The Captivating Imagery Of Muay Thai Fight Names: “Soul Hunters” and “Golden Crickets”
One thing became clear to me that year in Thailand — a Muay Thai fighter’s nickname holds significantly more meaning than fight aliases anywhere else in the world. These names anchor fighters to an identity which they carry to the ring, through the sport, and even into life. They earn these names from gym owners, trainers, or through a collective of fans and journalists.
Thai fighters, because of their aliases, become Unbreakable Diamonds, Courageous Gladiators, Sharp Pins. They pounce like Lions, spring into action like Crickets. Their power is equal to that of A Hundred Thousand Warriors. They are sometimes emblazoned with Gold, built from Iron, or forged from Steel. Other times, a fighter’s nickname emerges from two contrasting words that shouldn’t mix, but somehow poetically do, like The Angel Warrior.
Muay Thai fight names strike hard and fast. But the greatest of all are those that take time to call into existence. They build upon themselves word-by-word until they’ve left a trail of destruction in the mind, like that of Golden Era fighter Rajasak Sor. Vorapin. He often walked to the ring as The Knee Warrior Who Hunts Souls.
Pause for a moment. Reread that.
The Knee Warrior Who Hunts Souls.
Let those words depict the kind of fighter Rajasak was. When I hear his alias, I envision him high-stepping it across the ring, shattering his opponents’ rib cages with knees, extracting their tortured souls from their fleshy masses, then stuffing their ethereal remains into a knapsack slung over his shoulder. Back at the gym, he’d hang those poor souls over the ring ropes like a proud hunter drying out his deer skin — at least in my mind.
Rajasak’s nickname got me thinking about how fascinating the world of Muay Thai is on many levels. Some often forget that behind the competition, Muay Thai is a sport whose roots stretch into the soils of tradition. And assigning fitting fight names is one of those traditions. But it begs the question: Can any other fighter’s alias, whether written or spoken, match the terror that The Knee Warrior Who Hunts Souls evokes.
I came up with one, but for quite different reasons.
Wasan Isalam was born in 1989 in the southern Thailand province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. By the time he was 16 years old, he was fighting under the name Seksan Or. Kwanmuang in Bangkok’s prestigious Muay Thai circuit, most notably at Lumpinee Stadium and Rajadamnern Stadium. Over the years, his aggressive, walk-forward style earned him fight aliases like Robocop and Nightmare of the Opponent. But one stuck most. He became more infamously known as The Man Who Yields to No One.
The construction of Seksan’s fight alias is similar to that of Rajasak’s. But it’s difference lies in the visuals, or lack thereof, that his name brings to mind. Instead of a concrete image of The Knee Warrior, we are left with just The Man. Instead of a man who hunts, he is A Man Who Yields. Instead of having a specific enemy — such as human souls — he has No One. He is The Man Who Yields to No One.
It’s a simple string of seven one-syllable words that leaves out more than it adds in: the, man, who, yields, to, no, and one. Seksan’s alias doesn’t references Black Lions, Diamond Sharks, Legions of Gladiators, or, hell, even Golden Crickets. But that is where the power of his fight name lies.
While other fighters’ nicknames speak volumes about what they can do or who they are, Seksan’s does not. If you’ve never seen him compete, his name would give away nothing. It allows you, the fan, to fill in the gaps with your imagination — and perhaps even your greatest fears.
