WTF: Fighter throws sand in opponent’s eyes in wild gym brawl

Hello again, and welcome to another instalment of WTF, kids. Hope you got enough sleep after getting up extra, extra early to watch the UFC from Singapore last weekend. And I bet you’re jazzed about this France card, right? Cool. Real Cool.

Anyway, we’ve got some pretty exciting action this week. One knockout after another, pretty much. We’ll keep it short on the shenanigans and heavier on the knockout action today. And don’t forget to send your mailbag questions to Mailbag@BloodyElbow.com. Substack members get priority, and the questions don’t have to strictly be about fighting.

Surprise attack!

Fighters will do anything to gain an advantage. It’s a tale as old as time itself. Some will manipulate their gloves, some will seek to gain a weight advantage, there’s a multitude of things that can happen. It all comes down to how bad you want it and in most cases trying to score the filthiest knockout. And this man wanted it bad. Bad enough to tell civility and fairness to go fuck itself.

This gem is courtesy of our guy Jerry over at Fight Commentary Breakdowns, and it’s why we love him so much. See that title? Pocket Sand. Truth in advertising, baby. That shit is exactly what it says on the tin.

When you see a video with a title like this, you wonder one of two things: Is there really pocket sand, and who is doing the thing with the sand. See, I first thought it was the dude in the foreground with his hand behind his back. Maybe he had a tiny clump clenched with the glove, you know?

Turns out he was more surprised than I was when the inevitable happened. Check out White Shirt’s right hand, peep the wind-up and the pitch. Nolan Ryan couldn’t do this any better.

Surprise, bitch! He slips the glove back on and starts rapid-fire punches to the poor schlub’s dome. My man channeled his inner Dale Gribble and beat his ass in front of God and country trying score a technical knockout.

Or at least it could have been stopped there. See, they call a timeout instead of a DQ and let that brother recover.

The camera pans back to White Shirt standing there like he just wants to leave. Look at this smug motherfucker.

Black shirt tried, man. He tried real hard. Look at him trying to demonstrate that he had a recent X-ray showing he indeed had that dog in him. Wiping away with determination.

If the fact that this fight actually continued didn’t tip you off to how bush-league this was, well… look at White Shirt’s actual fighting stance and punches.

Legs all crossed and shit, a disaster. No wonder his bum-ass resorted to trying to act like he was Flint Marko out here. It gets called off, and just like all of you reading right now… nobody won. There’s a life lesson in there somewhere.

No, not “card check”

You’re all familiar with Muay Thai, but are you familiar with Muay Kard Chuek? Well, it’s Muay Thai with ropes wrapping your hand instead of gloves.

Kids… this shit is good.

These two ladies threw down, man.

Here’s Thai ace Saenchai, whose techniques and splendor we’ve basked in before. He’s just as terrifying here.

This one ends with a stellar knockout. Just electrifying stuff.

Don’t worry, Muay Thai is still on the table

So we’re back to the gloved stuff. And for that, we dig back into the lovely collection from Live Muay Thai Guy. In this first vid, the tall and lanky farang puts in some good work with knees inside and elbows from the clinch. Did it pay off to chip away over time like that? Boy howdy, did it fucking ever. A shocking knockout finale.

In this bout from Rajadamnern, the knockout finish comes out of nowhere. It was almost a “grand opening, grand closing” situation in round 1.

Taekwondo bonanza

Here’s a knockout compilation featuring nothing but Taekwondo. It’s a rough game, man.

This one might be my favorite of the bunch.

Ice cold.

The men from the mountains

Here’s a cool feature on the Bokh wrestlers of Mongolia. We’ve featured this kind of action before, and this takes a look at a few travellers going to Mongolia and explaining the rituals, life and culture of these wrestlers. Most of this is beautifully shot, and another immersive look at a combat subculture many people aren’t familiar with.

Editor’s Note: Bokh has been credited as one of the reasons why Mongolians have dominated in sumo over the past two decades. Many Mongolians who have become elite sumo wrestlers (including some who have achieved yokozuna rank) began with bokh wrestling. The grappling heavy bokh inspired style of their sumo confounded Japanese wrestlers at first. Presently, the only yokozuna in the sport is Mongolian (Terunofuji). Two of the three next highest wrestlers are also Mongolian (Kirishima and Hoshoryu).

That’s it for this week, kids. Stay tuned for the Mario Wonder Direct this Thursday if that’s your thing. And remember – you might think you can fight, but there are many guys like you all over the world.

Victor Rodriguez

Victor Rodriguez has been a writer and podcaster for Bloody Elbow since 2015. He started his way as a lowly commenter and moderator to become the miscreant he is now. He often does weekly bits on fringe martial arts items across the globe, oddball street combat pieces, previews, analysis, and some behind-the-scenes support. He has trained in wrestling, Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and the occasional Muay Thai and Judo lesson here and there. Victor has also been involved with acting and audio editing projects. He lives in Pennsylvania where he plays way too many video games and is an S-rank dad.

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