Boxing I stay up on... but KB isn't widely advertised of course, so I wanted to get advice on who you guys like. MT or KB is fine. Who are the best defensive fighters? Offensive? Can you all give me a run down of some top guys to study? I need to start punching my instructor in the face more.
I'm doing san shou rules... but it doesn't really matter, any really skilled fighter I can pick up some tips from.
Some of the best: Bill Wallace, Joe Lewis, Jean-Yves Theriault, Don Wilson, Benny Urquidez, Ramon Dekkers.
Few more: Ernesto Hoost, Rick Roufus, Rob Kamen, Saenchai and my own personal favourite, Kaoklai Kaennorsing.
Never much of a kicker if I remember rightly, but heavy handed in the extreme. Branko Cikatic could teach you a fair bit about dirty tactics in KB.
I'm looking for someone who does a lot of leg kicks, and does them really well... proper technique, etc.
Reason being is that we only do kicks below the waist... occasionally we will work on kicks to the mid section, but he's not a big fan of trying to throw head kicks.
I'm not familiar with styles that only kick below the waist (Shorin-ryu maybe, but that's karate). You could always incorporate head kicks into your home training routine. But that's by-the-by. Any Muay Thai champ will have reasonably good leg kicks. This guy is rather good: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kg5YdNxcU0"]The Power of Jose Aldo's Leg Kicks - YouTube[/ame]
And of course: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C_yDdSn0cs"]Buakaw - The best low kicker - YouTube[/ame]
This doesn't pass the "lots of leg kicks" filtre but I have to mention Andy Hug - veteran of many Kyokushin, Seidokaikan and K-1 tournaments, cups and championships. Special man by all who knew him, rest his soul, his last match, which he won by KO, occurred within weeks of his death from acute myoblastic leukaemia - which absolutely leaves me gobsmacked as my brother died at 23 of the exact same disease, same variety and pathology fingerprint as Hug did. Most people with this form are hospitalised a year before it kills them as it leaves you in such a bad, weakened and fatigued condition - unbelievably, Hug was scoring victories against the likes of Mirko Cro Cop. Anyroads, if you ever have a chance, have a butcher's at some of his work. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb6BbwKiPHQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb6BbwKiPHQ[/ame]
As we are reminiscing in this thread a bit, I always liked Steve Vick [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiRHQRk0mdk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiRHQRk0mdk[/ame]
Sadly yes The money was never there to make it worth it to pursue long term and MMA has eclipsed it big time as the way to make money fighting. Not just kickboxing too - most of the tournament circuit is nowhere near as solid. Only the grappling arts seem to grow from strength to strength and of course the aforementioned MMA
Buakaw, Masato, Yuta Kubo, Andy Souwer, Ernesto Hoost, Aekpracha, Tetsya Yamato, Tyrone Spong, Remy Bonjasky & Sudsakorn They are pretty different from each other, but all great fighters, youtube has plenty of fight / highlight videos of them, I strongly recommended to watch some of them
Low kicks. The ability to attack the rear leg is considered one of the higher skills in Muay Thai, Rob Kaman is the man to study for that.
Ernesto wasn't bad at those either.. [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEfYAI7KrvA"]Ernesto Hoost Lowkicks Highlight - YouTube[/ame]