RWS 71: five rounds, and what the fourth one cost
The plan was to take the fourth and fifth. That is exactly what happened, and it hurt more than the scorecard suggests.
Decision win
Thai judging does not work the way people at home think it does. Nobody is banking rounds one and two. The first round is a look, the second is a measurement, and the fight is decided in the fourth and fifth — which means everything you did earlier only matters if you can still do it when your legs have gone.
The plan
Yodkritsada is a clinch fighter. Every fight of his that I watched ended with the other man walking backwards into the ropes with an arm trapped. So the plan was simple: do not let him get long on the inside, and make him pay every time he tried.
For three rounds that meant kicking the body and getting out. It is not exciting. It is also the reason the fourth round was available to me.
The fourth
He came out for the fourth knowing he had to take it. I have never been hit that hard in the body and stayed upright. Two minutes in I was breathing through my teeth and counting.
You do not win the fourth by being fresh. You win it by being less finished than the other man.
I took it. Then I took the fifth, and the three judges agreed.
Next
Back in Phuket, one week off, then straight into the block for September.
