Courtesy of Fightsportasia.com

This news is huge on so many levels. 

This is two legends of the sport meeting to battle it out in there home country of Thailand. 

There is so much to say about this fight, but more than anything im very impressed its happening. 

As we have seen so often in the past, normally the Thai fighters who gain full international recognition and respect – will often only fight ‘foreign’ fighters. Normally (as with Buakaw) you will see Thailand’s best international fighters, only fighting non-Thai fighters. This is usually because 1) stylistically the Thai’s know how to win fights 2) Thai’s usually want to continue to be seen as the ‘Top Dog’ in there given weight division, to fight another Thai on that huge international level – puts at risk the status of ‘Top Dog’ 

To give people a grasp on this fight here’s the numbers (and letters) from there career: 

Kem Sitsongpeenong (131 fights with 109 wins and 19 losses) 3 x WMC champion, Thai Fight Tournament champion, Isuzu Cup Champion, MTA world champion, Thailand Super-Welterweight champion, Kings Cup Champion, Thailand Super-Bantamweight champion and Rajadarmnern champion (among others) 

Yodsanklai Fairtex (252 fights with 177 wins and 71 losses) 4 x WMC champion, Kings Cup Champion, 2 x WPMF champion, WBC champion, Toyota Marathon champion and 2 x Lumpinee Champion (among others) 

This event is set to go down December 30th (one hell of a Christmas present) in Pattaya, Thailand 

Fight Sport Asia will sure as hell be there for this epic event. (sorry wifey and kids – Christmas can wait until after this fight!) 

The fight is being billed as “Battle Of Champions” Thailand Cup Both Kem and Yodsanklai come from two of the biggest commercial and world wide known gym’s in Bangkok 

(Sitsongpeenong and Fairtex) 

There is gym pride on the line, Thai pride on the line and the status as the 70kg Thailand Cup Champion. 

Both Kem and Yod have fought at different weights there whole careers (nothing unusual – as King Mo says, they fight at “Money Weight”) Both fighters started as low as 60kg and moved up gradually to take on bigger and more foreigners, eventually both fighters made it to the 70kg mark. It hasn’t been officially announced what weight this will go down at, but we can expect anywhere from 67-70kg. 

Yodsanklai is typically the slightly bigger of the two fighters, however it has to be said that Kem is most likely the more ‘Prime’ fighter – of the two. Yodsanklai is the more powerful of the two fighters, with that booming left leg kick and some heavy hands. Kem is a crafty fighter with a good all round game, nice elbows and an eye for winning fights. This is stylistically a fantastic match-up, 5 rounds of Muay Thai action you would be crazy to miss. We are also told this fight is set to be broadcast on ESPN (so we presume a world-wide audience is going to be able to get hold of this) Yodsanklai is often known (in the past year or so) to be a lazy trainer (he gets pretty puffy and doesn’t train unless a fight is booked) while we know Kem is always ready and on point. However this fight is booked for December 30, so both guys have nearly 4 months to be ready to go! 

So expect both guys to be in shape and ready. This war is going to be of epic proportions. 

P.S. it is also worth noting that Kem was previously known as (Kem Fairtex) for a number of years – having signed with and trained at Fairtex, alongside Yodsanklai in his prime. 

Personally i don’t want to pick – but if i straight up had to, my heart will be with Yodsanklai (the veteran of these two warriors)