personBuakaw Banchamek

บัวขาว บัญชาเมฆ · buakhao banchamek

White lotus. The name most of the world learned first.

B20180 · CC BY-SA 3.0

What it is

Born Sombat Banchamek, 8 May 1982. Omnoi champion at two weights, and the fighter who won K-1 Max in Japan in 2004 and again in 2006.

The long version

Joined Por Pramuk gym in 1997, won the Toyota Marathon at Lumpinee in late 2002, then entered K-1 Max in 2004 and beat John Wayne Parr and Masato in the same tournament.

Inference — K-1 is why. Muay thai had been exported for decades, but K-1 was a television product with a Japanese broadcast budget, and one Thai fighter winning it twice did more for the sport's name abroad than any federation has. The kickboxing rules he won under do not allow elbows and break the clinch — so the world learned the sport from a version of it with two of the eight limbs turned off.

Connected to

• Every gym on the map The export, counted.
• The shorts Whose camp name he carries.
• Changpuek and Rick Roufus, Las Vegas 1988 The earlier crossing.

Named here by

• Buakaw at K-1 Max, 2004 Who won it.
• Changpuek and Rick Roufus, Las Vegas 1988 The next crossing.
• Every gym on the map One reason for the shape.
• The shorts One of the names.
• ONE Championship The earlier version of the same deal.

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