Fight Night At Patong Stadium
December 14, 2009 by admin · Leave a Comment
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..
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!
Settled In At Patong Gym
December 8, 2009 by admin · 4 Comments
The view from my room. Hate on, haters.
I’ve trained at the Patong Boxing Gym before. I even wrote up a review on the place, but as you could tell by the review, I really like it here so whatever, I figured I’d stop by once again. I’m staying on-site at the camp this time, which is a nice change of pace because it’s so peaceful up here.
Last year I was staying in town and there was way too many distractions (girls, nightclubs) down there so it’s easy to get sidetracked from the training. Up here, it feels like you’re a world away from all that but when you want to go into town for some shopping or to hit the clubs on a Saturday night, you just have to go down the hill – which takes a mere 5 minutes via motorbike.
And speaking of going “down the hill” on a motorbike, I had my first crash tonight. Me and another guy staying at the camp wanted to head into town. He wanted to go see his new love interest (more on that later) and I wanted to get a sub from subway to switch things up a bit (I’m really getting sick of eating rice for every meal).
We walked over to the convenience store next to the singpatong gym – which is where we usually get a taxi – only this time, the big SUV that they usually drive us in wasn’t available. As an alternative, he suggested that he give us a lift down the hill on his motorbike. Three guys; one motorbike – it didn’t seem like a good idea at the time but then again, it didn’t seem like a bad enough idea to prompt us to walk down the hill either.
So we hopped on and since I was quick to call “giving” not “receiving”, my friend was in the middle and I was sitting at the back. It was fine at the start. A little awkward sure, but we were getting from point A to point B and that was good enough. We made it to “the hill” (perhaps the steepest in Patong) and we weren’t going that slow either.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the driver pumped the breaks a bit (perhaps because we were going a little too fast) and when he did that, he completely lost control of the bike and I didn’t even have time to yell “oooooh sheiiiiiiiiiit” before I was sliding down the concrete.
Immediately after it happened, I stood up and walked over to the side of the road. My right leg was in pain, but aside from that, nothing immediately stood out as being injured.
EDIT: It’s the following day now and my right shoulder is messed up. I must have done something to my rotator cuff because it hurts when I elevate my arm upwards and I can’t throw a punch. I had to skip training today, which sucks because I could hear everyone else training from my room. When I’m healthy, there are times where I just feel like relaxing and taking the day off, but at least I like having the option to train. Hearing screams of exertion, followed by the sound of shins cracking into the pads was pretty discouraging knowing that I couldn’t throw on my gear and head down to do the same. Hopefully I’ll be back at it in a few days.
And Speaking Of The Training..
When I was able to train, things were going well. My cardio is still shit (with no signs of it getting any better either), but my trainer is awesome – and that’s really all it comes down too. The training here is all one on one so you get a lot of individual attention and since my trainer is really good, I couldn’t ask for more.
The gym is located on a really quiet, yet scenic road so I usually start my training sessions off with a run. I grabbed my camera the other day and filmed a bit so you guys can see. It was about to rain though and it looks much nicer when the sun is out – especially at the peak of one of the hills where you get a view of the Andaman Sea.
I was wearing my Ipod as I was filming that so I only noticed how hard I was breathing when I re-watched the video. Like I said, my cardio is embarrassing – which brings me to the next couple videos. My friend filmed these about a week and a half ago so I figured I’d post them up. Notice how neither of the videos elapses the .20 second mark? That’s because after that initial 20 seconds, I’m usually hunched over trying to catch my breath. Ah well, it’s a starting point.
The guy that’s holding the pads is the great trainer I was talking about above. He’s actually fighting one of the trainers from Tiger Muay Thai in a couple days so I’ll try to post up some video footage of that.
A Story in Development
Alright, so if you’ve been following these entries for a while, I’m sure you know by now that I tend to get myself into dramatic situations with some of the local girls. I mean, there was the “fatal attraction” entry where a girl named Fon threatened my life and balcony hopped into my room one night. Then of course there was the “trouble in paradise” entry, which is actually the most read entry of the entire training journal – but I won’t bother summarizing that one, you can just read it for yourself if you haven’t already.
Anyway, with this being my third trip here, I’ve finally come to understand how things work and I intend on using my knowledge to ensure that things go smoothly and I avoid the type of drama that I encountered during my first couple trips. After all, I like it here in Patong and I don’t want to be looking over my shoulder for vengeful girls whenever I leave my room.
Luckily for my readers there’s a Thailand rookie here with me who seems to be making all those highly entertaining mistakes so I won‘t have too. He’s from Canada as well (about a 2 hour drive from where I live) and he’s started what promises to be a long and meaningful relationship with a Thai bargirl (sense the sarcasm there?).
What was supposed to be a drunken one night stand on a Saturday night has, at the time of this writing, developed into a 12 day whirlwind romance – at least in his mind. What he doesn’t understand is that this girl has come to Patong from Issan to work, earn money and provide for her family. That’s where her priorities lye and those priorities aren’t going to change.
That being said, he’s not paying her and she’s not going into work. So, either she has a lot of money as it is (in which case she wouldn’t be working in the bars) or she’s “working” him in some way or another. When you first speak with the bargirls, they ask you a series of questions..
1) “What’s your name?”
2) “Where you from?”
3) “How long you stay?”
4) “You come Thailand before?”
5) “What you work in *insert country here*?”
Friendly conversation? Could be. But perhaps it’s more than that. Perhaps they’re sizing us up with these questions and what they really mean is..
1) Just asking your name, not important, but they won’t remember if you ask them 10 min. later.
2) Are you from a desirable country?
3) Is there enough time to make you fall in love OR How long can I get money out of you for?
4) Are you a newbie? Because newbie’s are easy pickings.
5) Do you have “big money”?
Now, he’s from Canada, he’s never been here before, he’s just arrived and he’s staying for half a year; that has got to be a quality score of at least 98/100 with the bargirls.
The first girl he picked up immediately tried to move herself into his room and came on pretty strong with her intentions. So strong in fact, that he had to kick her out of his room and at 4 in the morning, she was running around the camp, banging on peoples doors and causing a big scene.
His current girl pulled the same thing, and by day 3, she had moved her laptop and wardrobe up to his room. He’s kept her around, so I guess he likes her, but I just don’t see this ending well. Even on the off chance that her intentions are not in the least bit money oriented and she genuinely just wants to spend time with him without any monetary compensation, he has the intention of being a “butterfly” (term for a player here) behind her back, and I see the potential for that to blow up in his face – especially considering the fact that she has already told him straight up that if he wants to change girls she’ll cut his dick off and kill him (she said this while wielding a knife as she was cutting up some fruit).
All signs with this point to disaster and I’m not the only one to warm him about this sort of thing. He’s got all the right advice, but he just chooses not to listen. It’s like we’ve all touched a hot burner on an oven, got burnt, warned him not to touch it himself because it’s hot, and he’s ignoring our advice and reaching out for it anyway.
I guess there’s nothing else I can do now other than observe and report the seemingly inevitable, drama-filled conclusion to the story. He’s been missing a lot of training sessions as well, but while he’s been hurting his chances of making it to Lumpinee stadium, he’s been dramatically increasing his chances of becoming the welterweight champion of the USC – the ultimate snuggling championships.
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!
Our Classy Week in Pattaya
November 23, 2009 by admin · 4 Comments
Armpit Sweat, Testicles, Adams Apples and a Giant Right Hand; Everything You Need For A Classy Night Out On The Town (I'm sure he will regret this picture)
We landed in Bangkok on the 11th, stayed for a couple nights, did some shopping and then headed straight to Pattaya. For those of you who don’t know, Pattaya is an extremely upscale and classy town that’s known for its architecture, museums and art galleries.
Naw, I’m just kidding. Pattaya is known for it’s bars and girls but after spending the last 6 months bored out of my mind in Ottawa, a week of booze and debauchery before I settled in and got serious about my training sounded like a good plan to us all.
Having never seen anything like it, my friends were in disbelief that a place like Pattaya actually existed. The looks on their faces when they were getting swarmed by beautiful girls was priceless. Here’s a quick video that somewhat captures what the experience was like for them..
Now, nobody spends a full week in Pattaya without racking up some interesting stories. It’s non-stop action there and you’re always on the go. There was a point where we were only getting 4 hours of sleep each night and we still felt wide awake.
Our Living Arrangements
We were staying in the apartments above club blue because I had stayed there before and I was happy with the room, the price, the location and the service. It’s right in the center of a party area so it’s definitely not a good place to stay if your planning on sleeping at a decent hour but for this week, we didn’t care about that at all. Here’s a quick tour of the place..
“Fuck White People”
On one of the nights – I believe it was the evening of the Friday the 13th – I had split away from my friends at around 4 in the morning. They were going to an after hours club called MIXX and I just wanted to do my own thing. I was walking outside of “Lucifer” and I heard someone behind me say “fuck white people”.
I looked back and it was coming from a middle eastern guy who had just come out of the bar. He was walking behind me and looking directly at me so I had no doubt who he was directing his comments towards. I’m not a big fan of getting into street fights – especially in foreign countries – so I just brushed it off and kept walking.
Then I heard his stupid “fuck white people” comment again, only this time, it was louder and when I looked back, he was walking right up to me. Clearly this guy had the intention of starting a fight and since he wasn’t Thai or Russian (don’t get in altercations with either in Pattaya) I just grabbed him and smoked him twice in the face.
The shots didn’t land clean since I was drunk but they were more than enough to scare him off. The whole situation was stupid. It was stupid on his part because lets face it, he doesn’t know me, I could have the fighting skills of GSP for all he knows (although I clearly don’t) and it was stupid on my part because I had to leave walking street right after, which put an end to what was turning out to be an awesome night.
A Round Of Applause
Clap, clap, clap – that’s exactly what one of my friends ended up getting after a night of mixing alcohol with reckless sex. He hooked up with a showgirl on one of our first nights in Pattaya and a couple days later, well, let’s just say he was experienced some undesirable effects from the exposure.
We were all just sitting around watching TV when “it hit” and he rushed to the washroom. He came out with a concerned look on his face and said that he needed to hit a pharmacy a.s.a.p. Being the dirty guy that he is, it really wasn’t anything new for him. He had it before so he knew exactly what he needed to take.
So, a quick trip to the pharmacy and 4000 baht later, he got a “cocktail” injection and he was good to go. As for the morale of the story, well, there really isn’t one. I guess it would have to be to not have unprotected sex, in any form, with Thai prostitutes – but whatever, as harsh as it sounds, it was good for some laughs. After all, him getting “clapped up” added to the classiness of the week.
The Training
The first week was mostly about letting loose and having fun but I was able to get some training in. I did a couple workouts at Scorpion Gym and then decided to switch things up a bit by going to RMB gym since I had heard good things. I only did 2 workouts at RMB but I was impressed with the place and I definitely plan on going back at some point. Here’s an RMB gym review that I wrote up based on those visits.
Training Videos
One of my friends went to the 13 coins gym in Bangkok prior to flying down to the Patong Boxing Gym (which is where I’m writing this from) and he was able to get some footage of Saenchai Sor Kingstar and Orono doing their training. Check it out..
Random, Slightly Creepy Video
Yeah, I don’t really know what to say about this one. We just thought his reaction when he was asked for money was priceless. A little rude sure, but funny nonetheless..
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!
