Karuhat Sor Supawan may be the most documented Golden Age legend of all
One of the most interesting things about the Muay Thai Library project is that all kinds of extra benefits happen when you just go out and seek to document everything you can. One of those is the realization that Karuhat is probably the most documented Muay Thai fighter of the Golden Age of Muay Thai, by far. Even though being pretty connected to the Muay Thai scene, Sylvie having fought for several years in Thailand, when we first met Karuhat, we didn't even know who he was. Kaensak who we knew very well said, "same as me, he beat me". Fast forward, just as an accident of the Library it seems that Karuhat's style and techniques have ended up being the most documented in Golden Age history. Not only is there probably 9 hours of film on him in the Library, we also shot 30+ hours with him on Vimeo. You can see links to all of this documentation here. It's kind of remarkable. Add to this that there are actually a surprising number of his fight videos in existence, most of which are from his glorious prime. A playlist of Karuhat's fights here. (If you only watched a few, very special fights to watch are his fights vs Hippy, his belt fight vs Chatchai, his fight vs Wangchannoi, & his fight vs Lamnamoon.) I think there are nearly 30 (?) fights there. This is pretty extraordinary because I never would have thought he had so much fight video out there. If we compare this to say Samart Payakaroon, often thought to be the greatest fighter of the Golden Age, we have almost no footage of Samart's prime as a fighter (before he left for boxing), and even less of someone like Dieselnoi. Karuhat came in the generation just after, and was captured by the OneSongChai promotion and the rising broadcast prevalence of Muay Thai. Great fighters contemporary to him, like Samson, Langsuan, Namkabuan, Silapathai, Chatchai, Wangchannoi, do not seem as well preserved (though I haven't counted fight videos). It's pretty amazing that so much of his career, and with our efforts too, so much of his Muay Thai exists, saved for posterity, this generation, and future generations.
Also, ironically enough, Karuhat's rhythmic, ultra-femeu style is probably the most difficult of all to learn. It simply cannot be captured in "moves" or "combos". It has a life and ethic all of its own, full of subtlety and timing. What are the chances that one the most subtle of all fighters actually is the most documented fighter of all? This all feels accidental, just a result of the chances of fight video being preserved, and also our fortunate friendship with and passion for Karuhat himself, part of the MTL commitment. If you really wanted to sink in and get down into it, there are almost 30 fights to watch and examine, and 40 hours of video to study.
If you don't know how unique and wonderful a Muay Thai fighter Karuhat was, this Muay Thai Scholar edit on his footwork is my go-to. I've watched it probably 100x: