Saenchai doesn't speak a word of English, or Dutch, and was making his GLORY debut here in Amsterdam. Despite this, he received probably the loudest cheers that any fighter on the card received all night, testament to his huge reputation and presence in the martial arts.
Every inch the showman, Saenchai brings all manner of tricks to the ring with him. He likes to showboat and draw gasps, not so much for any egotistical purposes but rather because, as he puts it, “I want to give the audience value for their money”. He does that in spades and they love him for it.
That is only part of the reason for his warm reception in the Amsterdam RAI Arena though. He is also legitimately famous in fight-fan circles because he is, without doubt, one of the best fighters ever to lace up a pair of gloves. His perfection of technique, timing, reflexes and speed combine to make a once-in-a-lifetime fighter who legitimately bears comparison with what Muhammad Ali brought to boxing.
Facing him was young French prospect Eddy Nait-Slimani. He debuted at GLORY 28 PARIS earlier this year with a shutout of Maykol Yurk. In the process, he demonstrated that he too has a very accomplished set of skills and some superb physical attributes and reflexes of his own. Saenchai is by far the bigger name but Nait-Slimani was coming to fight.
Some pundits gave Nait-Slimani a good chance of winning the fight due to Saenchai being a lifelong Muay Thai fighter unfamiliar with fighting under the similar but crucially different rules of Muay Thai. One of Saenchai's favorite tricks is to catch an opponent's kick and then sweep his standing leg to send him to the canvas; this is illegal under GLORY rules because of it's tendency to break up the flow of the action.
That did become a factor in the fight. In the second round Saenchai briefly caught one of Nait-Slimai's kicks, his second such transgression of the fight. The referee, Stefano Valenti, stopped the fight and indicated that Saenchai was now being docked one point, having received a warning on the first instance. The crowd booed this heavily, and it was a very harsh punishment for such a brief mistake.
Valenti is a referee with form for this kind of thing. At GLORY 25 MILAN he allowed Serhiy Adamchuk to receive something in the region of twenty warnings without deducting a point for excessive clinching. At GLORY 31 AMSTERDAM he went the opposite way, docking points almost instantly when rules were broken. The crowd booed every such instance; online reaction was similar. Valenti is not a popular referee with the fans.
Towards the end of the third round it looked like he would dock Saenchai another point, this time for excessive clinching, even though most of the clinches were being caused by proximity of the two fighters rather than any actual intent to wrap up in a clinch or seek advantage by doing so. It meant the end of the fight played out under the shadow of Valenti potentially being the one to determine its result.
Aside from his interventions, the fight played out as a fitting testament to Saenchai's skills. In all honestly, he probably didn't even click into his top gear. Nait-Slimani brought the fight to him but he had nothing that Saenchai has not seen before and none of his tricks were bought by the wily Thai. Instead he used the fight as an opportunity to show GLORY fans the kind of thing he can bring to the ring, and they loved it.
The fight resulted in a unanimous decision for Saenchai, prompting his trademark ascent of the corner post to celebrate. Post-fight he admitted that the new rules had proven a little difficult for him to get used to, as he was constantly having to remind himself not to use certain prohibited moves.
“I am very happy to be fighting for a big organization like GLORY. It was a little bit tricky for me to get used to the new rules but I liked it and now I have a better idea of what needs doing. I will be better-prepared next time,” he said.
“I am also happy to be on TRUE4U TV in Thailand and I hope the Thai people will watch it and support GLORY and the Thai fighters in GLORY.”
