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Nong Rose is a name some newer martial arts aficionados may not be too familiar with. The short version? Nong made waves when she came out as transgender and transitioned while staying active in competitive Muay Thai. Non only that, Nong kept fighting men and battering them to a pulp. She’s something of an icon, really.
So this week, we’re gonna start with a look at what she does best. Nong’s been a talent that earned and kept a lot of respect, and for good reason. But before that, just a quick reminder to please send your questions to our mailbag at Mailbag@BloodyElbow.com. Questions don’t have to strictly be about fighting, and Substack users get priorty with their username.
Nong Rose got hands, fam
Nong Rose came to prominence after a long and difficult struggle in the Muay Thai world, only to then openly come out as trans and endure a gargantual amount of harassment and abuse. That never stopped her, of course. She’s gone on to have around 300 fights and finished more than half by knockout.
She even fought on a Fight Circus event a while ago, and still looking very impressive.
We’ll start our dive into her ringcraft with a look from our guy Jerry over at Fight Commentary Breakdowns.
Here Nong parries a body kick, pulls her opponent’s lead hand down and lands a gorgeous elbow. I’m not sure the guy realized what was happening until they broke off after this one.
Here Nong lands a few very solid body kicks, dodges a counter left and follows that with another vicious elbow. But her opponent doesn’t realize he’s had enough, and bargains against his body to get back up. Massive mistake, and Nong makes him pay for it in a big way.
