Sylvie Fight 291 - 47 kg vs ~ 56 kg | How to Beat A Larger Opponent Using the Muay Khao Approach
[Kevin writing, Sylvie commentary and video above] - a little something different, now posting Sylvie’s fight commentaries here on Patreon, with a write up by me as an informed, partial ringside viewer. This Patreon literally allows Sylvie to fight in the original, wide-ranging way that she does, enabling all her training and makes all her fight opportunities happen. These fights as she pressing towards a historic 300 fights in Thailand are Patreon supported fights, so we speak directly to you. And, what you are watching in the Muay Thai Library as we film session after session, is in real time expressed as lessons learned in Sylvie’s fights. It’s one of the special things about the Muay Thai Library archive project. All of it is in the passion of putting to work and becoming a better fighter. What she learns through fighting prolifically she shares with you, in all her commentaries.
Perhaps nothing other than the sheer volume of fights would characterize Sylvie’s fight path more than fighting way, way up in weight (over 140 of her fights have been multiple weight classes up, perhaps a combat sport record), and this fight is no different. In fact, its a prime example of how she is able to win with regular, much bigger weight disadvantages than other fighters commonly face. Her largely compressed, low-strike volume, defense-oriented Muay Khao style has developed through the need to survive much bigger and even often more variously skilled fighters in the motherland of the sport. She’s learned by studying the Muay Khao tradition how in traditional Muay Thai Muay Khao can be a skeleton key unlocking most anything an opponent can throw at you. If you can stalk, defend-on-entry, lock or control, break ruup and score the fight can be yours, even against very large, skilled opponents.
As she mentions in the commentary above she is not in ideal Muay Khao shape for this fight, a style that thrives on conditioning and pace. She had had a rough time for even a couple of years of piecing her training together, as a training day’s hours were often eatting up by driving across town several times, just so she could get the technical, developmental work she needed at various gyms. Now she’s rocking it at Mavinn gym in Pattaya, but at the time of this fight she wasn’t really ramped up, and that we had just driven up from Pattaya the same day, got out of the car and fought pretty quickly, it is impressive the way she was able to wrestle the win away from a big, formidable fighter, who probably had about 20 lbs on her, one could guess.
The general arc in traditional fights that Sylvie pursues is one taught to her by Dieselnoi (you can see some of that in this MTL session), who was not a super aggressive fighter in his day, at least in the early rounds. The sage advice he has given is to stay increasingly close, stay defensive, trying to smother a bit with footwork until the scoring rounds (3,4). In Dieselnoi’s time that’s when he would use his height to thresh his opponent in sheer physical dominance. For Sylvie fighting as a small this means in scoring rounds latching onto the larger opponent with locks and holds, scoring regularly, and try to break down their ruup. “Ruup” in Thai is essentially “posture”, and in traditional scoring having your posture broken, especially by a smaller fighter, can be a round turning event. This fight is template to that approach. For a 100 lb or so fighter like Sylvie it would be very hard to establish the visual signatures of affecting her opponent, essential for traditional Muay Thai, giving up 20 lbs or so, if she predominantly relied on striking.
In the early rounds of this fight you can see that Sylvie is just taking fire. An easy, high scoring 1st round by her opponent does a few things. Her opponent displays text book distance taking and scoring on Sylvie’s entry. It’s like candy from a baby, and it serves to actually relax her opponent by the start of the first. Sylvie points that out in her commentary. There just is a natural thing of perception when facing a much smaller fighter. You can feel your stature and natural power over them, and after an easy round it’s pretty natural to just feel comfortable in what you are facing. Not only are you scoring, you simply don’t feel threatened. This is classic Sylvie. Ah, this doesn’t feel so bad at all.
It’s then that the feet start to matter. Sylvie needs to closer the distance more, corral the fight a little more, and start taking the oxygen away. It’s very much a slow, boa constrictor in space. You really don’t feel the squeeze at all, until its almost too late. It’s very important that when that squeeze of space happens - and it happens with your feet first, and your tempo/rhythm, and then it happens literally with your grabs, holds and locks - following this path you have to start breaking ruup, or getting dominant moments. You don’t have to win every clinch exchange, but as a much smaller fighter you have to create those moments, those flashes, that are visually distinct. In this fight, even though her opponent is “trading” often in clinch exchanges, the size difference is working against her because Sylvie generally looks unaffected at all those times when Sylvie should be swallowed and overpowered. And then, Sylvie will break the ruup a bit…she’ll show she is the one affecting. It’s a bit like a small surfer coming out of a large wave. It has a visual signature which is read as control, and this perception has been key to Sylvie being able to not only survive, but also beat significant size. She actually in her fights has a crazy record vs her largest opponents.
Some of this is strength (persisting), some of this is technique (getting positive holds and the right angless), some of this is balance, but a lot of this is just feeling the Muay Khao fight form and pulling out visual signatures which will define exchanges. A large reason why Sylvie fights in these provincial fights is that besides them just being the most joyous, most culture-connected events in all of Thailand, the traditional form of scoring is most present in the provinces, further removed from Entertainment influence. Fights are reffed and judged according to an older form of Muay Thai, and that is the Muay that Sylvie has devoted her life to learning and celebrating. This fight is a perfect example of shaping the score, despite having some fatigue in the process. (She also is pretty good at hiding her fatigue, something she has trained for now well over a decade, an important part of trad scoring as well.)
Personally, ringside, I wanted her to come forward and clinch a bit more in the 5th round, to exert that dominance before the dance-off, but Kem knew the odds and regarded the fight as secured. In fact I wanted her more aggressive and locking in the 4th as well, as it took her a while to get to that strong place again after a secure 3rd. I’ve always been conservative on that, impose, impose, impose, but she fought the fight great under Kem’s guidance.
These fights in the provinces are just amazing for her. The goal is ever to improve and test out training developments, and traditional rules and contexts are what it is all about. Being able to beat much larger skilled fighters is a hallmark of Golden Age Muay Thai, so a big part of Sylvie’s fight diet has been in that direction.
We thank Kem so much for this opportunity. You can study him in the Muay Thai Library and have great looks at his beautiful sanctuary-like gym in Khorat:
#137 Kem Sitsongpeenong 3 - Balance, Fakes and Calm (102 mins) watch it here or podcast here
Kem goes right to the heart of his beautiful, explosive style. It's all about calm and balance, and using that balance to create change of speed and direction, exposing your opponent to sudden attacks, set up by a mix of fakes & rhythm. What is being taught here can add to the effectiveness of any style fighter, filming at his beautiful gym in the Khao Yai mountains.
#53 Kem Sitsonpeenong 2 - Mastering Everything In Between (80 min) watch it here
With one of the great technique krus of Thailand, Kem Kem Muaythai Gym, in his gym in the mountains just below Khorat. A special session that details how to work on all the things in-between strikes. So much to learn in this 80 minutes. He's a special teacher.
#13 Kem Sitsongpeenong 1 - Building a System (52 min) watch it here
Kem, one of the best fighters of his generation, shows me building blocks of his system. He teaching a firm, defensive frame, and especially likes an upward elbow that explodes out of blocks, checks and fake teeps.
#76 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 4 - How to Fight Tall (69 min) watch it here
There several sessions with the King of Knees in the Muay Thai Library, this is the fourth, but this is the first one where he gets the chance to teach a tall, long fighter like he was. If you are a tall fighter this is the session you don't want to miss. He is arguably the GOAT, an in this session he unfolds his entire fighting system of knee fighting pressure and distance control.
Some of my photographs from the fight:
Sylvie's Fight Record
You can find Sylvie's complete fight record here.
You can see all of Sylvie's fights in this YouTube playlist, over 100 of them with her commentary like this one. (She is likely the most documented pro fighter in history.)
At the time of writing and publishing this article Sylvie has reached 300 documented fights overall, including amateur bouts and Western Boxing fights. This is community supporting fighting, not governed by big gyms or big promotions. Anywhere in Thailand largely under traditional Muay Thai rules. She is pushing for 300 documented Muay Thai fights in the country, a milestone of fighting passion. Thank you to everyone who has lifted her up and continue to lift her up. She is on record the most prolific female pro fighter in history.
Kem Muay Thai Gym in Khorat
You can find and follow Kem Muay Thai on Instagram here. Kem and Mo have been long time friends and supporter of Sylvie and were instrumental in making this fight happen. We dearly thank them. Kem is honestly is one of the best instructors in all of Thailand.
Sylvie and Clinch
If you want to learn something about Sylvie's approach to clinch, this 1 hour seminar is a very rare moment of Sylvie teaching. She is very reluctant to take on a kru position, but SMAC and CMA have been very long time supporters of Sylvie and she taught basic clinch to their visiting group a few years ago in what many say is one of the most helpful introductions to clinch they've encountered. It's free to the public.
watch it here, free to the public (1 hr)
Fight 291 Sylvie (47 kg) vs Mod Dam Lukmuangpet (56 kg) w/ Commentary (YouTube)