moveThe clinch

จับคอตี · chap kho ti

Boxing separates them. This does not.

superwebdeveloper · CC BY 2.0

What it is

Hands locked behind the other man's head, forearms on his collarbones, both men fighting for the inside position — and knees going in the whole time.

The long version

This single rule is why muay thai is not kickboxing. Because nobody pulls the two men apart, a fight has a wrestling phase, and the wrestling phase is where fitness cashes out. Watch a fifth round: the man who wins the clinch is usually the man who wins.

It is also the part that looks like nothing happening, and it is the part a Thai crowd is loudest for.

How

Palm on the back of the other hand — not fingers laced. Three reasons, and the article gives all three: you are wearing gloves and cannot lace them; the grip has to press down on the crown of the head, which wants the hands high on the skull rather than round the neck; and laced fingers break, and cannot be let go of quickly enough to throw an elbow.

Connected to

• The knee What it exists to deliver.
• The elbow The other thing waiting in there.
• Breaking Erawan's neck The named version of it.
• Clinch How it is trained.
• How a fight is actually scored Why the crowd is shouting.

Named here by

• The eight limbs What legal knees produce.
• The elbow Where most of them are thrown from.
• The knee What makes it possible.
• Breaking Erawan's neck What it is.
• The dump Where most of them start.
• Muay khao Where it lives.
• Buakaw at K-1 Max, 2004 What was taken out.
• Clinch What is being trained.
• Why you thought he won The part that looked like nothing.

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