Last Saturday night fans gathered at the Indoor Athletic Stadium in Pattaya expecting to see Buakaw Banchamek become the first man in history to ever win three K-1 Max tournaments.

Buakaw was facing Enrico Kehl, an opponent he had comfortably beaten twice under Muay Thai rules with the most recent victory coming less than a year ago. The fight was being broadcast live on national TV in Thailand and the odds seemed stacked in favour of the local fighter.

However instead of witnessing Buakaw’s coronation as a three time K-1 Max champion the fans in attendance, as well as the audience watching around the world on a live stream, were left shocked when a series of bizarre events culminated in Kehl being crowned the winner.

As expected Buakaw controlled the fight from start to finish, clearly winning the first two rounds and then taking his foot off the gas in the last three minutes by which stage Kehl seemed to be in need of a knockout or knockdown.

At this stage events seemed to be proceeding with a certain air of inevitability and fans began flooding out of the stadium well before the decision was announced, presumably feeling that a win for Buakaw was a foregone conclusion.

Buakaw has won his last 32 matches and, while he was a little lazy in his approach against Kehl and utilized more sweeps and throws than traditional kickboxing techniques like punches and kicks, there was no question that the Thai had dominated the majority of the fight.

It was already obvious that something was wrong when the time came to announce the decision because, as the referee waited to hear which fighter’s hand would be raised, one of the two kickboxers was nowhere to be seen with Buakaw and his entourage having long since left the ring.

The announcement that the fight had been adjudged a draw was met with boos from the audience and this turned to incredulity when it was revealed that Buakaw was no longer in the building and as a result he had forfeited the fight and Kehl was the 2014 K-1 Max champion.

The plot thickened the following day when newspapers in Thailand reported that a few days previously Buakaw had been to a police station to file a complaint about online gambling in connection with the K-1 Max Finals.

At the time of writing there has been no formal statement from either Buakaw’s camp or K-1 but Ploy Sityodtong, the daughter of the legendary Kru Toy Sityodtong, posted this on her facebook today:

The reason why Buakaw doesn't wanna fight in K1 is because he does not happy with the new rules that has been made few hours before the fight. The new rule says that fighters are not allowed to hold the opponent's leg and make the opponent fall down which Buakaw has rejected that rules and the judges lose him right away.

The reason for this new rules is because there is a gambling going on which Buakaw has found out earlier on. The betting made online by K1 and some other businessman and mafia which bet lots of money on that. This is not a sport anymore this is an illegal gambling which goes around worldwide and the Thai authorities has nothing to do with it and this is unacceptable because this event held in Thailand. This brings bad reputation to Thailand and the fighters itself. So who do you think should responsible for this?

During the fight Buakaw was repeatedly able to catch kicks and knees thrown by Kehl and either sweep him or shove him to the floor without the referee intervening so, if the rule changes in question did occur, the designated official did a very poor job of enforcing them.

The frustration for Buakaw’s fans is that he has proven over the course of 13 rounds that he is a superior fighter to Kehl and if he had decided to stay in the ring and compete to the best of his abilities for the additional three minutes he would surely have become the first ever three time K-1 Max champion.

In Thailand the judge’s decision was greeted with widespread disbelief and Buakaw is being hailed as a hero for taking a stand against corruption but there has yet to be any official explanation as to why he walked out of the ring without waiting for the scorecards to be announced.

This is not the first time Buakaw has been involved in a high profile falling out as his rise to mainstream prominence has resulted in a series of well publicized spats, most notably with the Por Pramuk camp and the Thai Fight Promotion.

This story is likely to develop further over the course of the coming days but, regardless of whether we ever truly get to the bottom of this bizarre series of events, the 2014 K-1 Max Final is not destined to go down as a good day for the sport of kickboxing.

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