Who hits harder, the fighter or the spiker?


Do not ever underestimate the women of Thailand. The Kingdom’s toughest male Muay Thai champion took on a retired member of the Thai national woman’s volleyball team in a contest last week to see who could punch the hardest, and of course, the result was an upset of epic proportions.
 
The punch-out between Buakaew Banchamek, a Muay Thai champ from the northeastern province of Buriram, and Onuma Sittirak, an outside spiker from the southern province of Surat Thani, took place at the CentralWorld shopping mall in the heart of Bangkok.
 
Videos of the event, moderated by television host Pitipat Kootrakul, have gone viral in the Kingdom.
 
Forty-year-old Buakaew, who has 240 wins with 73 knockouts in professional Muay Thai and is still active in the ring, is the Kingdom’s most feared and popular fighter. Onuma, 36, who retired in 2021, has a string of awards under her belt, including the most valuable player in the 2009 Asian Club Championships.
 
Both weigh roughly 160 pounds when in fighting trim or playing shape, making them middleweights by boxing standards. They tested their strength on an arcade-type punching machine with a small black speed bag hooked up to sensors to measure the force of the blows.
 
Buakaew, dressed in black slacks and an orange polo shirt took a running start and unleashed an overhand right that did not cleanly catch the bag and produced an embarrassingly low score. Taking a mulligan, he skipped towards the machine and threw another right-hand punch that registered 5,760 points.
 
Onuma gently peeled off her black sweater to reveal her thick solid torso in a sleeveless white t-shirt. She giggled a bit as she stepped up to the speed bag and simply swiveled and slapped it with an open right hand.
 
The machine flashed 6,138 points.
 
Onuma jumped up and down, clapping her hands and laughing as a stunned Buakaew blinked his eyes in disbelief, leaned forward and craned his neck towards the flashing lights to confirm the score.
 
Students of boxing know that a very short punch can knock out an opponent, and that punching power is increased by the snap of the wrist upon impact. Onuma’s technique of swiveling her shoulders and breaking her wrist as she slapped the bag evidently created more force than the visually impressive but long overhand right cross of the champion.
 
The result was the talk of the town. The boxer congratulated the new champion of the arcade with big smiles.