Two of Muay Thai’s top fighters will be moving to Singapore to coach the athletes at Evolve MMA. Petboonchu FA Group and Sam-A Gaiyanghadaogym are two of the biggest names in the sport this century and have both held titles in multiple divisions at Lumpinee.
Petboonchu won an incredible 14 different titles in nine different divisions during the course of his career. He won his first major belt at 16, becoming the mini flyweight (105 pounds) Thailand champion and moved up all the way to 140 pounds winning the Toyota Marathon super lightweight tournament and claiming the Rajadamnern super lightweight title in 2014.
Sam-A won his first Lumpinee title in 2004 competing at super flyweight (115 pounds). He won the Thailand 115-pound title a few months later before moving up a division to win the vacant Thailand bantamweight title, coincidentally by beating Petchboonchu.
In 2011 he received the Lumpinee “Fighter of the Year” award and Sam-A has also held Lumpinee and Thailand titles at 122 pounds. His final fight was on December 25th last year when he beat two opponents in a single afternoon to win the Toyota Marathon 126-pound “Champion of Champions” tournament.
Petboonchu is known as a clinch fighter who is very dangerous with his knees while Sam-A is more of a patient technician. Both are veterans of over 300 Muay Thai fights and they will be giving tips to members of the Evolve MMA fight team like Rafael Dos Anjos, Ben Askren, and Shinya Aoki.
Some of the most successfull Muay Thai fighters of the era are already in Singapore and other trainers currently employed by Evolve MMA include Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn, Orono Wor Petchpun, Nong-O Kaiyanghadaogym, Pornsanae Sitmonchai, and Saketdao Petpayathai.
It means mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters in Singapore will be learning techniques from the best in the business and it will be interesting to see whether the likes of Askren and Aoki start to adopt more clinch or elbow techniques into their respective games.