Krabi Krabong & FMA

Annoyed is not the word, my friend. I am disgusted by the cheap tricks used by some quarters to promote themselves. I am infuriated that anyone will sink that low and backstab an honorable fighter like Rolly Tadefa. I am certain that Emil Zapata has nothing to do with this fiasco.

Let us say that you worked very hard to prepare for a match, then on the actual day you did your best and at the end of the bout you are declared the winner in front of hundreds of spectators, with your opponent conceding defeat. Years later, you find out that someoe is circulating the malicous information that you lost the fight. Won't you feel betrayed? Won't you feel hurt that someone dishonorable dealt you with a low blow? Kickboxing after all is just a sport, not a death match. It is the sport of honorable fighters, not cowardly assassins. Whoever circulated that misinformation about Rolly Tadefa is the cyber equivalent of a cowardly, dishonorable assassin.

I took a look at the Yaw Yan website the first time you posted in this thread. If you read the caption carefully, it simply said "Tadefa fighter", not Rolly Tadefa. Maybe this would allow that idiot who made all this up an excuse if he was ever questioned. He could always say that he was refering to a student of Tadefa who was beaten by Zapata and not Rolly himself. This morning, I took a look at the website again, and lo and behold, I found out that the photo gallery is presently under construction. I just hope the idiot has realized his stupidity and removed the offensive photos, captions and insinuations. If he wants to be a wise guy and modifies his post, all I can say is that you may put 1,000 pre-selected photos depicting Tadefa in a bad light but it is still the photo taken at the crucial final moment that is really important. I have that photo.

Viking, you mentioned that the arnis of YawYan is similar to Krabi-Krabong. If you are refering to the use of power, then I disagree. I once watched a public exhibition of YawYan with an arnis instructor whose style is well-known for its chambered full-force strikes. He told me that the stick strikes of YawYan were not thrown with maximum power, and I could see why. Ask anyone who knows YawYan and if they could just be objective, they will tell you that YawYan is well-known for its powerful kicks but not for powerful hand strikes. Pure YawYan hand techniques make use of the rampa, a push-distancing technique, in order to creat the required space to insert a powerful kick. For better hand techniques, YawYan players cross-train in boxing.

In Krabi-Krabong, the weapon is primary, empty hands secondary. In YawYan, it is the opposite.

 

Rolando Tadefa Beats Emil Zapata

This photo should settle the issue of who really won in that fight 21 years ago. The referee in the photo is raising the hand of Rolando Tadefa as the winner, and Emil Zapata of Yaw Yan is the loser.

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Let's keep this discussion in the one thread from now on