weaponThe knee

เข่า · khao

Scores heavily, costs nothing to throw, and needs a hand on the head.

Kru Tony Moore · CC BY-SA 4.0

What it is

The point of the thigh bone driven into ribs, liver, sternum or face, usually with the other man's head pulled down onto it.

The long version

Thai names the varieties rather than the angles: khao dot, the jumping knee off one leg; khao loi, the flying knee after a step; khao thon, the straight knee driven forward.

Tradition holds — the straight knee is the newest of the three, and the reason given is the rope. With hemp wound over the knuckles, a fighter who saw a knee coming could cut down onto the thigh with the edge of the wrap. Gloves took that answer away and the straight knee came into its own.

For scoring, the knee is the best deal in the sport: it is visible from the back row, it moves the man it lands on, and a fighter throwing knees in the clinch is doing the thing the judges are watching for.

Connected to

• The eight limbs The count it belongs to.
• The clinch What makes it possible.
• Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn The fighter nobody could stop kneeing them.
• The rope The rope that the straight knee had to wait out.

Named here by

• The eight limbs One pair of the eight.
• The clinch What it exists to deliver.
• Breaking Erawan's neck The weapon it delivers.
• Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn His weapon.
• The rope Which technique it held back.

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