The Dieselnoi vs Samart Fight (1982) - the Holy Grail GOAT vs GOAT

This is very special, incredibly rare. Thank you to one of my patrons who found this footage! This is a public post. (above)

[Edit 2021: Watch the full fight with Dieselnoi's commentary here 

Watch the entire card in color with natural stadium audio here ]

There's very little footage of Dieselnoi online, some highlight edits from scraps of video, or "show" fights against non-peak opponents. Almost nothing of him fighting in his prime. The "Holy Grail" of fights would be his "super fight" against Samart Payakaroon, on Christmas Eve of 1982. That fight was never supposed to even happen. One of the top promoters of all time, OneSongchai, appears in a documentary about Samart's career, saying that he didn't agree with that fight and never would have allowed it himself. Indeed, Samart was the best Femeu Fighter of all time, and Dieselnoi the greatest Knee Fighter of all time, but they weren't in the same weight class. Both were unbeatable. For this fight to happen, Dieselnoi had to torture himself down to 129.7 lbs, losing 19 lbs in just a few weeks (he was 135 lbs Lumpinee Champion) and Samart weighed in at 133 lbs (he was 126 lbs Champion). This fight, in addition to being between two absolute superstars of all time, would determine who would be awarded the Fighter of the Year for 1982. Samart had won it in 1981 and Dieselnoi was undefeated as Lumpinee Champion throughout the year... it was a huge deal.

And yet, there was no footage of this fight. Nowhere. There was an exhibition match later on, recreating the mythical matchup, but they're playing. This fight - this is the fight. When it was shared by one of my patrons who found it on an old gym VHS, I couldn't even believe it for a good few minutes, skipping through to see if it was the full fight, checking to see if it was actually Dieselnoi and Samart, inspecting all the little pieces of evidence... but it's real. This is it. The mythic fight.

So Kevin and I raced home to do a "Watch With Me" of this historic, nearly mythical fight. We're literally seeing it for the first time as we watch, although we've both heard about this fight from Dieselnoi many times. I must admit, it looked different from how he describes it, not in that he's wrong but he felt things that aren't visible and those were meaningful to him. Samart as well mentioned elements of the fight that aren't visually distinct, but certainly shaped how he experienced the fight. It's very exciting and I reckon I'll watch this fight many, many times. But you all get the first impressions from Kevin and me, as we see it for the first time. I'd love to watch it with Dieselnoi!

Our Full Commentary and Discussion Version is Above, here is the straight film version:

watch the straight copy of the fight here 

The Sessions

In the Muay Thai Library you can watch both Fighters of the Year Samart and Dieselnoi, teach their styles, and the foundations of their techniques:

 Dieselnoi (1982):  

#48 Dieselnoi Chor. Thanasukarn - Jam Session (80 min) watch it here  

#30 Dieselnoi Chor Thanasukarn 2 - Muay Khao Craft  (42 min) watch it here  

#3 Dieselnoi  Chor Thanasukarn  - The King of Knees (54 min) - watch it here  

 Samart (1981, 1983, 1988):  

#34 Samart Payakaroon - Balance, Balance, Balance! (81 min) watch it here  

Dieselnoi's Interview

You can also watch this interview with Dieselnoi I did for patrons some time back, wherein he covers many things, but also talks at length about his preparations for his fight with Samart:

watch the interview here as a patron 

If you want to know how huge a fan I am of Dieselnoi and their fight together check out me completely geeking out when I had a chance to film a show fight between the two of them almost two years ago. So famous was the original fight in 1982 people still get amped watching a re-enactment 36 years later.

watch that show fight here 

If you are new to my patron you can check out the largest documentary archive of legends of the sport, the Muay Thai Library. The table of contents are here. 

edit: a huge thank you to my patron, a Finnish Muay Thai trainer, Harri Nieminen of Turku Thaiboxing Club. Turku, Finland  who found this footage! This is a public post. (above) 

The Muay Thai Bones Podcast 

 As patrons you have access to the Apple or Android audio version of Muay Thai Bones podcast. You can find out how to access those episodes here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/29726337

browse all the Muay Thai Bones podcast posts on Patreon here:

https://www.patreon.com/sylviemuay/posts?tag=Muay%20Thai%20Bones 

Many of these are completely epic podcasts, sometimes more than 3 hours in length, the response we've been getting as been great. I hope you enjoy them too!