon Ball?
Just like in real life, how video game characters wield Muay Thai is very much reflective of their personality. Love the content!
One character that clued me into Muay Thai or Thai boxing was PD-4 from The Bouncer. You can play as them in the VS and survival mode of the game. They weren't as strong as some of the other characters but they had longer range due to an extendable arm, a few unblockable attacks and speed on their side. But I don't think they have clinching or grapples, they do use their knees and elbows though in their combos. PD-4's version of Muay Thai is pretty much exclusively a striking art.
This video is sooo cool
As a thai and your subscriber im glad you did this about muay thai in here thailand is largely known for tours i believe but muay thai is something our homeland is so proud of so thank you a.b.i
I was introduced to Muay Tai thanks to Tony Jaa. Since then, I’ve used mauy tai as part of my striking, especially when it comes to stapling and kicks.
I’d love to see Magic if I’m being honest
I think Fahk looks like shit but i giggle everytime i see Zack's animations🤣
There are a lot of East Asian fighting styles that have been put to the test in sport MMA. And, beyond sport. And, more.
Of the striking styles, Muy Thai has proven itself again and again. No excuses, no jokes, no "ifs, ands, or buts".
Muy Thai is simply strong.
I hate to say this but Dan actually knows some Muay Thai. He's even got the elbows in his ult.
There is a video on TH-cam from the fight organization ONE where some Pro Muay Thai Fighter react to Fahkumram’s attacks in Tekken. I’m hey had commented that his style was much more like Muay Boran then modern day Muay Thai
@SugarPunch who is the best Muay Thai fighter in video games?
Sagat - Thailand🇹🇭
Adon - Thailand🇹🇭
Fahkumram - Thailand🇹🇭
Hwa Jai - Thailand🇹🇭
Payak Sitipitak - Thailand🇹🇭
Joe Higashi - Japan🇯🇵
Bruce Irvin - U.S.A🇺🇸
King - France🇫🇷
Brad Burns - Italy🇮🇹
Zack - U.S.A🇺🇸
Zack from DOA is one of my favorite fighting game characters of all time; that's how I was introduced to Muay Thai.
OG,Funny(unlike most of rest muay thai that are serious),supportive, glasses
Sagat made me want to learn Muay Thai so badly, and I still am trying to. Hopefully I’ll be able to do some classes soon.
Currently doing sport wrestling though, been fun so far.
I'm sad you didn't mention Bruce, because he's also pretty cool. Bryan and Josie could've been honourable mentions.
Yeet
Muay Thai fighters have always been my favorite .
The best fighting style!
I’m so glad this channel has reached 100k Subscribers, I remember subscribing back in 2013 man it’s been a journey
The algorithm blessed me with an episode from this series and I LOVE this. Hearing the history as well as how it is artfully incorporated into fictional media just tickles my pickle.
From a Thai person, not bad at pronunciation, aside from some amusing one that were obviously due to how English only have A E I O U while Thai system have like 24. So they're forgiven.
For some fun facts
0:31 That Nai in Nai Khanomtom means Mister, not really a part of his name. Also his name means boiled snack/dessert, which is kinda cute. Though I wouldn't laugh at him considering he just ran through a 10 strong man gauntlet, in one day.
2:10 Muay Boran literally means Ancient Boxing, is an endonym word that Thai peoples used to called any ancient fighting style in Southeast Asian, which can include Muay Burma (Myanmar) Muay Lao (Laos) etc.
2:26 Partial correction: Muay Boran could encompassing street fights but the main purpose was always for military use from the beginning. So Muay Boran is more like a Krav Maga of that time because of their inherent lethality. And we have a separate word for street fight, it's literally translated to brawling. The word Muay are strictly for martial arts, with clear cut system and such.
3:20 Mongkol actually reads as Mongkon. Placing an equivalent of L on the last character to makes you roll your tongue up is a stupid quirk we got from adopting India's Bali/Sanskrit language into our system, along with the monarchy and culture. If you ever saw another Thai word that ended with an L, always assume it's an N.
Another fun fact is that Mongkol really means "good fortune" So they are really for that, a good fortune.
5:55 Sok rhymes with Rock, not Choke.
6:07 Chiang means diagonal
6:22 The Loi in Khao Loi means "to float" so the real translation was more like Flying Knee than a Lunging Knee. We have a clear distinction on this: Khao Loi/Flying Knee = your whole body is off the ground. while Poong Khao/Lunging Knee = You speed up and dig your knee into your opponent.
Overall, an informative piece. I'd also like to add that somehow, despite Muay Thai do have a grappling system called clinching, most fighting games aren't keen on using them. Maybe they do acknowledged that implimenting a full system of Muay Thai would be very broken?
I remember playing Def Jam Fight for NY, my character was Kick Boxing based (closest thing to Muay Thai in the game).
I was actually going to suggest a fighting style I can really only call "I am a god", but I really didn't think that constituted a fighting style... but seeing the selections at the end of the video I think we're covering something like that no matter which one wins. M.Bison (As of SF5), Magneto, Mewtwo, Zamasu, Beerus... They always have that "floating off the ground, chest out, arms crossed or down at their sides dramatically, a mix of complete dismissal of their opponents or utter dominance using supernatural powers". Only problem I have with the idea is primarily that... there's not much of substance to say, at least not enough to fill a 5+ minute video.
Magic
@@notproductiveproductions3504 Eh.... while some characters with this "style" are magical, most aren't. This is more of a specific personality trope in fighting games than it is a fighting style. (Hell, there isn't a single character on the examples I gave that are magicians in any way. It's mostly mutants, psychics and ki-users.)
You forget to mention the various Muay Thai styles.
Muay mat (puncher) muay sok, (elbow fighter) muay Khao, (knee and clinch fighter), muay dtae (kicker), and muay femur (the technician). While like you said there’s many expressions of the art, most Thais fight pretty similarly due to the scoring system in Thailand, a narrow stance with a methodical pace of footwork, exchanging kicks and not really moving around very much. Commonly underutilized hands as clinch scores for higher in Thailand than in the west or under kickboxing rules.
I'd love to see ninjistu in a next video.
In a sense, Fahkumrahn is the Muai Thai dream, being large and ripped to an inhuman degree, while being more agile and versatile than even Tekken's smaller fighters
(Also making he hella broken at some point in the game)
Fun fact - his hurtbox is actually more similar to some of the female characters' hitboxes than it is to those of the male characters. This is why some attacks seem to randomly whiff on Fahkumram.
Also, going along with his traditional, "pure" style of muay thai (as opposed to the modern muay thai of Bruce), Fahkumram wears the older style of rope gloves instead of modern cushioned ones.
One of my favorite Muay Thai fighters in fighting games is Samchay from the totally not a SF2 rip off game Fighting History. His moves are very direct and simple and just plain effective.
Select your fighting style.
Monster. Robot. Magic
So more like fighting archetype than style now
Justice: "Why not all three?"
ya, I don't see how fictional based powersets can be in a series all about real martial arts
@@KingNerdius Well, in all fairness the very first episode of Style Select was all about guns, so from the very outset by no means was the show limited to real martial arts styles.
@@ArmoredGriffon Combat Shooting is a martial art though
One thing I will say, video game Muay Thai fighters had some of the most banger theme songs in any game soundtrack!
I’m just saying, I’d love a video on aerialist/acrobatic characters. Especially the literal ones that actually fight in the air, like kitana from MK or painwheel from Skullgirls. This is if you ever go into more archetypes and specific gimmicks like the guns episode as opposed to actual martial arts
I hope that the jeet kune do episode comes out one day
The kengan ashura character saw paing is actually Burmese and he uses Burmese boxing aka lethwei, not Muay Thai
ROBOTS
Magic isn't standardized and Monsters are a simple style you've covered in passing before.
Therefore: ROBOTS.
Imagine that After your country is Lost to the invaders one Man can Beat up the king's army so much that the king declared the impressive feat
They are multiple styles of Muay Thai Styles
There's Boran, Chaiya, Lerdrit, Dtae, Bouk, Femur, Etc
I'm actually interested in seeing how this next video is going to turn out, since none of these are particularly formalized styles and they aren't specific enough to have an established history (Unless you're really going to do a breakdown of robots/monsters/magicians as they appear in fiction). Apart from just laying out a collection of magic/robot/monster characters from fighting games like a list, I'm not sure what you could do with it, but I'm eager to find out!
I'm really keen to see it too, in part because I can already absolutely see where ostensibly very broad concepts end up having a lot of commonalities. There technically isn't anything saying Sektor, Fulgore and Mu should have anything in common moveset-wise, but somehow they do!
I am curious how he'll handle it, true. Feels like "magic" is gonna be heavy on zoning or tricks like teleportation but like, almost all of Guilty Gear's roster uses it in one way or another. Maybe monsters will just be "generally bestial characters" fighting with claws and so on?
@@goranisacson2502 Honestly there's enough monsters that you could go even more specific with it and still have a good selection. There are a *lot* of werewolves in fighting games, for example (John Talbain, Saberwulf, Valkenhayn, Yugo), you wouldn't even need to include other kinds of monsters. Same with Vampires and a few other monster types, I'm sure.
Any of the 3 will make a great Halloween episode. Looking forward Indeed
Man, this vid would be a lot more interesting if the person describing would actually fight irl... cause it feels like they don't honestly. What makes muay thay stand out is the usage of knees and elbows most of all. Any martial artist would say that right away and yet this vid just doesn't convey that well. Nonetheless the vid quality is ok. GJ
A martial art I'd like to try sometime. It looks so cool, dem knees and elbows man, those clinches look painful as fuck
Can you do a video about FMA (Filipino Martial Arts)?
It's a really small in the fighting game scene but interesting fighting style that it should be in more games.
Muay thai is such an interesting martial art and is very effective and cool.
you made a pretty big mistake in your video. muay tai is not associated with range, its kicks have a shorter range than any other martial art that uses kicks due to the simple fact that while all other martial arts when you kick you strike with your foot, in muay tai when you kick you strike with your shin which shortens your effective range.
the tall neutral heavy zoning fighting game muay tai practitioner is the polar opposite of real world muay tai.
As someone who recently started learning MT, I'll tell you why it's so popular in fighting games, because it's fun as fuck and looks super cool at a high level.
@Aquarius Rattus what
@Aquarius Rattus you know Muay Thai isn't Japanese right? The clue is in the name
I think it says something that the Muay Thai characters wear similar (roughly the same) outfits yet still have distinguishing designs.
I like how you put a Clip of Saw Paing from Kengan, a character who doesn’t actually perform Muay Thai, he performs the ancient art of Burmese Boxing or Lethwei.
One of my favorite martial arts. I like it for it's elbow and knee strikes. The anime character shown at 1:30 & 4:34 is Saw Paing from Kengan Ashura who uses NOT Muay Thai, but Lethwei. Lethwei is similar Muay Thai but with two major differences: the sport is practiced BAREKNUCKLE with only tape and gauze & HEADBUTTS are allowed.
The Thais that have full contact matches several times a week are insane. It's a beautifully brutal sport.
How do you not utilize bruce Irving?
TIGER!!!
Ah yes, the objectively coolest practical fighting style.
Awesome!!!
The presentation of this video is impeccable. Love my Muay Thai boys 😭
Just to let you know, the character you showed from Kengan Asura is not a muay thai character, it's lethwei!
One of the coolest fighting styles👍👍👍
Your analyses are always fun to watch. Wish you showed Bruce and Josie from Tekken also😅
We need more Thai fighters in games