Thongchai Sitsongpeenong is a former Lumpini Stadium champion with over 160 bouts to his credit. But, he is new to kickboxing and, like many making the transition before him, finding that his new sport looks similar but has some very important differences: clinching is all but prohibited, and elbow strikes are not permitted.
That robs Thongchai of some of his best weapons and requires him to focus more on boxing and combination striking. It's tricky to get a lifetime's Muay Thai training out of your system and that led to a couple of clinch warnings from the referee, and also – on paper at least – made for a possible advantage for Casey Greene, more experienced as a kickboxer.
Early exchanges were even but it wasn't long before Thongchai's power and precision started to turn things in his favor. He began scoring cleanly and demonstrated some tricky boxing setups along the way.
Thongchai was unlucky not to score a knockdown at the end of the first when he landed a very clean trio of punches and badly rocked Greene. This time it was Greene who initiated a clinch as he sought to gather his wits.
On the restart Thongchai went after Greene again and landed another hard blow. Greene's eyes glassed but Thongchai then clinched him and folded him backwards into the canvas, which caused the referee to rule it a slip.
Still, Thongchai was well into his groove as he went into the second round. He poured the offense on, hard kicks and powerful punches finding a route through Greene's defense again and again. In the final minute of the round he was rewarded with his first knockdown, an overhand right staggering Greene across the ring and then to the canvas.
On the restart Thongchai poured the pressure on immediately, backing Greene up and staggering him again. A clinch situation led to Greene being dumped on the floor again, and the referee again ruling it a slip. Greene regained his feet but looked very wobbly; the referee motioned him to come forward and get back into the fight.
At the same time, a member of Greene's corner team was mounting the ring and attempting to get the referee's attention, sensing a knockout was imminent and wanting to wave the fight off. He didn't get the chance – as soon as Greene stepped forwards Thongchai was on him with a hard left which knocked him down and out.
The fight was immediately waved off and a jubilant Thongchai ran to the opposite corner and climbed the ring ropes to celebrate winning his GLORY debut by way of a thunderous KO. There are still some issues
Thongchai Sitsongpeenong def. Casey Greene, KO, 2.58 R2
