Buakaw was born on May 8, 1982 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.
He is a former two-time Omnoi Stadium champion, Lumpinee Stadium Toyota Marathon champion, former #1-ranked fighter in Lumpinee Stadium, Thailand Featherweight champion, two-time K-1 World MAX champion and 2011 & 2012 Thai Fight tournament champion. In July 2004, Buakaw became the K-1 MAX World champion beating John Wayne Parr, Takayuki Kohiruimaki and previous champion Masato in the finals.[3] 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.[4] In the 2006 K-1 MAX World Grand Prix, 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
