Why isn’t Sanda as popular as Muay Thai? 

I had a rough experience fighting a muay thai guy: I had beaten a few other guys up untill that point, it was quite hard but I could handle it. And there he was. Tall, strong, massive, badass. I couldn't land a single hit to save my life. He was like a robot, blocking and dodging even my faster jabs in an outrageous way, landing crazy powerful blows. I got up, again and again and again... and he knocked me down every single time. It felt like being a baby tring to fight an orc. Finally I rage quitted. Street Fighter 1 was horribly programmed.

At first I thought it said why isn’t “Santa” as popular as Muay Thai. 😐

Sanda didn't really look different from kickboxing styles for a lot of people (casual people, like me before practicing combat sport) However, Muay Thai has a very distinctive form, outfit, ritual before a game, and brutality (in Thailand). It just has better brand recognition.

I would join a Sanda gym in a heartbeat if one with a good coach opened in my area. Same for Shuai Jiao.

I think with the rise of fighters like Zhang Weili, Li Jingliang, Song Yadong, Zabit Magomedsharipov, Muslim Salikhov and a few others, Sanda/Sanshou will slowly gain prominence. I don't think it will ever be as big as say Muay Thai, but it will get more well known. I personally think Cung Le was one of the great influencers who opened the doors for it.

Sanda should be mandatory for MMA training, along with Muay Thai of course. Gets you used to striking under the threat of takedowns and also teaches you to mask your takedowns with striking

It's a highly effective system, but unfortunately it's a bore to watch without a ring, just too many out-of-bounds. And our government hasn't done near enough to promote it within the country, in comparison to e.g. what the Japanese did for Judo and Karate, or Korea for Taekwondo, even when they were not yet Olympic sports. They care about culture, we care more about international medals.

Cung le brought sanda to ufc, but he was older by the time he reached ufc

In my country (France) I couldn't even compete in sanda because I had no opponent in my weight division, it happend to me at the local tournament and then at the national tournament. And I'm 78 kg (around 170lbs) it's not like I'm in an exotic weight division... But In france Sanda is managed by the Karate federation (I know it's weird), and it's in the shadow of Boxing, Wreslting, Judo and K-1 and soon MMA will be legalised and it will put even more pressure on niche combat sports like sanda. My teacher told me 10 years ago, he had around 30 students in his class, now at the end of the year we are barely a dozen...It's kinda sad.

My first experience with Muay Thai was the Sagat, from Street Fighter

I've been practicing Sanda for about 2 years now and It would be nice if more people could learn about what it is

A simple way to make sanda more popular is to make it more distinct 1, Change the gloves to a MMA style open hand gloves, this would allow many traditional martial arts techniques to be used 2, standardize the Leitai (stage) and do not use boxing rings, this would emphases on throwing your opponents off of the leitai, Shuaijiao techniques is what makes Sanda distinctive to your average viewers

The same way Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is more famous than Catch Wrestling back in the early days of mixed-martial arts

Ramsay: "[Curling] is an obscure weird sport" Half of Canada: *gets offended*

The guy who fought Rick is Changpuek Kiatsongrit. Actually, he was not the top fighter in Thailand, he was just too big and heavy to find any opponent in the same weight class. So fighting big foreigner was his only choice.

Muay Thai vs. Kickboxing: "The Legendary Fight That Changed History" ^ It's up on Lawrence Kenshin's channel.

Martial arts still aren't understood or known as much as they should be by the average person. At least in the US, most people think that martial arts are some magical fake fighting system. When Martial arts, no matter the type, just teach you how to efficiently teach you about leverage and how to apply strength. In general, I wish all martial arts where more well known and practiced

I picked up sanda when I was in my 20s in a mid-sized city in central Europe. It was the time where K1 was a big sport as is UFC today. I was so lucky that we had this martial art that was eye-opening on how fighting works. In my opinion, it's a great martial art to pick up as you have a bit of everything.

Sanda could almost be categorized and practiced as Kickboxing plus momentary takedowns and throws, mostly for winning points. However, Muay Thai is completely a distinctive combat system, deeply rooted in several aspects of south Asian history, politics, mythology and Theravada Buddhism. As a Kyokushin Karate fighter and instructor, I experienced years of sparring and exchanged so many technical concepts with my Sanda and Muay Thai friends. Both are amazing fighting arts. Sanda has another brutal self-defense side, extensively practiced in Chinese military but Muay Thai brings also a lifestyle and in terms of moral values and real-life practicality, is closer to the Japanese concept of Martial Way which is called Budo.

IMO Sanda could be a better fit for MMA than Muay Thai. Simply because it already has throws and takedowns integrated into the art. While in MT you only have sweeps and you have to manage to make it work for MMA, which can be tricky. With Sanda, you just have to add a bit of BJJ ground game and submissions and you have a very decent MMA fighter.

I've trained in Shenyang city's Xidong Taiquan gym. It was an amazing and very hard training. They had intra-gym tournaments with really brutal knockouts. When I asked about Sanda as compared to Thai Boxing, I was told: "Forget about Sanda. Muay Thai is the real deal." So I continued to train Muay Thai and forgot about Sanda. But Sanda actually has some very developed sweeps and dumps, which I love and admire! It's a cool system.

This reminds me a lot of the Philippines' National Sport, *"Arnis"* and how its not as popular to Filipinos compared to other Sports such as Basketball, there are probably even more Filipino Boxers or Taekwondo practitioners than there are Arnisadors out there. Arnis is also one of those Sports when you look at it from an outside perspective and you're just like, _"They look like kids just quickly bashing each other with sticks!"_ Which I completely understand. The ruleset in relation to the protective gears used still have much to be improved on. I just wish more of my fellow Filipinos take more interest in our own Sport.

Sanda is a great gateway to MMA. I would argue it prepares you better for MMA grappling, you learn how to do your grappling while Someone it trying to knock you out.

There used to be a Sanda community in the states. It mainly fell apart due to politics, in-fighting, and troubles hosting events rather than lack of interest. Some big names associated with it: Cung Le, Pat Barry, Asa Ten Pow, KJ Noons, Mike Altman, Scott Sheeley, David Ross, and Rudi Ott. If you don't recognize some of these names, you may recognize some of the fighters they've coached.

“Woah let’s go to Evolve MMA” reminded me that ONE and Evolve are owned by the same guy

"We need a fighter who can just throw guys and walk away every time" I feel like in his prime and if he'd brushed up on his ground work Liu Hailong would've been perfect for this

I love training Sanda, I just think it's too limited by rules. Military Sanda is what I'd prefer to train if it was an option.

Cung Li is another good fighter that used Sanda(formerly known as Sanshou according to a quick search that I did). I use to love watching his fights. Many fighters back in those days weren't used to his unorthodox kicks from what I saw. He had a respectable MMA career.

Fun fact: The brother in Kickboxer was undisputed Heavyweight champion Dennis Alexio.

It's so boring, as a Sanda fighter, here in Italy, I never find any serious Sanda competion at all and I have to compete in KickBoxing. After 6 years I've done just 3 sanda amateurs fights and a lot more in Kickboxing. That makes me really wanna go into MMA.

Bit late to the party I know, but I have practiced sanda since I was a kid and always thought I was learning kung-fu. I never realised until my teacher told me it was actually sanda mixed with muay-tai and other arts he had picked up throughout his life.

I learned about Muay Thai from Street Fighter character Sagat and from a guy who actually trained in that MA. Saw my very first Muay Thai fight because of my friends friend who practiced. I was shocked to see how violent it was but I had a lot of respect for it.

I box and wrestle, I would love to learn sanda , looks cool but its hard to find a school/gym close, nevertheless a legit school.

Sanda is very popular around the first week of December typically.

I just want to add my support for curling here. Curling is a fantastic sport, great fun, interesting to watch, dramatic, and unlikely to hurt you lol.

What was really interesting (perhaps unconsciously) back in the 90s was that kicks to the thigh were so greatly associated with a martial art from country where its name and national sport literally had the word "thigh" phonetically spelled in them. "Thigh boxing!"

I trained Sanda in east London for 4 years with a chinese monk!! loved it!

Wu Ling Fan tried to make Sanda popular although, I think over the years, they tried to spread Sanda to thin, between trying to get it into the olympics and trying to make it as big as K1, then ditching it becasue K1 became international, especially back in the 90s. Im not surprised anymore when I met chinese people that don't know what Sanda is, then again, being italian, they flip when they realize I don't play or follow football like 99.9% of the rest of italians that do, it's funny how people assume you do or don't do something based on your nationality. Btw I love Sanda, it is the most fun I had competing next to K1, I think it is a bit more popular in middle eastern countries and russia, I guess because they are closer to China.

I love your show Ramsey. When I first started watching ONE FC they allowed kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent. This is when I became more interested in Sanda. In order to use that very effective technique you have to take someone down while staying on your feet. This could really be a useful skill set for self-defense situations when you want to take someone down and run away or give them a good soccer kick before they get up. Sanda doesn’t teach kicking a downed opponent or running away but there is advantage to staying on your feet while your opponent is down.

sanda is popular in the phillipines

What Sanda needs is an ambassador like Jean Claude Van Damme! 😅

Sanda may not be so popular in 'Murica, but here in Romania it's the most popular full contact martial art since the 90s. The main problem is that Sanda tournaments are organized as regular sports events, so like all other mainstream sports they're tagged as "amateur" fighting, rewarded just with medals and token prizes, as opposed to "professional" fighting like K1 or UFC where people basically fight for money. I'm not convinced that these "professional" fights are objectively better than sports events of the same type, but because they involve a lot more money they're much better promoted and covered in the mass media, hence getting ever more popular. Here in Romania most "professional" fighters are former Sanda champions who got some mixed training after dropping off the competition ladder. Even people mostly known as "kickboxers" or K1 champions like Ciprian Sora or Catalin Zmarandescu are actually ex-Sanda fighters (kickboxing wasn't even practiced around here until the late 2000s), both of them won a couple of European Sanda tournaments before getting into the money fights. So, in my opinion, the only way Sanda can get as popular as K1 or UFC is to make a dedicated "professional" event for it, with licensing, tickets, betting, media coverage and all other aspects that make this a business rather than a regular sport. But there are a lot of coaches and practitioners who resent turning a regular sport into a money grabbing fest, justifiably so i.m.o.

Tony Jaa had a huge influence with his Ong Bak series. So much so that fight actors like max zing incorporate his moves into their fight choreo.

Like my Sensei used to day: "You do your Sanda, I'll drive my Panda."

Cung Lee Is probably the most famous recent Sanda fighter who made it work in MMA on the strikeforce promotion might be wrong on that but was the same show Fedor was on. Personally always loved Sanda kickboxing and combat sambo

Sanda is very popular in Eastern Europe and ex Soviet Union republics like Kazahstan, Azerbaijan, Dagestan (is a Russian Federation republic) and also Middle Orient countries like Iran, Iraq, Afganistan.

Dennis Alexio played the older brother in Kickboxer. He was a legit kickboxer. Off the top of my head he was Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion at one point. Love your energy. So calm and soothing.

China is farther than Thailand to the US duh. Just kidding, gotta watch the video 😉

I practiced a bit in my twenties while I was practicing Wu Shu and Tai ji. I had a lot of fun. There are some amateurish tournaments every now and then, with limited contacts, protections and KO's are banned. I guess that way it will never become the next big thing.

Having been born and grown up in SE Asia (Cambodia) I'd known Muay Thai since a very young age. But I've only heard of Sanda about four years ago by seeing Cung Le on RU-vid. I was instantly impressed - it was like watching MT with throwing allowed. As I learned more about Sanda I also wonder Why hadn't I heard of Sanda before? I was also surprised it was quite popular in the Philippines.

It makes me wonder what would have happened if they had lethwei in those older movies instead of muythai. Maybe headbutts would stikk be in the UFC

Liu Hailong had some amazing fights with Thais. His footwork and distancing was just... Insane.

I think the two biggest things is the fact that muay thai burst into the striking scene in the late 80s and became integrated into the world wide modern combat sports scene(cu of K1), so thats a huge marketing advantage. Two , muay thai is a huge part of the thai identity, sanda like ramsey said only has 10,000 in ppl in china competing in it. So two huge advantages.

It would be awesome if sanda was as well known as muay thai... Same with kudo... Kudo should br more popular

Kung Lee was a really great example of Sanda, that’s how I found out about it. I bet if enough people watched his fights and encouraged him to train them, we’d see a huge resurgence. I see huge potential in that style and would rather learn it than Muay Thai.

Sanda is the ideal sport for self defense in subway platforms

Love the content, keep up man!

There's another element to it: China does not develop sport San Da for export. It's mostly there to retain some of the combative parts to the overall "kung fu" brand, and for internal competition between the various sports academies as part of the national athletics institutions, with some smaller promotions for a domestic audience, but as far as international outreach goes, the PRC prefers wushu and tai chi for that. One day, maybe, the Wushu Association might make it a priority, but I think at this point, it won't be as successful as muay thai simply because the environment has evolved past singular styles.

Thank you so much for this video Sifu! I love Sanda and wish it would be more popular in North America! Also, stay safe Sifu! We’re here on COVID lockdown and going through what you guys have been going through in China for the past two months! I miss my gym and all my martial arts classes. I’m suffered workout withdrawals lol! :(

Since Changpuek Kiatsongrit (The legendary thai who basically showed the world the effectiveness of muay thai), that is the start of it's shining glory. Kiatsongrit fought in the US and Japan where kickboxing is very popular. Sanda didn't have that kind of publicity which is why it's not as popular.

MT is the only striking art that effective is what all MMA casuals will say to you.

Actually, I have been living in Henan for the last 5 years and it's quite popular. I was teaching at the University and training sanda. All my students knew about this sport. And there were plenty of sanda training schools in Nanyang city. My shifu had more than 2000 students. So, I think that your information about only 10000 people practice sanda is totally wrong.

Ramsey, I'd love for you to make more videos about Sanda. Its a niche for your channel that would get a lot of interest IMO. And, would give us the exposure needed to get more people interested. Sanda is proven effective in the UFC, is very highlight reel friendly and gives a unique set of advantages to a stand up fighter. Show it off for us and give this art the recognition it has earned! Without people like yourself, creating videos like this, our community will remain small and stiffle the potential of our art. I feel the answer to this videos subject, is the video itself.

First heard about many Thai in my early working life (1970s) from vets coming back from southeast Asia.

Ramsey - your insights are so amazing and unique!

Coach, could you make a video about how to do the Dempsey roll and use it in MMA? Is it even useful in MMA ?

When are you gonna have Joe Rogan on your show?

"The floor is not lava my friends" -Ramsey Dewey 2020

Bruce Lee would love the internet, he wanted people to be able to honestly express themselves. No not everyone's honest online, but it sure gives you the opportunity. (He'd especially love the wealth of information on the combat arts as he only had books)

"He had a fight with this Thai fighter and kinda got his butt kicked." Probably should have brought an X-Wing

I think I learned of muay thai from tony jaa movies: ongbak and the protector. Ii probably heard of it before then but didn't know anything about it. The movies show what these styles are like. Also video games like tekken and mortal kombat and street fighter. These games had fighters from almost all popular styles. That's how I learned of capoeira, and mantis kungfu I believe. Was from games.

Hi Ramsey, I like your videos. I have some questions about MMA. 1) How is the grade system in MMA? [Many traditional martial arts use the color belt system that it was popularized from Judo. What is the equivalent in MMA?] 2) Is there a MMA standardized program, syllabus or curriculum? 3) If not, are there different "schools"? 4) If there are different schools, how many? 5) How is the process to create a new MMA school? Do you need to register a new MMA school in a world MMA organization? Do you need to register its study program? 6) Are there technical differences between MMA schools? Are there unique techniques in MMA schools that differentiate one school from another? I have these doubts because everyone use the term MMA like a standardized and unified system of combat. However, I think it would be difficult standardized and unified so many fighting techniques and principles in one discipline. Probably, that was the dream of many combat masters in the past. I think that MMA could be similar to traditional martial arts, where it is possible to find different schools with different techniques and different organizations.

Sagat was my first experience with Muay Thai .

According to an article in Kung Fu Tai Chi magazine the state of California had given the fight license,the legal ability to hold fights as a spectators sport, exclusively to an mma organization. This action is what brought Cung Li, whom practiced sanda in America, into mma. It's been a long time since I've read the article. I could be wrong.

The Gracies understood this as well. That’s why Rorion Gracie went to America and to work in Hollywood and also why he helped found the UFC whether you like him or not.

Sanda & Sanshou is a recent sport made in late 1970s by the PLA.

Santa is too real! I even saw him in a documentary about when he had to go to mars to rescue a couple kids from martians and in the end he actually got the martian parents to yank the stick out of their butts and let their martian kids play and have fun! Santa bring happiness to everyone!...."santa isnt real" ?.....PFFFT!

It wasn't Jean Claude Van Damn when MuayThai gained popularity, it was when Benny urquidez faced the Thai champion and controversially, lost.

Kickvoxer 2 vs Bryan is brutal AFwith the scariest soundtrack. So underrated

I live in Qingdao, and the main Sanda school teaches 90% Muay Thai, and the coach just brags about his world champions that he claimed to have trained. But, when I see the videos they look very amateurish. Not to mention he doesn't seem to be a good coach. I would have loved to train Sanda, but unfortunately, as you said they are hard to find. I ended up sticking with an MMA school because the coaching at least there was good, and the did focus on good form, and sparred.

How about Van Damme using Sanda in an action movie about Curling . Uffda .I'd see that one

I started training with Muay Thai with Master Toddy in the late 70s ( I was also training in Traditional Savate, Boxing, and Judo), and this was around the time everyone seemed to be doing karate and judo, and karate and judo and kung fu was all anyone knew here in the UK at that time about martial arts. You are right though, I do think JCVD helped promote it with flicks like No Retreat No Surrender and Kickboxer.

Sanda is very underrated.

If it is an effective martial art then only time will bring it popularity

The problem with Sanda is that is a govt sponsored sport. There is not really much private companies investing in it.

Takes heart to actually support(with such enthusiasm) the guy that technically cheated (no Matter how you justify it, he knew what was up and what the use for the tape was, as did you, but he proceeded to load his wraps anyway) and ended your career as a pro fighter because he fought with loaded wraps and you didn't... You are a genuinely good man Ramsey, with a kind, forgiving heart, and although i respect everything you say and do, if i were in your shoes i might not have been as supportive of someone like him. May you get whatever you desire in life, and may you keep spreading your knowledge and wisdom amongst us for a long time to come

Back in the 80s when we here in the USA did PKA kickboxing--a champion went over to Thailand and got CREAMED. That started real interest in MT.

I saw Sylvester Stallone in person .. he looks about 5’10” but I don’t know if he s wearing elevator shoes tho

I've only heard of Sanda about about a year ago and I've trained MMA muay thia karate 15years combined

Man this answer is an entire video. Dang I thought I was on my second Ramsey video of the day.

I only became aware of the existence of Sanda after I had already begun training Muay Thai(after a year of Jiu jitsu) for over a year without any pause. I have trained Muay Thai for 3 years 4 months and this Chinese coronavirus pandemic is the only reason Im currently taking a short break, and that a FORCED break; this is the only break Ive had from training in about 4 to 5 years or so and only because it was forced upon me. Nonetheless I have upped my shadow boxing significantly to compensate for lack of sparring and training in the gym; I do on average 3 20-45 minute sessions per day with 25 to 30 being the average of each shadow boxing session I do. I am not opposed to competing Sanda. Esp due to my grappling abilities, which came from Jiu Jitsu(for me), but also my stand up grappling has been significantly enhanced by Muay Thai training and sparring and drills and so on. My balance in particular on the balls of my feet. If they had Sanda comps in the states I might compete in one. But right now my focus is on what I CAN compete in, that is, amateur kickboxing and amateur muay thai tournaments, and amateur muay thai doesnt allow elbows making it basically no different at all to regular amateur kickboxing besides the regular use of knee strikes and the clinch being an option for us rather than a quick breakup once a clinch happens. Ive seen videos of sanda and yeah...its the same as Muay Thai, almost, and certainly doesnt require you TRAIN Sanda itself as long as you train Muay Thai or some legit version of Kickboxing with face punches and everything else allowed(and encouraged). All that said due to Chinas virus and the handling of the problem and blaming it on AMERICA what an obvious load of crap, well, I think Sanda will be even LESS popular in America and the West as a whole from now on. but its still cool!

Because there's not any really famous sanda fighters. Meanwhile, muay thai fighter enter many competitions overseas - even playing by their rules - and still winning

I got really lucky, my neighbor was a Sanda coach and he agreed to coach me. For some reason I think they're pushing Shuaijiao much harder than Sanda. Maybe Shuaijiao would be easier to brand and more recognizable internationally because of the jacket.

what do you think of niko style?

Because Muay Thai is the best!

Hey coach, serious question...is sanda an actual "martial art" with its own philosophy(like karate, muay thai, etc.), or is sanda just the name of a competition with a certain set of rules that any competant martial artist can do?

Just watched ''Kickboxer'' a few days ago, great movie, it definitely helped make Muay Thai a world sport

From 1970s to 1990s, China literally never proclaim itself to be master of Sanda on television. Instead, they're mainly favored in Kung Fu martial art style, that is in the witness of the world, particulary Chinese movies, novel and other resources. I live in Thailand when I was born. I've seen Chinese movies for years that Kung Fu masters always took up incredible movements such as flying in the air, break the stone with powerful punches. That's being said, it's such amazing to watch. But in term of the word "Sanda". Many Thai in general are very lack of knowledge and unaware about it, except for some of the Muay Thai practitioners.

IMHO part of the problem is that throws and takedowns are rarely fight-ending in MMA (keyword: "rarely" not "never"). So the San Shou guy might pick up points for repeatedly throwing someone, but he's not necessarily doing much actual damage, whereas the guy who uses takedowns primarily as a gateway to groundfighting is using a more reliable strategy.

I started JKD 'cause of Bruce Lee, and MMA cause of you, and I still love both.