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"My family worked all day to be able to eat at night," he said.

At a temple fair in their village, there was a small ring for muay Thai fights. Like many Isan men, Somluck's father had been a fighter when he was young.

"My father put me in the ring, but I didn't want to do it," said Somluck, who was 7 or 8 at the time. "He hit me, so I had to fight."

He won money, a trophy and his first fans. When Somluck walked around the village, people complimented his skill.

"I had a natural talent," he said through an interpreter. "A gift from heaven."

Local notice led to regional fame for the charismatic Somluck.

"I was a bet hunter," he said. "I'd go from village to village fighting to earn money."

Muay Thai is sustained by gamblers, who contribute to the atmosphere at matches but are more concerned with results than artistry. For others, muay Thai is a spectacle, and for a select few like Somluck, it is a way to a better life.

When he reached 15 and the minimum fighting weight, 100 pounds, he made his debut at the prestigious Lumpini Stadium here. As usual, the second and third tiers of the stadium, which holds 9,500 spectators, were full of bettors wiggling their raised fingers throughout the fights, indicating the changing odds of wagers among themselves.

Muay Thai, a sport closely linked to kickboxing that was adapted from hand-to-hand combat, is as known for intricate rituals like the prefight dance wai kru ram muay as for devastating elbow and knee strikes.

"Such a mixture of gentleness and violence is characteristic of the Thai people and their culture," the Thai poet Montri Umavijani wrote.

Virat Vacirarattanawong, a Lumpini Stadium promoter, remembered watching the 15-year-old Somluck. "He was shining," he said through an interpreter. "He had a kind of glamour about him. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that he was not an ordinary boy."

Thai fighters compete so frequently that they are usually considered veterans by age 27. But Kamsing, now 40, returned to the ring last fall and won. On Saturday, an American audience will get a chance to take the measure of Somluck when he faces Chike Lindsay in Pomona, Calif.

By the time Somluck was 18, he had competed in more than 200 bouts. Despite his ability, he never became a champion at Lumpini or at the smaller Rajadamnern Stadium, the nation's other storied muay Thai arena. Somluck was considered such a prohibitive favorite that the big gamblers lost interest and the promoters did not want to risk their best prospects against him.

"I was out of a job," he said. "I could not support myself."

So Somluck switched to amateur boxing by refining the four striking tools of muay Thai — fists, feet, elbows and knees — into one. He approached matches the way he always did: before each fight, he paid respect to his amulet, which he believes protects him, and thought about his deceased father.

"The most important thing is I trust in myself," he said. "I am a boxer. I have to believe that I can beat my opponent. For some of them I have to train, for some don't. It is easy for me to read fighters."

He was a success as a featherweight boxer. At 19, Somluck represented Thailand at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, and he won his nation's first Olympic gold medal four years later. Some may remember Somluck as the boxer who bowed to each compass direction before his bouts at the 1996 Atlanta Games. In the final, he outpunched the Bulgarian Serafim Todorov, who had beaten 19-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the semifinals.

Somluck, then 23, returned from the Olympics a national hero. He had an audience with King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He received more than $1 million in bonuses from the government and his sponsors. "My life went from the earth to the stars," he said. "I was famous. I was able to do advertising, movies, music, you name it. Everything changed."

Somluck is the Muhammad Ali of Thailand, but few people outside his homeland saw his movies, "Born to Fight" (2004) and "Soi Cowboy" (2008), or his debut as a singer in 2006. His appearances in the ring decreased as his celebrity increased, but he has defeated foreigners in sporadic muay Thai matches. Somluck has continued to box, losing to the American Rocky Juarez in the quarterfinals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and falling in the first round at the 2004 Games in Athens. In the early 2000s, he opened a muay Thai gym in Bangkok.

Muay Thai's popularity has grown with recent international competitions like Thai Fight and Best of Siam, and in mixed martial arts organizations like the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the K1 circuit, with their corner girls, light shows and fireworks.

But Thais under 30 are increasingly more interested in English Premier League soccer than their national sport. Widespread mobile phone use has enabled gamblers to bet on muay Thai fights remotely, and attendance at Lumpini and Rajadamnern has fallen.

Somluck noticed other changes in the sport.

"Referees score fights differently these days," he said. "A boxer can have the better kicks but lose because he gets thrown down in the clinch. Fighters don't use classical muay Thai anymore; they spend most of the time clinching like wrestlers. It's made people bored of watching the fights. The art is gone. If people want to see real art muay Thai now, it's better to watch foreigners."

Techniques that were once part of Somluck's repertory — the spinning back kick, known as the crocodile tail whip, and the elbow smash to the thigh, or breaking the elephant's trunk — are now rarely seen in Thai stadiums.

"They are battlefield techniques, really, but they are seen as a bit showy nowadays," said Rob Cox, a fight photographer and muay Thai gym owner. "The gamblers don't like it if a fighter does them too much. They place more importance on solid, heavy kicks; strong knees; throwing someone down in the clinch."

Gambling has been a driving force throughout Somluck's life. He called himself a "passionate gambler" who bets "especially when I fight."

Last September, he placed an undisclosed bet on a fighter from his gym, Jaisoo Thor Thepsutin, who was knocked out inside a minute. When Somluck announced his return to the Rajadamnern ring after an absence of about 18 years, many suspected a financial motivation.

"Money wasn't really the reason," he said. "I just wanted to promote muay Thai, and I thought it would be fun to fight in the big stadiums again."

Although Somluck stopped his 51-year-old opponent, Yodwanpadet Suwanwichit, the fight's pace was slow, and it was difficult to gauge the level of his skills. But Rajadamnern had sold out for the first time in more than 15 years, and Somluck received a deal for six more fights.

"People who did not have a chance to watch Somluck fight during the Olympics are keen to see his real ability," the promoter Sumeth Suesattabangkoch said through an interpreter. "They want to know whether his talent is worth his fame."

Last October, Somluck was embarrassed by Jomhod Kiatadisak, 42, who had won Lumpini and Rajadamnern championships and 15 world titles in his heyday. Before they met, Somluck told reporters that he had been sick and unable to train; not everyone believed him. Somluck faded quickly after the second round and was gasping for air in the fifth and final round, staggering on jelly legs. But he had sold out Lumpini Stadium.

For their February rematch, Rajadamnern also sold out. Outside the arena, vendors sold T-shirts, food and cigarettes amid panhandlers. Inside, the air was heavy with camphor and menthol from the fighters' liniment.

During their wai kru ram muay dance, Somluck and Jomhod circled the ring's perimeter. They whispered incantations into each corner, marking a boundary to keep out evil spirits.

At the end of the third round, Somluck was cut, but not badly, and had landed the more decisive blows. His swagger returned. He grinned in victory and raised his fist toward the gamblers in the third tier. They chanted his name, drowning out the ethereal sounds of the Javanese oboe, the cymbals and the drum that followed the rhythms of the fight.

Somluck soaked in the adulation, alone on the canvas with a golden chalice holding bundles of cash. Then he was hoisted onto his team's shoulders and carried out of the ring.