#41 Samson Isaan 1 - The Art of Dern Fighting (64 min) (Patreon)

I sat on the floor, facing Karuhat, who was seated in a chair, as he called another Legend of the Golden Age of Muay Thai on his cell phone. He got the daughter, as the legend was taking a nap, and so Karuhat told the girl to tell his father that “Pi Sian” had called. After he hung up he shook his head, laughing. He’s too old to be referring to himself as “Pi” to a young girl; he should be “Lung,” which is uncle instead of the big brother that Pi indicates. The call was answered and a time was scheduled, so when Samson Isaan rolled up in the taxi that he drives around Bangkok as his regular job, Karuhat and he started to banter through the ropes of the ring like two teenagers. It’s one thing to forget your age on the phone and refer to yourself as “Pi” to someone too much younger than yourself to use that title, but it’s another to forget your age so much that you basically become a young man when you get around your friends. That’s what happened with Samson and Karuhat. It’s as striking and thorough as when each of them starts to move and suddenly the guy in jeans feels like a fighter about to bash you across the ring. It’s a transformation and it goes on like a light switch.

Kevin has written a companion piece to this session on the Sylvie Study site "The Samson Isaan Pulse - Dictating Tempos" you can check that out too. 

Samson isn’t an instructor in Muay Thai, so he was a little unsure of how to proceed when I asked him to teach me for an hour, for the library. “Just show me your style,” I said. With that, he put his guard up and just walked through me, again and again. There was a kind of awe at first, then a very distinct sense of panic, and ultimately a kind of breathless sense of I need to get the hell out of the way somehow. There are fighters who are evasive, and there are fighters who dern, which literally means “to walk,” but dern means a forward fighter. Samson fucking derns, man. It’s incredible. His face would light up in this bright, broad smile whenever I let out a sound of dismay or even delight in how cool something he was doing was. He threw a few punches in shadow to show how to tuck your chin and widen your stance and I swear to God he looked like an old poster. Like, classic illustration of perfect old-school boxing technique. Samson was a boxer for a while, so that makes sense, but he brings the same tucked chin and smashing hands to Muay Thai, which makes for exciting fights; especially because knees just submarine under all that upper-protection and violence.

Samson recently had returned to the ring, at Lumpinee, for a very high profile former-champions classic rematch against Weerapol. It was a match that had been great back in the Golden Age and all these older fight fans were eager to see the rematch. Samson was pretty incredible in that performance, completely mowing down Weerapol, who is a wonderful puncher (a long time WBC World Boxing Champion after a prodigious Muay Thai career) and just couldn’t keep Samson off of him. That demonstration, while definitely limited by both men’s ages (they’re in their mid-late 40s), was a clear indication that aggression is, like anything else, a technique. Relentlessness is a skill. And in this, Samson is a master.

Some things to look out for:

1) When Samson says “tuck your chin,” he’s way beyond anything you imagine. It’s not just lowering your head, or sticking a tennis ball between your jaw and neck. Samson tucks his chin so hard, I’m not sure a dime would slide in there. He actually looks ridiculous, tucking his chin so hard that it forces his mouth open, and he seems to know and relish in just now extreme this looks. It is nearly impossible to hit him in the mouth/jaw like that. He’s very insistent, this is how you train. Whatever you think is tucked, that ain’t it. This is it.

2) That level of chin-tuck protection is what allows Samson to come forward the way he does. He pushes his fists into the top of his head, his fingernails facing his forehead, and juggernauts his way through space. He creates a beautiful C-shape in his torso, to utilize that caged, marching guard.

3) The Pulse: when you walk forward the way Samson does, you eventually walk into someone. Once his forearms make contact, he uses the blade of his front arm (which is his right arm, since he’s Southpaw) and pulses it against his opponent’s guard. He just pushes right into their guard and due to the pulse it’s really hard to resist the pressure. You get pushed back and off-balance and, once he’s made this contact and is close enough to pulse, he starts throwing knees under all this. It’s the same principal as distracting up top in the clinch and then kneeing down low, but it’s walking, not grabbing.

4. The Side Hook: this works great as a Southpaw, but really works on either side. In a mixed-stance scenario (Southpaw vs Orthodox), your front sides are in each other’s way, so this slip over to the outside of the opponent’s jab and then hooking into the body is great. I also like that the hook isn’t a “shovel hook” or an upward hook at all, it’s just a standard, thumb inward hook. And it hurts. I’ve thrown this on my trainer in padwork a bunch of times, into the bellypad, and it’s one of my new favorites. The slip over that Samson uses is similar to the one that Sagat uses for his uppercut to the body, bit a different trajectory of the punch. They’re both Petchyindee fighters, so maybe the movement was a thing there.

5. Overall, just look at Samson’s energy. He’s like Dieselnoi in that his energy is a thing to itself and all the techniques or “moves” are animated by that relentless energy. There were a few times at the end that I tried to push Samson the way he pushes and he couldn’t help himself, even in just resisting me a little bit he had to turn on his pressure and that engine only goes forward, so he ended up derailing me anyway. It’s an amazing thing to stand in front of. You can’t really stand in front of it for long.

Kevin has written a companion piece to this post on the Sylvie Study site "The Samson Isaan Pulse - Dictating Tempos" with GIFs and Samson Isaan fight footage.