Brooklyn Monk in Asia: International Bokator Fight (Part 1)
In 2004, the Bokator association started. In 2007, the national champions took place for the first time. On July 16, 2011, Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo, traveled to Siem Reap to witness the first ever, international Bokator tournament, as the team from France, lead by Benjamin (Sarin) Sebire took on the Khmers in this ancient MMA style fighting art. Kicks, punches, knees, elbows, ground fighting, chokes, submissions, and tiny, MMA gloves. It was brutal. Antonio Graceffo is self-funded and needs donation to continue his writing and video work. To support the project you can donate through the paypal link on his website, www.speakingadventure.com Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo is a martial arts and adventure author living in Asia. He is the author of the books, “Warrior Odyssey’ and “The Monk from Brooklyn.” He is also the host of the web TV show, “Martial Arts Odyssey,” which traces his ongoing journey through Asia, learning martial arts in various countries. Warrior Odyssey, the book chronicling Antonio Graceffo’s first six years in Asia is available at amazon.com. The book contains stories about the war in Burma and the Shan State Army. The book is available at www.blackbeltmag.com See Antonio’s Destinations video series and find out about his column on www.blackbeltmag.com website www.speakingadventure.com Twitter http facebook Brooklyn Monk fan page Brooklyn Monk on YOUTUBE www.youtube.com Brooklyn Monk in 3D Order the download at 3dguy.tv Brooklyn Monk in Asia …
What’s up with that ring? Slippery! “…they train all day… but it’s not the same as real fighting..” — it urghs me every time I hear you say something like that, Antonio. Having followed your videos for a while, you seem to say that quite a bit for SE Asian fighters only. I’m just saying!!
@tdok Yes, the training is not the same as real fighting. and the proof is, look at the French. they won every single bout because they train to fight. training in rounds, focus pads, bag, strategy, ring kraft…there is so much to fighting. only a handful of arts do ANY of that: Boxing, Muay Thai, Khmer boxing, san da…very few arts that actually train fighting. even kyokushin, they harden their bodies and spar constantly but I havent seen them do so much actual fighting training.
@brooklynmonk1 Have you trained with Khmer bokator team and found that they do in fact train in rounds, hitting the bag, the pads, planning strategy… Did you train with them and see them doing these things?
They really need to find a new surface to fight on next time. That plastic floor material seems a bit impractical.
im a little disappointed that khmer should have trained more for stamina, ground fighting as well as stand up fight itself, and the ring is very slippery making it hard for fighters to really fight, if we put kun khmer kickboxers and make them train in ground fighting then it will be a good fight, but overall the french had the advantages, because of height and ground fighting
cool!!!!
Im sorry but now im even more convinced that bokator is a fake khmer creation. If according to the khmer, muay thai came from bokator, then why does khmer fighters end up like this? they look like they don’t have a clue. One thing springs to mind when I watched this video. Bokator is to muay thai what wu shu is to kung fu. Ok the extremely slippery ring doesn’t help but what genius thought of using it as a ring? everything just makes me go WTF?!?!?! can you explain to make me understand?
@KensaiZen The slipper ring is really normal. it rained heavily that day and the ring is a kind of plastic because the guys get thrown on it. across asia grappling type mats are made of slippery plastic. but a slippery ring and losing a fight doesnt prove that the art is fake. They can’t stand up to western trained fighters, but the art is real. tae kwan do, vovinam, 80% of karate styles are real but can’t stand up to western fighters.
@brooklynmonk1 from what I’m seeing, being up against western fighters isn’t even the case. Put them up against another Asian and they will still fight like that. And are you really telling me a supposedly 2000 year old art of war used for warfare can not stand up against some guys who have trained in sport martial arts? I didn’t see any animal style in there at all. Once the punches were flying, were they actually doing bokatau? 10000 techniques to use. Where were they?
@KensaiZen Most countries in Southeast Asia have no ground fighting at all. So yes, I am telling you, if you put them against other Asians they would win. Yes, i am telling you a 2,000 year old art designed for war can’t stand up to sport fighters. vovinam, tae kwan do, shaolin kung fu, silat, karate (except kyokushin) are all old but dont stand a chance against a trained modern MMA fighter. I am curious, how much training or fighting did you do in Southeast Asia?
@KensaiZen The following southeast Asian countries have no ground fighting at all: Thailand, Lao, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, Brunei, Singapore (no indigenous ground fighting, but now many people do MMA and BJJ), Vietnam had a wrestling art but there only a few practitioners left. Vovinam has extremely limited ground fighting and couldn’t compete with bokator on the ground. lethwei fighters from Burma could kick the crap out of any other country’s fighters with the bokator rules.
@brooklynmonk1 Now are you refering to ground fightng as in sport? or real fighting? I’ve just watched your other video on Muay Chaiya, this particular style has a lot of ground fighting. I think you’ve met kru praeng before. That guy is a beast!. The complete Pahuyut Thai has ground fighting. From what I know Lao style is almost identical to Shan style Lai Tai and the modern version is almost identical to Thai. Malay and indo and brunei practice Silat which has ground fighting.
@brooklynmonk1 I totally agree with you on Lethwei though. That is what these Muay thai, Muay Lao, Pradel Serey, tomoi etc used to be like. Perhaps they were limited by the bokator rules set, I dunno. Honestly I think ancient khmer boxing is something very similar to khmer wrestling. But then thats just my oppinion.
@brooklynmonk1 Unfortunately My life doesn’t allow me to lead the life that yours does, so my actual hands on experience is limited, although I have been extensively researching into martial arts for many years. But I think we are looking at this form two seperate angles. My perspective is coming from a “fighting” point of view, but what I am getting from you is a “sport fighting” perspective.
@KensaiZen Muay Chaiya has NO GROUD FIGHTING. None! Thailand has never had a ground fighting art. Kru Praeng was a student of Kru Ket and the junior of Kru Lek. He added modern ground fighting to Chaiya, recently. but historically it was never part of the art.the art was codified, written out, nearly a hundred years ago, and there is no ground fighting in that syllabus. He claims it’s ancient but Kru Ket wrote out the art and never mentioned ground fighting.
@KensaiZen You see what you just said, “what I know Lao style is almost identical to Shan style Lai Tai” I wouldnt need to caviat that sentence, since I trained in Lao and shan State. Lai Tai is chinese kung fu. there may have been an equivalent art, or possibly ling lum, in Lao, but it seems to have died out.
Respond to this video… I train in malaysia and i am fighting in malaysia in september and THERE IS NO GRAPPLING, no ground fighting in silat. There is self-defense type grappling, like hopkido or aikido, but nothing where they can get on the ground and spar.
Respond to this video… We are definitely coming from two different perspectives. I have been there, trained, fought, and recorded the arts, and you haven’t. It’s not so strange that our opinions would vary, but a reasonable person would most likely take my argument as being stronger.
@KensaiZen “ancient khmer boxing is something very similar to khmer wrestling.” preposterous. In my new book i have a whole chapter about training in Khmer wrestling..actually, i am done discussing this. you haven’t trained and you aren’tt going to. any information you have about bokator, lai tai, or khmer wrestling most likely came from me in the first place. and now you want to tell me I’m wrong. preposterous.