Muay Thai Stadium Tunisian whirlwind Fadi Khaled wallops Nueamek Sityaymeaw

We saw the Tunisian whirlwind Fadi Khaled, put on one of the most exciting Muay Thai performances ever, from ringside, at Pattaya Max Muay Thai Stadium.

An hour later, I would be videoing the unforgettable Jonathan Lecat Dorian Price double knockout, a fight that’s destined to become one of the most memorable classics of all time.

In this bout against Nueamek Sityaymeaw the Tunisian whirlwind Fadi Khaled demonstrates a full range of devastating martial arts weapons, including a full array of powerful kicks along with the punching power of a light heavy weight. Keep in mind that this little guy weighs just 140 pounds while light heavyweights are between 168 and 175 pounds. Notice too, how he flings his entire torso into the body of his opponent.

Harry Greb training.

Big Daddy sitting next to me, put it this way, “I really don’t like the looks of him, but you gotta give him credit. He’s a very good fighter.”

I’ll give him more than that. This Tunisian whirlwind Fadi Khaled represents what true fighting is all about. I’m sure Harry Greb would concur.

If you are interested in learning more about Harry Greb check this out.

You can get to watch a training video of Harry Greb on this facebook page.

You’d expect the preliminary bout between Fadi Khaled and Nueamek Sityaymeaw to fade away into the obscure dustbins of ring forgetathons. How could I even think about putting the two videos up side by side on you tube? Am I out of my mind?

I’ve thought about that before. Many times. I am out of my mind. No, I’m not. Although both Khaled and Nueamek have far less than perfect records as Muay Thai boxers, this was in its own right a classic fight.

I had never seen either boxer fight before. But here I’m coining a new nickname, a moniker that should live on as the Tunisian whirlwind Fadi Khaled to extol the Tunisian whirlwind as a fighting man’s fighter. And because I think Fadi embodies even more than what Muay Thai boxing is all about. For me Fadi represents the true spirit of mano a mano fighting the same way Harry Greb did nearly 100 years ago.

Harry Greb the Pittsburgh Whirlwind

Enshrined for nearly a century as the Pittsburgh whirlwind in boxing legend, Harry Greb was perhaps the greatest middleweight of all time. This is saying a lot due to so many outstanding Middleweights who one could easily call, the greatest Middleweight in the history of the ring. Men like Sugar Ray Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, and the most devastating Middleweight puncher of all time, Gennadi Golovkin. And yet there’s not a single film of Harry Greb’s epic fights. He once beat the unbeatable future Heavy weight champion, Gene Tunney in a historic bloodbath that began a series of epic encounters between the two finest boxing tacticians the ring had ever seen.

But Greb was a true Middleweight, whose normal weight stood at around 160 pounds. Whereas Tunney wound up as the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world at 190. As for Jack Dempsey who was quite possibly the hardest puncher of all time, some have said that Tunney could never beat the Manassas Mauler in his prime. Others have claimed that Tunney was so good that Jack Dempsey could never have beat him.

We will never know the answer of whether a much younger Jack Dempsey could have defeated Tunney or not.

It is well known, however, that Greb totally dominated Dempsey as Dempsey’s sparring partner. Even though Dempsey outweighed the five foot eight Greb by 30 pounds, several times the pair almost met in the ring.

Jack Dempsey and Harry Greb — Jack Dempsey on the left with Harry Greb to his right. Greb defeating Dempsey, one of the most feriocious punchers of all time? You kidding? NOPE

Greb would wind up fighting 298 professional fights, yet not one of them survives today on video.

Gene Tunney fighting Harry Greb — Harry Greb won his first fight with Gene Tunney in a blood bath. Greb was about the only man to ever defeat Tunney who later beat Jack Dempsey for the world Heavyweight title and then defeated Dempsey in the rematch. Some say in his prime Dempsey would have won while others claim Dempsey could never have beat Tunney whose ring generalship was without parallel for his time. In many ways Tunney was like Andre Ward the current Light Heavyweight champion who hardly ever makes a mistake. But as the bloody matches with Harry Greb proved, Tunney could be a brawler when he wanted to be.

A Boxing Legend for all time

Greb remains today as one of boxing legend’s most unforgettable mystery men of all time. His untimely death at 32 on the operating table when he failed to wake up from the anesthetic hasn’t hurt his enigmatic image. But although the movie cameras never captured him in a real fight, there still exists at least one video of him training.Back to the Tunisian whirlwind Fadi Khaled