I love the following quote: If you are the brightest person in a room, then you are in the wrong room. Replace ‘brightest’ with ‘most skilled’ and ‘room’ with ‘gym’ and I believe that quote is definitely relevant to martial arts.
It implies that one should never stop striving to become a better version of himself (or herself), and in order to do so, one must be surrounded with people that are better/more skilled/more competent than him/her. By doing so, we can be pushed harder and forced to adapt, thus able to progress. And that’s what we ought to strive for in our everyday lives, as well.
The Muay Thai fighter in the following footage took that advice at heart. He got in the ring with someone that was much, MUCH more skilled than him. In fact, he decided to polish his skills against arguably the greatest Muay Thai fighter of all time, Saenchai PKSaenchaimuaythaigym. I’m sure he felt honored as a martial artist to even be able to spar with such a legend, and it sure takes some b*lls to do so.
The Muay Thai fighter held his own against the legend Saenchai in the opening moments. He landed a few solid kicks and even Saenchai’s patented flying leg kick (Yep, that’s a thing!). The thing is, you should always operate with utmost precaution when you are sparring with a Muay Thai legend, even if he’s not going 100% at all. As the sparring session progresses, Saenchai starts cornering the fighter against the ropes. The latter throws a body kick, but Saenchai catches it and throws his patented, crazy wheel kick, which lands flush on the poor fighter’s jaw…
And it’s LIGHTS OUT.
Ouch. The brave Muay Thai fighter is knocked out by the devastating kick, and he struggles to regain his senses. Saenchai, who of course didn’t knock him out on purpose, immediately helps him back.
The poor fighter did get knocked out, but I’m sure he still felt honored and privileged to get in the ring with Saenchai, plus there is no doubt that he’ll have an awesome story to tell people about how he got knocked out by the greatest Muay Thai fighter of all time!
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