Fight Night At Patong Stadium

So I rolled by the stadium last night to watch the fights. Most of them were incredible so I figured I’d throw up a quick entry. Six guys from the Patong Boxing Gym were fighting – which made things a little more exciting (and gave me some additional incentive to lay some bets down). On a side note, the Muay Thai stadiums are the only acceptable place to gamble in Thailand. It’s highly illegal everywhere else.

Anyway, of the 6 fighters, 4 were Thai’s (trainers here) and 2 were foreign students. I was a little nervous before the fights got underway because I rarely see the Thai trainers working out. They’re usually busy training us students so they seem to neglect their own training routines. I’d ask my trainer every day leading up to the fight if he had done any training and occasionally, he would say that he went for a run – oftentimes he would just shake his head and say “no, not train”.

The night of fights started off with the kids. They must have been about 8 years old and without any knockout power at all, but it was still entertaining to watch. One of the kids (seen below in the black shorts) spent the majority of the time running around the ring to avoid being cornered by his much larger opponent, yet he was still landing some crazy kicks and knees as he was scrambling around. He ultimately ended up losing on points but he fought with a lot of heart and it was hilarious to watch. A good start to the night for sure. Here’s a quick video..

VIDEO OF KIDS FIGHTING (Coming soon, taking a while to upload)

The next fight featured one of the Thai’s from the gym. I’ve never actually seen this guy train – himself or anyone else for that matter. It seems as though he just does maintenance work around the gym. He’s either sweeping, watering the plants or cleaning the rooms. He’s a super nice guy but to his detriment as a fighter, he’s extremely small.

He’s 26, with a couple hundred fights, but even the announcer at the stadium announced that he was 16 years old. To my surprise though, he’s an awesome fighter. He was lacing his opponent with some big shots (mostly punches) but due to his lack of size/overall power, he wasn’t able to get the knockout and when it went to decision, the judges awarded the victory to his opponent because in Muay Thai, punches don’t count for any points at all.

A couple fights later, another one of the trainers entered the ring. His name is Yodarwut and he’s the most active fighter at the gym. He’s been fighting on nearly every event that I’ve been too. He recently got married so perhaps he’s looking to save some extra cash. Anyway, every time I watch this guy fight I’m amazed by his heart.

Most of the fights I’ve seen of his end up going to decision. I remember watching him fight a guy that they flew down from the Por Pramuk gym last year and at the time, he was really out of shape. He had just come back from a long stint back at his home and as soon as that fight started, you could tell that he was a little less precise with his striking than his opponent. That particular fight ended up going the full 5 rounds and he received heavy applause both during and at the end of the fight for the effort that he gave.

The fight last night however, was a different story. Now that he’s back in shape, he looks sharp – literally. He ended up catching his opponent with a devastating elbow and within 10 seconds of it connecting, the right side of his opponents victims face was drenched with blood. Check the video below (the elbow strike I’m talking about is at 1:03 into it).

That strike ultimately ended the fight as his opponent was bleeding heavily and Yodarwut became tentative to engage beyond a circuit point, and for good reason! The fighters at the stadium are NOT required to get any blood work done prior to stepping in the ring so for all he knows, his/your opponent COULD be HIV positive. It seems as though the thought of potentially contracting something serious rarely enters the minds of the fighters but it’s definitely something to consider before making your decision. Anyway, the doctors eventually called a stop to the fight at Yodarwut was awarded the victory!

For the next fight, we have my trainer (Mungkonkaw aka. “Nuy”) against some stiff competition – one of the trainers from the Tiger Muay Thai gym. Tiger Muay Thai is one of the most successful, most popular gyms in the country and due to their success, they’re able to hire some great fighters to train their guests.

“Nuy” was originally scheduled to fight “Ritt” but when Ritt walked into the stadium, I noticed he had a cut over his eye so rather than fighting Ritt, “Nuy” fought Tanwa – who like “Nuy”, has over 240 fights. Up until this point, I had never seen my trainer throw a punch, a kick – nothing! I had no idea what to expect but as soon as the fight started, he looked extremely comfortable, as if he hadn’t missed a beat with his training.

I guess when you’ve been training and fighting since you’re 8 years old, it becomes second nature and when it comes down to it, your instinct takes over and your reaction to everything is just automatic. Anyway, “Nuy” ended up winning the decision as a result of some great knees in the clinch. Here’s a brief video I took of one of the rounds..

Alright, the next fight featured a fighter from the Gym named Tawatchai. Tawatchai – who’s the current Bangla stadium champion here in Patong – put forth what was by far the most impressive performance of the night.

His opponent – who was much larger and much more experienced – was flown in from Bangkok specifically for the fight in order to give Tawatchai a tougher challenge. Well, Tawatchai stepped up to the challenge and ended the fight in brutal fashion. Check out this first video..

Now, although I appear to be close to the action while filming that, I really wasn’t at all. The close proximity of the video is a result of the zoom feature on my camera being fully optimized. I was a good 50 feet away and yet, it still sounds like Tawatchai is connecting with a baseball bat rather than his shin bone.

And yep, here’s the finish…

That’s definitely a rough way to earn a couple hundred bucks. Hope it’s nothing too serious.

That’s it for the Thai fighters. At this point, the gym is 3-1 on the night and the vibe is good. Up next is a fight between an American guy named William – who’s been training at the Patong Gym for about 6 weeks – and an Australian fighting out of the Rawai Muay Thai gym who I imagine has been training for about 6 weeks himself.

It wasn’t the most technical fight, but let’s be honest, in the heat of the moment, you go to what you’re comfortable with. Ten to twenty years experience of fighting with both feet on the ground usually triumphs over the 6 weeks you’ve spent kicking the pads – which of course, explains why there’s not many kicks being thrown here..

Later that night, William said that before the fight started, a few members of the primarily Australian crowd were shouting obscenities at him – which only gave him further motivation to finish the fight in convincing fashion.

After ending the fight with a knee to what appears to be his opponents chest, William said he chanted “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” to sort of rub the victory in the faces of those who were insulting him before things got underway.

To finish things up, a veteran foreign fighter named Don took on an experienced Thai guy. Don is from England and like myself, he came here once, got hooked on the place and now he sort of splits his time between Thailand and his home.

In order to earn some additional cash while he’s here so he can stay longer, he fights quite a bit at the stadium. He was here last year and towards the end of his trip, he had 3 fights booked within a 10 day period, or something crazy like that.

Anyway, his experience ended up paying off for him here as he ended up overwhelming his opponent with barrages of overhand rights and hooks. He was pushing forward the entire fight and although punches aren’t awarded any points by the judges, the fact that he had his opponent back-pedalling for 5 straight rounds got him the victory.

So, the end result at the stadium was 5 wins, 1 loss and the end result of the evening? Well..

AFTER THE SHOW IT’S THE AFTER PARTY!

THINKING OF GOING TO THAILAND TO TRAIN?

I’ve developed a 70 page guide that profiles everything you need to know about training in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya. In the manual, I discuss the visa issues, the Muay Thai camps, the different areas, the transportation, the food, the culture and customs, the girls, the scams, the safety issues and most importantly, how to save a ton of cash along the way!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Sawadee (Goodbye) Pattaya

Pattaya Thailand; this is one place that every man should experience at least once in their lifetime. It’s hard to even believe that a place like this actually exists. I’ve never seen so many beautiful women in such a concentrated area anywhere else and I spent 3 months living in Las Vegas. Vegas was cool, but it was tough to meet women when me and my buddy would be talking to a couple good looking ladies on LV Blvd. and high rollers would drive up and holler at the girls from the window of their Bentley GT. That’s a tough decision for the girls – hop into the Bentley with the millionaires or stick around and kick it with the guys on foot who would rather sit at the 10 cent slot machines and pretend to play in order to get a few free rum and cokes than stay in the bar and pay 9 bucks a drink. Although the first option (our approach) is much more financially sufficient, it doesn’t exactly impress the ladies in Vegas.

Aside from the seemingly thousands of insanely beautiful women, Pattaya also offers great training. Sityodtong was awesome, as was Scorpion. I’ve spent the last month training exclusively at Scorpion as it offers a laid back, un-crowded environment with great trainers who are eager to help. Both camps are situated away from the nightlife and both camps are surrounded by affordable accommodations. Not only are the nearby rooms affordable, but so is the training itself. A single session at both camps will run you a mere 250 baht (about 7 dollars). Just think, how much would a personal training session with a former champion Muay Thai fighter run you in your home country? I actually just found a new, well decorated room within 100 meters of Scorpion gym atop a convenience store with a large fridge, queen size bed, private washroom and air conditioning for 5000 baht per month (5000 baht is about 150US dollars).

I will certainly be keeping that room in mind for the future. Both the room and training costs will come in at less than 9000 baht per month. I’ve yet to see a more affordable combination that throughout both my time in Thailand and the time I’ve spent researching countless Muay Thai camps online. For someone like myself who a) doesn’t want to go home to Canada and b) wants to develop phenomenal stand-up skills, it’s important that I make things affordable so I’m able to stay as long as possible.

However, tomorrow at 12:45pm I’ll be boarding a plane to Phuket where I’ll be living and training at the ever-so-popular Tiger Muay Thai gym. I get more questions about Tiger Muay Thai than I do about any other camp in Thailand so the interest is certainly there. I’m curious myself to see how the training at Tiger will compare to the training I’ve received so far at some of the other Muay Thai camps I’ve visited.

The “Twist”

In my last entry, I mentioned a “twist”. Well, it’s possible that the “twist” has made me a marked man. Well, that’s a little overdramatic but I’ll explain. If you read the “trouble in paradise” entry, you’re then aware that I was living with a showgirl for a while. I lent her money, we had a falling out, haven’t gotten the money back yet etc. In my write up, I told a story of how she went nuts, started throwing electronics, sat in an empty bathtub for a while and there was also mention of drug usage.

About 85% of my readership comes from North America so it’s highly unlikely that people in Pattaya even know this site exists as I do absolutely no advertising here. Well, a local news website picked up on my Thai girl adventures and started profiling some of my entries. That’s all well and good as every bit of extra traffic helps the site grow. However, the latest entry, which can be viewed here, runs photos of her, mentions her name, mentions my name, and at one point, it even labels her as a “known yaba addict”.

Thailand is an extremely anti-drug country and it’s not entirely uncommon for “known yaba addicts” to be executed by the police. As you’d expect, with such harsh penalties for drug usage comes harsh consequences for those who draw attention to people using drugs. In all fairness, the girl does not use yaba (that I know about) and I met up with the author of the site in an effort to clear that up.

We exchanged text messages and met up at one of the more popular bars here in Pattaya for a drink (I had orange juice of course). Turns out that he was a really cool guy and he understood that the drug mention wasn’t critical to the story so he agreed to take it out. On a side note, it was pretty cool hanging out with a Thailand “local” (he’s originally from Jersey) as he was able to immediately pinpoint the best deals across town on a given night. It happened to be a Friday so he showed me a place with 50 baht beers ($1.75) and with every drink purchase, they gave you a free slice of pizza. Not that I eat much pizza, or even drink much beer for that matter (training), but that’s an incredible deal. I could never see an establishment in Canada offering prices like that.

Scenes From Walking Street

Walking street is an area situated along the beach that gets blocked off at night so cars can’t drive through. Hence the name, walking street. It’s basically a concentrated area that’s jam-packed with all sorts of go-go bars, nightclubs, shops and restaurants. It’s also possibly the most fun street I’ve ever spent time on. The gym I train at (traditional gym) is situated just off walking street so I see all sorts of crazy things being done by all sorts of crazy people. Here are just a few random videos/photos that I’ve taken of some of the scenes..

THINKING OF GOING TO THAILAND TO TRAIN?

I’ve developed a 70 page guide that profiles everything you need to know about training in Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya. In the manual, I discuss the visa issues, the Muay Thai camps, the different areas, the transportation, the food, the culture and customs, the girls, the scams, the safety issues and most importantly, how to save a ton of cash along the way!

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE