Early career Born Sombat Banchamek () in
Surin, Thailand, Buakaw started his fighting career at the age of eight in his home province of Surin in the northeastern Thailand. He moved to
Chachoengsao when he was 15 and trained with the Por. Pramuk Gym. His first fight name was
Damtamin Kiat-anan. Buakaw has collected several belts to his name fighting in Bangkok. The Omnoi Stadium featherweight title was his first belt. After that, he would go on to take the featherweight champion of Thailand title. Buakaw then proceeded to win another Omnoi Stadium title belt, this time in the lightweight division. In December 2002, Buakaw won the Toyota Marathon 140 lb. tournament at
Lumpinee Boxing Stadium, beating the highly regarded Satoshi Kobayashi of
Japan in the finals.
K-1 In July 2004, Buakaw became the
K-1 World MAX 2004 champion beating
John Wayne Parr,
Takayuki Kohiruimaki and previous champion
Masato in the finals. In 2005, he nearly repeated his run for tournament champion but lost the extra round in a controversial decision to
Dutch shoot-boxer
Andy Souwer in the finals. In the
K-1 World MAX 2006, Buakaw again faced
Andy Souwer in the finals but this time defeated Souwer by TKO with a flurry of punches; thereby winning his second K-1 World MAX title and becoming the first man to win such title twice. Buakaw lost to Masato by unanimous decision at the
K-1 World MAX 2007 quarterfinals. Despite Buakaw being able to land vicious leg kicks throughout the match, Masato scored a knockdown in the first round and continued to land numerous punch combinations throughout the fight which earned him a unanimous decision victory. In 2010, Buakaw co-starred in the martial arts movie
Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya based on the life of
Yamada Nagamasa, a Japanese adventurer who gained considerable influence in Thailand at the beginning of the 17th century and became the governor of the Nakhon Si Thammarat province in southern Thailand. Although Buakaw was a semi-finalist of the
K-1 World MAX 2009 Final Buakaw did not compete in the
K-1 World MAX 2010 in Seoul World Championship Tournament Final 16 because he was displeased with the
K-1 official's biased decision. Instead he entered the
Shoot Boxing World Tournament 2010 along with the former three time tournament champion Andy Souwer. However
Toby Imada defeated Souwer in the semi-finals to face Buakaw in the final. Buakaw defeated Imada via TKO in the second round to become the new
2010 Shoot Boxing S-Cup World champion.
Thai Fight In 2011, Buakaw had seven fights; four of which ended by way of stoppage. In the semi-finals of the 2011
Thai Fight 70 kg Tournament, he won by KO in the 3rd round via elbow against
Mickael Piscitello. On December 18, 2011, he fought
Frank Giorgi for the 2011 Thai Fight 70 kg Tournament Title and won by unanimous decision. In the same year, Buakaw was signed as a sponsored fighter by
Yokkao founder, Phillip Villa. He led the Muay Thai Combat Fan Expo to showcase the sport in
Rimini Italy with
Saenchai,
Sudsakorn Sor Klinmee,
Dzhabar Askerov and many others.
Leaving Por. Pramuk, retirement and comeback On January 21, 2012, Buakaw headlined
Yokkao Extreme 2012 in Milan Italy in front of 12,000 attendees. He defeated Dzhabar Askerov by points in the main event. On March 1, 2012, he was notably absent from his training camp. On March 12, he appeared on a Thai TV talk show to apologize to the fans and explain his disappearance, stating that he had recurring problems in Por. Pramuk Gym since 2009 and felt insulted by the behavior of the management there. He had been scheduled to visit Japan with the Prime Minister
Yingluck Shinawatra for an exhibition match but it was canceled in favor of another fight. As a result of the complication, he decided to part ways with the gym. He said "I can stand tough training, but not poor treatment. It is about the mind, not the body." On March 17, 2012, Buakaw's sponsor
Yokkao Boxing announced that he would return to training. It was at this time that they began referring to him as Buakaw Banchamek. He had resumed training at the "newly-built" Banchamek gym (named after him), as of March 22, 2012. He was scheduled to fight Mickael Cornubet at ThaiFight on April 17, 2012. On March 30, 2012, Buakaw was prevented from fighting at Thai Fight in April 2012, until he filed a complaint with the Sports Authority of Thailand proving his claims of unfair treatment by Por. Pramuk. On April 4, he said that his
fight name for the fight later that month would be "Buakaw", and that he "may not use the name of the boxing camp Por. Pramuk." For a time, Buakaw was seen in
jiujitsu,
judo, and
wrestling classes. An MMA career would have allowed Buakaw to fight without breaching his contract with the Por. Pramuk boxing camp. Nevertheless, Buakaw returned to the ring on August 17, 2012, when he defeated Abdoul Toure by way of TKO in round 2. Buakaw beat Mauro Serra via TKO in the quarter-finals of the 2012 Thai Fight 70 kg Tournament at
Thai Fight 2012: King of Muay Thai in
Bangkok, Thailand, on October 23, 2012. He then defeated Tomoyuki Nishikawa by unanimous decision in the tournament semi-finals in
Nakhon Ratchasima on November 25, 2012. He fought
Vitaly Gurkov in the final on December 16, 2012, and won the Thai Fight tournament via decision. On March 27, 2013, Buakaw faced his friend and teammate Harlee Avison in a staged exhibition match, which was free to the public, at the brand new Beeline Arena in
Cambodia. On May 6, 2013, Buakaw again went off script to KO Malik Watson in round two in an exhibition match at
MAX Muay Thai 1 in
Surin, Thailand. Buakaw made his return to legitimate fighting with a decision win over Dong Wen Fei in a three-round kickboxing match at
MAX Muay Thai 3 in China on August 10, 2013. He re-signed with K-1 in August 2013 and returned with a first round body shot KO of David Calvo at the K-1 World MAX 2013 World Championship Tournament Final 16 in
Mallorca, Spain, on September 14, 2013. In their fourth meeting, Buakaw bested
Yoshihiro Sato on points at MAX Muay Thai 4 in
Sendai, Japan, on October 6, 2013. He beat
Enriko Kehl by decision at MAX Muay Thai 5: The Final Chapter in
Khon Kaen, Thailand on December 10, 2013. Buakaw defeated Zhou Zhi Peng on points after an extension round at the K-1 World MAX 2013 World Championship Tournament Quarter-finals - Part 1 in
Foshan, China, on December 28, 2013. Zhou attempted to turn the fight into a brawl, and despite Buakaw doing enough to win the decision, the judges sent it to an extra round in which Buakaw suffered a cut from a head butt. In spite of this, Buakaw was able to establish dominance to take the fight and advance in the tournament. At the K-1 World MAX 2013 World Championship Tournament Final 4 in
Baku,
Azerbaijan, on February 23, 2014, he beat
Lee Sung-Hyun by unanimous decision in the semi-finals. Buakaw beat Victor Nagbe via unanimous decision at
Combat Banchamek in Surin, Thailand, on April 14, 2014. He knocked out Adaylton Parreira De Freitas in round two at Muay Thai in Macau on June 6, 2014. Buakaw was scheduled to fight
Fabio Pinca for the vacant WMC World Junior Middleweight (-69.9 kg/154 lb) Championship at Monte Carlo Fighting Masters 2014 in
Monte Carlo,
Monaco, on June 14, 2014. However, Pinca was injured in a bout with
Thongchai Sitsongpeenong in February and was replaced by Djime Coulibaly. Buakaw defeated Coulibaly via unanimous decision to take the belt. Buakaw was initially set to rematch
Enriko Kehl in the
K-1 World MAX 2013 World Championship Tournament Final in
Pattaya, Thailand, on 26 July 2014. However, the event was postponed due to the
2014 Thai coup d'état. On 12 October 2014 he lost to Kehl by forfeit in the K-1 World Max Final event in Pattaya. Buakaw lost the
TopKing World Series Semifinal Tournament (TK4) against
Russian fighter Khayal Dzhaniev in a controversial decision. Many Muay Thai journalists have stated that Buakaw should have won the match. Buakaw also suffered from deep cuts in his head inflicted by Khayal's elbows while Khayal suffered broken ribs. Khayal was later hospitalized upon being forced to forfeit the final match that same night.
2017 Kunlun Fight 2017 Buakaw fought Chinese fighter Kong Lingfeng in the main event at
Kunlun Fight 62 on June 10, 2017, in Bangkok, Thailand. He won the fight by decision. Buakaw was expected to headline the debut of Kunlun Fight in France on November 11 in Paris. The event didn't happen and Buakaw fought in China at
Kunlun Fight 67 where he knocked out Dutch
Marouan Toutouh in the second round with punches.
All Star Fight Buakaw defeated French
Azize Hlali by knockout in the first round in the headline bout at
All Star Fight on August 20, 2017, in Bangkok, Thailand. On September 30 Buakaw scored the decision against Sergey Kuliaba of Ukraine at
All Star Fight 2 in Bangkok. On December 10 Buakaw was expected to fight
Fabio Pinca at
All Star Fight 3 held in Paris, but the Frenchman pulled out after suffering the knockout defeat against Uzbekistan's
Anvar Boynazarov at Glory 47 Lyon on October 28, 2017.
2018 Buakaw faced Nayanesh Ayman in China at
Kunlun Fight 69 on February 4, 2018, where he won via first-round knockout. Buakaw is expected to challenge Spanish
Jonay Risco for 70 kg title on March 9, 2018, at
Enfusion kickboxing promotion in
Abu Dhabi. Buakaw fought Portuguese Luis Passos on 28 of April 2018 on
All Star Fight 3 in Bangkok Thailand where he won via unanimous decision. He fought three more times in 2018 on All Star Fight events held in Hong Kong, Prague and Pattaya respectively. He won on all three occasions by points.
2019 Buakaw headlined
All Star Fight: World Soldier on March 9, 2019, in Bangkok Thailand. The show was organized in partnership with the
Royal Thai Army to promote the national sport of Muay Thai as well as the fighters, several of whom are soldiers including Buakaw. He fought against Russian kickboxer,
Artem Pashporin and won by unanimous decision. Buakaw was scheduled to face
Chris Ngimbi at
MAS Fight Muay Thai under MAS Fight rules (1 round of 9 minutes) on October 27, 2019, in
Phnom Penh,
Cambodia. He defeated Ngimbi by technical knockout at 4:10 of the fight.
2021 In 2021, Buakaw was named the executive director for the Kickboxing Association of Thailand. He would serve as the manager for the Thailand national kickboxing team, leading them to 2 gold medals and 12 total medals at the
2021 SEA Games in Hanoi.
2022 After a nearly three-year-long hiatus, Buakaw made his return to competition against
Dmitry Varats at
World Fight Tournament in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 6, 2022. He won the fight via unanimous decision.
Exhibition matches at Rajadamnern Stadium In 2022, Buakaw was named chairman of the Board of Development of
Rajadamnern Stadium, where he would oversee the development of both Muay Thai and competition within the stadium. That year, Buakaw also participated in a series of exhibition kickboxing matches that headlined the newly launched
Rajadamnern World Series (RWS) promotion at
Rajadamnern Stadium. On August 19, 2022, Buakaw defeated Kota Miura by third-round knockout. Buakaw was scheduled to face
Yoshihiro Sato in a rematch of their K-1 World MAX 2008 quarter-final match, which he lost by knockout, on October 28, 2022. Buakaw went on to defeat Sato by first-round knockout in an exhibition match. On December 9, 2022, Buakaw faced Ukrainian fighter Oleksandr Yefimenko. With neither fighter unable to produce a knockout after three rounds, the fight was declared a draw.
2023 On April 13, 2023, it was announced that Buakaw would be facing
Rukiya Anpo at
Rizin 42 on May 6, 2023. The fight was ruled a draw by unanimous decision. Two judges scored the bout an even 30–30, while the third ringside official awarded Anpo and Buakaw a round each for a 29–29 scorecard. Buakaw faced
Yasuhiro Kido in a kickboxing match at Legend of Rajadamnern: Last of the Generation on September 9, 2023. The bout ended in the second round after Buakaw accidentally headbutted Kido, opening a cut in his forehead, leading to a no contest. Buakaw then faced Wang Yanlong at Grandview International Fight Super Competition on September 24, 2023. In the first round Yanlong hit Buakaw's groin several times, leading Buakaw to launch an assault of knees at Yanlong. Yanlong criticized the knees and refused to continue fighting, thus the bout was declared a no contest. Buakaw is scheduled to face Nayanesh Ayman at Legend of Rajadamnern: The Revenge on December 2, 2023. Buakaw won the bout via unanimous decision.
2024 Buakaw faced
Minoru Kimura at
Rizin Landmark 9 on March 23, 2024. Buakaw defeated Kimura by second-round knockout.
Exhibition fight with Manny Pacquiao Buakaw was initially expected to fight boxing legend
Manny Pacquiao in an exhibition match in January 2024. On July 21, 2023, Pacquiao and Buakaw met in a press conference held in Bangkok, Thailand to promote their exhibition superfight in January 2024. However, on December 31, 2023, it was published that the bout will now take place on April 20, 2024. On March 9, 2024, the fight's promoter Fresh Air Festival announced that the fight would be further postponed from the original date of April 20. According to the promoter, discussions for a new date are still ongoing. Their exhibition match is set to take place at a 155 lbs catchweight and will be under the international boxing rules. The fight is scheduled for six three-minute rounds, with two-minute break in between rounds. According to the promoter of the event, the Pacquiao vs. Buakaw match has a total investment of $25 million.
K-1 World Max tournament After the exhibition bout with Pacquiao was postponed, Buakaw entered the
K-1 World MAX 2024 tournament, initially expected to face
Ouyang Feng in the first round. However, Feng withdrew from the bout due to a rib injury. Buakaw ultimately faced the to-be tournament winner
Stoyan Koprivlenski, losing via unanimous decision. == Bare-knuckle boxing ==