Buakaw Banchamek will be fighting at Rajadamnern for the third time this year on December 9th. He has been matched with Ukrainian Oleksandr Yefimenko.
Buakaw’s opponent is 21 and appears to have won numerous medals as an amateur. After some controversy over the format of his last fight at Rajadamnern the rules for this contest have not been disclosed:
Exhibition bouts
Buakaw’s two recent appearances at Rajdamnern have both seen him pitted against Japanese opponents in exhibition bouts. He stopped mixed martial artist Kota Miura in the third round in August, making a successful return to the stadium after an eight year absence.
Last month he faced Yoshihiro Sato in another exhibition match. The two men were very familiar with one another having fought three times but the Japanese fighter retired in 2015 after getting knocked out in his final two fights.
Buakaw stopped Yoshihiro Sato in the opening round but the Japanese fighter was very unhappy. He had been under the impression that the exhibition was not going to be a real fight and was not prepared for the level of aggression his opponent displayed.
Existing injury
Afterwards Sato gave a lengthy explanation of events on his Twitter account. He explained that he had retired from competitive fighting in 2014 because he had suffered some sort of head injury.
The 41 year old made it clear he would not have accepted the bout with Buakaw if he had realized it was going to be a real fight. In a lengthy Twitter thread he accused the Thai of breaching their contract by trying to knock him out:
主催者からの連絡はまだありません。https://t.co/UD3g5PlhTY
— 佐藤嘉洋 🦅 具鷲 (@guwashi_sato) November 1, 2022
No word
While the bouts with Miura and Sato were both clearly labelled as exhibition kickboxing there is no word on what the rules will be when the Thai legend takes on Yefimenko.
Yefimenko is 21 years old and does not appear to have much experience at the professional level although he has placed on the podium at several tournaments. By contrast Buakaw is a veteran of nearly 300 fights and has beaten some of the best kickboxers in the world.
Fans at Rajadamnern will be expecting Buakaw to win by knockout for the third time in succession. Hopefully Yefimenko is better prepared for the challenge than Sato was.
