The Adjustments and Aggressive Pressure of Capitan Petchyindee Academy
Photo Credit: ONE Championship
ONE: Unbreakable saw Dagestan’s then champion Alaverdi Ramazanov take on Thailand’s own Capitan Petchyindee Academy (ranked no.2) in a battle for the Singapore-based promotion’s Bantamweight Kickboxing World Championship. Here, Aiden Hayes takes a look at both fighter’s games and why the bout played out as it did.
While Dagestan is not known for kickboxing success, rather their success in other combat sports like MMA and freestyle wrestling, they have carved out a fair bit of talent in kickboxing/Muay Thai over the years in Jamal Yusupov, Dzahabar Askerov, and Alaverdi Ramazanov, with the 26 year old Ramazanov youngest of the three.
Ramazanov met one of his toughest matchups to date in the 27 year old Capitan Petchyindee Academy, who holds wins over Sangmanee Sor.Cafemuaythai, Yodkhunpon Sitmonchai, Chamuaktong Fightermuaythai, and Pakorn P.K Yokkao Saenchai Gym as well as holding the claim of the 154lb Lumpinee Stadium title and a #5 ranking for CombatPress.
Capitan (previously known as Diesellek) is more of a mid range puncher/kicker in his Muay Thai fights due to the value of kicks in Muay Thai, where pinning your opponent to the ropes while pressuring can take away those opportunities at range to kick. However, in his two kickboxing fights (well, really only one, as the first was a 6 second KO), Capitan has taken to pressuring.
Capitan’s gameplan from the opening bell versus Ramazanov was quite apparent: pressure behind kicks and diagonal cage cutting footwork, herd Ramazanov into circling into a certain direction so he could run him into punches/kicks from that side, and eventually wear him down, put him on the cage, and get into his boxing to finish him off. Ramazanov, while a great fighter in his own right, has known weaknesses in cagecraft and keeping his stance (which has hindered his kick/knee defense), as well as having an offensive style that does not lend much success against a pressure strategy such as the one Capitan came out with. To execute on any of this gameplan however, Capitan would have to shut down Ramazanov’s potent offense first.
To start, let’s take a look at Ramazanov’s typical offensive system and how Capitan made adjustments to shut it down.
Against Petchmorakot, Ramazanov’s offense was on full display. He begins by establishing his teep as a threat, through landing a couple of times. Once the threat is established, he begins to feint the preliminary motion of a teep (the raising of the rear leg), creating a reaction from his opponent. He uses this preliminary motion to shift his stance and catch his opponent’s while they are reacting to the potential teep. This allows him to get into range, where he begins to work into his boxing and eventually into wild stuff (like the spinning backfist in this clip), while making sure to control hands and preemptively frame mid-exchange in order to prevent the clinch. Essentially, in broad terms, it is like this:
The Petchmorakot fight was largely held, prior to Ramazanov’s shifts, in open stance (Orthodox vs Southpaw), while the Capitan fight was largely held in a closed stance (Orthodox vs Orthodox). Ramazanov had to make some adjustments.
Ramazanov feints the teep motion before getting into his shift. In a closed stance, Ramazanov looks to take the outside foot angle in order to align his right hand with Capitan’s chin, while also taking away Capitan’s alignment for a cross counter. As you can see, Capitan has to throw his cross counter completely across his body, which both lengthens the distance it has to travel (giving Ramaznov time to pull back) and over-torques Capitan’s hips, forcing him to take a small reset step while Ramazanov can pivot off.
Here are some more examples of what Ramazanov’s system looks like when it is firing on all cylinders:
Capitan looked to make adjustments to solve this system all night. His initial adjustment was to start to load up his counter as soon as Ramazanov lifted his rear leg.
Capitan finishes loading up as soon as Ramazanov’s rear leg hits the ground, giving him a solid base to throw his cross counter simultaneously to Ramazanov’s straight, instead of reacting to it and trying to slip first before countering. This catches Ramazanov right on the side of the head, as his general mechanics + tucked chin kept his chin safe in the exchange. Loading up on the counter earlier was a solution, but it still had its problems: it would be hard for Capitan to find Ramazanov’s chin cleanly and throwing the straight from the inside angle still really torques Capitan’s hips, forcing him to take a reset step instead of being able to get into his kicks immediately. Moreover, it relied on having a good idea of when Ramazanov was going to enter and Ramazanov did a great job of masking his entries by leading Capitan on and then exploding into the shift.
Capitan looked for other solutions and found one through a lead leg lift to block, tightening his guard, and staying directly in place in order to crowd the punches/shift. The lifted leg would effectively run Ramazanov’s feinted teep motion directly into it, throwing him off balance and denying the outside foot angle. With no outside foot angle or balance, Ramazanov would have to lob out his lead hand and stagger back, which, later on, opened himself up for kicks as he circled away. Capitan found uses for crowding the shift in other ways as well.
Ramazanov masks his shift well here by feinting out a kick by Capitan before shifting, which takes away Capitan’s ability to get into his lead leg block. Still, he makes great use of crowding by collecting the collar tie as Ramazanov attempts to pull back, which gives him time to reset before throwing a kick. This is a great mixture of both of the solutions Capitan found to neutralize Ramazanov’s offense, as he throws a cross counter from the inside foot angle + crowds.
Capitan’s Offense
Capitan’s pressure is ultra-aggressive and he will walk you down, but make no mistake, it is methodical. He will walk his opponents to the ropes/cage and keep them there with leg kicks, intelligent footwork, a constant counter threat, and through composed directional attacks. His ultra-aggressive footwork opens himself up to being drawn onto kicks and rear hands, but he stays composed and ready to defend/counter at range through a stable stance and he will not open up into his combination punching until he creates a favorable position for himself to do so (along the ropes/cage).
While he was shutting down Ramazanov’s offense, Capitan took the role of a pressure counter-kicker, looking to wear down and close off Ramazanov’s exits with kicks, force him to come forward and throw, and counter before getting into his boxing alongside the cage. Ramazanov largely conceded the pressure as soon as Capitan moved forward, but Capitan would also look to kick as Ramazanov feinted weight onto his lead leg and then put pressure on as soon his leg retracted back and Ramazanov was still reeling from defending it.
His fight vs Sangmanee Sor.Cafemuaythai also showed some great examples of Capitan’s pressure.
Here, Capitan feinted to push Sangmanee back. As soon as he has Sangmanee near the ropes, he throws out a non-committal leg kick, which draws Sangmanee’s defensive reaction. As soon as Capitan’s leg retracts back, he explodes off his back foot into boxing range and can freely throw as Sangmanee’s back is to the cage. This non-committal leg kick is a way for Capitan to seize the initiative, keep Sangmanee constantly reacting on the defensive end, and to take advantage of his pressure footwork.
Capitan, as many kickboxing pressure fighters will, uses quick inside leg kicks to keep his opponents at range & reacting defensively, as well as to force them onto the back-foot. These inside leg kicks distract and mask Capitan’s forward steps and also allow him a quick way way to get in range vs a check/block.
Against Ramazanov, you may notice that Capitan’s leg kicks were not near as non-commital as they were vs Sangmanee. This is because Ramazanov preferred to back out (double/single leg evade), from leg kicks instead of looking to check/block (as Sangmanee attempted to) as a result of his wider stance + massive steps/hops he had to take in order to get some space from the aggressive pressure of Capitan. This meant that Capitan couldn’t just explode right into his boxing to take advantage of the poor positioning he forced his opponents into, rather he would have to use the Ramazanov’s backing up as means to push him to the cage, then explode into his boxing.
Capitan would constantly throw these leg kicks until Ramazanov had no space and two options: keep circling & try to exit, where Capitan can throw a kick/hook to that direction OR try to enter in and have to deal with Capitan’s counter kicking (as he does above).
Once the pressure was established, Capitan had a field day playing with these two options.
Kicking/lead hook to the direction of the circle:
Counter kicking
Capitan was able to simply plant his feet and throw the counter kick as soon as he saw a commitment from Ramazanov because Ramazanov was not actually closing the distance by himself, rather he was relying on Capitan to close that distance for him. Seen here, Ramazanov was heavily leaning into his straight instead of working his way into range because he felt that Capitan would continue to pressure and walk into those shots. However, Capitan would plant & fire his kick off and Ramazanov could not adjust.
*Note: this is the big difference in counter kicking on the front foot vs on the back foot, since when you are counter kicking on the back foot, the fighter pressuring knows they have to work their way into range instead of relying on the opponent to walk into range for them (front foot). This means that when counter kicking on the backfoot, fighters typically have to hop into their pivot before counter kicking in order to get out of range first, while in this case, on the front foot, Capitan can largely plant & kick from there.
Kicking to the direction of his opponent + counter kicking works to dissuade his opponents from circling or closing the distance simply because: it hurts. Capitan is a brutal kicker who puts a lot of his heat into his kicks when he needs to.
Outside of kicking, Capitan also used some basic footwork tactics in order to cut Ramazanov off.
When Ramazanov was hopping to the outside to get some space, Capitan would use cross steps (crossing his feet as he moves laterally here) instead of small diagonal steps in order to cut the cage off quicker. Crossing your feet can be risky, especially when pressuring, but since Ramazanov is not set in his stance, the potential for powerful counters is greatly diminished and this quickly cuts Ramazanov off.
Another example:
Here, since Ramazanov stays in his stance, Capitan stays in his (no cross-steps). Capitan takes small diagonal steps instead, always balanced and ready to counter, in order to force Ramazanov into a choke point, where he was forced into the aforementioned two option dilemma.
All of the above tactics herded Ramazanov into one spot alongside the cage. On the cage, Capitan is a brutal finisher. He makes sure to target various parts of the body with the full extent of his power behind every punch. He will manipulate the guard with hooks, forcing them open up to block them, before sending a piston of a rear hand through the middle of the guard.
Notice here how Capitan’s feinted switch step draws out Ramazanov’s check, taking away his balance/ability to produce power in any of his potential counter punches and also masking his entry to the inside. Something noticeably absent from Capitan’s boxing game along the fence is lever punching (punches on the same side), which, here, would have kept Ramazanov directly in front of him, but Capitan still does do a good job of mixing in his lead hook with his lead kick to punish Ramazanov for trying to exit to the left.
This is a very well crafted finish from Capitan. He feints his way in, kicks the way Ramazanov is circling, herds him back in front of him with a rear body hook + leg kick before finishing him off with the straight. Body hooks are a fantastic way to punish a circling opponent as well as to get them to lower their guard. This is a textbook way to deal with a circling opponent.
Notice a blend of all of these tactics in his R3 knockdown on Sangmanee. Kicking to the direction of Sangmanee’s movement, sticking him along the ropes, usung hooks to dissaude exits and cut Sangmanee off, and a brutal finishing blow once Sangmanee was cut off and had no where to go.
Conclusion
Capitan Petchyindee Academy is a fantastic pressure fighter who uses his kicking and boxing game together alongside his high fight I.Q to strategically pick his opponents apart, cut them off, wear them down, and then break their will. I do not know what will be next for him in ONE Championship’s Bantamweight KB division, but I am excited for whatever the future holds.