Destined for Greatness Artur Saladiak

Overtime Heroics Editorial

1111 days ago

Ask any hardened Lethwei fan, about the name Artur Saladiak and its a guarantee it will be greeted by a smile, even amongst the local people of Myanmar, many miles from his home in Ilminster, Artur remains a fan favorite amongst the locals. Known for his ‘never say die’ attitude, he will pressure his opponent until the very end, a trait highly respected by the people of Myanmar where of course is the home of Lethwei.

Growing Up

Artur grew up in Poland, in the early 90s, where some of the modern technology we currently take for granted was rare. As he describes in a recent interview with myself, spending much of his free time outside. Keeping active with sports like football which he played at a professional level, and volleyball.

A active upbring is what he attributes much of his success in recent years towards.

Related: Interview with Artur Saladiak

Making History

For those who may not know, Artur Saladiak made history at World Lethwei Championship (WLC). As he was the first “outsider” to come to Myanmar and beat one of their own and leave Champion, as we saw in 2018’s WLC 5: Knock Out War when Artur defeated Saw Ba Oo for the Light Middleweight Championship.

Technique

As we see above, Artur uses a crisp fluid movement with his strikes. Lining up each individual shot, getting the maximum out of each thrown strike, no wasted movement.

Artur is known for a very high pressured style of fighting, constantly looking to get inside his opponents guard.

Muay Thai

Artur has an impressive Muay Thai background, as can be seen in many of his fights. Muay Thai is a heavy influence on his fight style. From his solid clinch work, and eagerness to throw elbows and knees, to his powerful leg kicks. Below I will show you some examples of the Muay Thai influence in Artur’s style.

Reading his opponents repetitive technique and punishing him

Above using brutal leg kicks to create a opening.

WLC Gold

As can be seen above, a clip from Artur’ famous championship victory over Ba Oo, it’s almost as if his opponent wasn’t expecting him to be there, allowing Artur to catch him with a solid body shot, followed up by a kick all in one fluid motion.

Even during a all out war with current champion Sasha Moisa, a fight that saw Artur dropped and take some big shots, he kept coming and refused to quit as the clip below from the 4th round shows.

Conclusion

As I explained above, Artur Saladiak is the real deal, he is already in the record books being the first foreign World champion, and with his work ethic and terminator like the ability to keep coming forward, I have no reason to doubt that Artur will once again be champion and continue to further his legacy.

Follow me on Twitter at @JamesRees83 for more Lethwei news and discussions. Also, make sure to follow @OT_Heroics for all of your sporting needs. As well as @Lethwei_oth for all things Lethwei.

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