Is it just me, or does every move Kurt does during the training sequences as well as the fights NOT resemble Muay Thai. He uses no knees, no elbows, and he still does the flying spin kicks which I don't see Muay Thai fighters doing.
shareHis Muay Thai looked much more like Muay Thai in the 1995 movie THE QUEST, maybe being filmed six years later the ACTOR had had more time to hone his Muay Thai which is not his main martial art.
I think in the story the character was a master (by conventional standards certainly no match for Tong Po or even his own brother before the tragedy) of Japanese karate and western kickboxing and it is realistic that someone would show major traces of their old art, I think the Muay Thai was a SUPPLEMENT and what we ended up with was a HYBRID of Muay Thai and Karate and western kickboxing.
In Undisputed 2 Mike Jai White was portraying a boxer who took a crash course in MMA because he knew he would lose to Boyka with JUST boxing, as powerful as it was it was just too limited. However if you watch the fight you will see that he is still not as agile as Boyka and most of his moves look more like the moves of a boxer than an MMA fighter but the added abilities still gave him an edge enabling him to win.
I think Kurt was supplementing his Karate and western kickboxing with the Muay Thai and the combination worked.
This is what I would lean on too. Not to mention that he was put through some very regimented endurance and strength training. Fighting someone like Tong Po who kicks cement pillars really only requires one to be able to take a powerful hit more so than to learn a new art. But to know thy enemy (and his art) is a handy little tool.
shareIt's because as badass as Muay Thai is, it's boring to look at. This movie is for kids and fans of 90s straight to video crap. They'd rather see a spinning helicopter kick rather than a guy who'd never kick above the waist. The people who made it, and the majority of its audience do not care if it's realistic to the style.
shareThey kick above the waist in Muay Thai all the time. Also, although the most common, the roundhouse and teep aren't the only kicks in Muay Thai. But this was meant more to be a film for JCVD to show off his splits and JCVD martial arts style (which looks like a combination of Savate with some sort of Karate, probably Shotokan) than an actual vehicle for Muay Thai. If you wanna see real MT/Muay Boran, you'd be better off watching a Tony Jaa flick.
share"This movie is for kids and fans of 90s straight to video crap."
Except, Kickboxer wasn't from the '90s and wasn't straight-to-video.
I always thought it was weird that Bloodsport had better Muay Thai than Kickboxer, thanks to Paulo Tocha.
share