Yodsanklai Fairtex vs. Kem Sitsongpeenong, Muay Thai Combat Mania Pattaya 2012

In 2012 fans were treated to a bout between two of these powerhouses when Yodsanklai Fairtex vs. Kem Sitsongpeenong was set up. The two had both been part of Team Fairtex in 2008-2009, but Kem left and was now part of Sitsongpeenong.
Yodsanklai had long been the poster boy of Fairtex and when his former training partner wanted to fight he was more than willing to oblige. At the time Kem seemed to really be looking for that push him into international super stardom. He had called out Buakaw, who was and still is the most popular Muay Thai fighter. Buakaw ignored the call out and Kem’s hopes of fighting Buakaw never came to fruition.
I remember interviewing Buakaw back in September of 2011, before the interview I had to let his managers at Por. Pramuk approve the questions. They allowed all the questions except one, I wanted to ask what he thought about Kem calling him out. They simply said that they didn’t want to talk about that. So what was Kem to do? Pick a fight with the next biggest name in Muay Thai.
Before this fight had been scheduled there had been rumors that Yod’s career might be over, he wasn’t taking fighting seriously anymore, and so on. A lot of people thought that Kem might go in and beat Yodsanklai, but then pictures of Yod preparing for the fight surfaced online. People were used to seeing a softer bodied looking Yod, but in the pictures he was ripped. Immediately Muay Thai fans started buzzing, because the had never seen Yodsanklai in that type of physical shape.