The next day

After my night of wild partying (a small bag of chips and some water in my room) I woke up feeling a sense of achievement. I had set myself a goal; to fight in Thailand, and I had accomplished it last night. That morning while I was in my room waiting for breakfast two of the kids knocked on my door. They had heard about my win last night and wanted to see the belt! Haha They seemed so excited and wanted photos with the belt too. They kept calling me champion and saying “You good! You good! K.O K.O” It was just a great feeling to have earnt the respect of these young kids. It’s a bit odd when I think about it sometimes but I really admire what these kids do and look up to them more than they may think. Let me try explain. These kids train everyday of there life, and still go to school. When I say train I don’t mean 1 hour sessions a day, I’m talking atleast 4-6 hours a day. Now that’s dedication. For someone as young as 11 years old that’s dedication. No complaints, no whinging, they just do it.

Mr Am

Mr Bang

Mr Bia

Photos from my fight

time for war!

the fastest warm up ever

The Kiatphontip Family

An early night in the office

Last night I fought and won via TKO in the first round. The fight was at 70kg (the heaviest I had fought at in years) against a Singaporean foreigner from the promoters gym. I thought I’d break up the whole night in sections to make for an easier read:

Making weight
Once again there was no weigh in, but this fight was supposed to be at 70kg. I was slightly over on the day, but I’m sure my opponent was much over as he looked much bigger in size. The beauty with having no weigh in is that I can train like a animal and eat like one too! haha In saying that I have been still trying to eat healthy and clean. Thailand has an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables which are so readily available at the local market. Making weight has always been tough mentally, but this time around I felt great because I wasn’t depriving myself. I thought I’d post up a picture of me when I fought at under 62kgs and one from last night. Its almost like a before and after photo.

FEB 2009 (under 62kgs)

NOV 2009 (over 70kgs)

Preparation
The preparation for this fight was a bit strange because mentally it didn’t feel like I was fighting. I guess that the danger of my opponent pulling out or the fight falling through was still hanging around my head. It didn’t really sink in that I was fighting until the day of the fight.

Before the fight
One thing that I will remember for the rest of my life is when some of the kids at the gym came up to me before I left to wish me luck. There English is limited but I totally understood what they meant, they gave me the thumbs up and said “Phillip, you good. Win sure” “I know you win sure”.

We were on our way to the fights and we get a call from the promoter asking us where we were because I was up to fight! ARGHHH panic. My trainer then started to wrap my hands in the car. Not a good start. I don’t like to be rushed, especially before a fight. When we arrive at the stadium we were told that they had pushed one fight before mine and that I was up next… I didn’t even have time to panic, clothes came off and I changed into my battle gear. They oiled me up, shadow boxed for about 30 seconds and was good to go. Now when I look back at my previous fights, we always turned up hours earlier and I would spend those hours stewing and waiting nervously for my name to be called. This time I got to skip all that, so it kind of worked out in the end.

Gameplan
My corner had asked me to go easy on the first round and pace myself for the fight. I’m guessing the reason they do this is for gambling purposes. The advice I was given was to teep (push kick) my opponent away and cover up block when he started firing. Easy plan to follow, and I stuck to it. One piece of advice one of the other foreigners got told when he asked about fight prep sounded something like “One week no wank, make you strong… SURE!” haha still makes me laugh.

The fight
As you know the fight game is unpredictable and sometimes its hard to stick to a gameplan because circumstance change. I started off well at a nice light pace, checking the opponents kicks and parrying his teeps. Then came the storm, he decided to bomb me with a series of windmill punches. I covered, tried to clinch but was unsuccessful engage him in the grapple. No matter. He backed off and bombed again, this time I countered with a series of punches and caught him with a nice straight right. Goodnight! I saw him hit the floor and try to get back up with jelly legs. The ref then called it off.

Celebrations
Normally after a fight we’d hit the town, even if I had work the next day. But not this time, the gym is too far out from Bangkok and I was pretty dead tired. I had a few drinks with the trainers back at the gym, then retreated back to my room with a bag of chips and some water! IBIZIA eat your heart out!

PHOTOS IN NEXT POST

Kiatphontip family photo

Check this out

This is a tad off topic but still a great watch. I’ve always been a big fan of traveling and training abroad, and this guy Juggs has documented his travels and training experiences in Japan superbly. Only wish there were more guys producing quality work like this. Also check out his blog at http://web.mac.com/juggsvsjapan/juggsVSjapan/Welcome.html

Fighting again this Friday *fingers crossed*

So it looks like its on again, hopefully this time my opponent doesn’t pull out. This time around I don’t think its really sunk in that I’m fighting (maybe because I know that its never for certain here). Last few days I’ve been tapering and just taking it easy. Once again there is no weigh in, but the fight should be at 70kgs (the highest, I’ve fought at for a few years). All I know about my opponent is that he’s a foreigner and thats about it! In Thailand it doesn’t really seem to make a difference who your opponent is, because it’s unlikely that anyone will know anything about him unless he’s a very high profile fighter. So I will take it as it comes.

One of the main differences with fighting here in Thailand and back at home is that in Thailand it feels as if there are no pressures. It’s almost as if no one really cares if you’re fighting (not in a bad way) but the fact that people here fight so frequently and so often that its just not a big deal to them. Just another day in the office. I like this kind of atmosphere as my mind feels relaxed and confident.

The 1 month mental wall

It seems to be a common occurrence amongst foreigners to go a bit “crazy” after 1 month of training especially if they are not fighting. I don’t know what it is but it seems that there is a need to just get away from the gym. I can start to feel it myself. It’s because we are living, eating, training, and washing in the gym. There’s no real escape to take your mind away from the gym. Sometimes when I’ve had a rough week and decide to take a morning off, it’s not really that relaxing as my room is 2 metres away from the gym and all I can hear are the sounds of kicking pads and AAA OOO EEEE.

Muay Thai legend

Got my photo with Muay Thai legend Sangtiennoi aka the deadly kisser. Sangtiennoi was nicknamed ‘the deadly kisser’ after he developed the habit of giving his opponent a peck on the cheek,when he was in front and about to win the fight. Some of his opponents during his career included Nokweed Devy,Chanchai sor Thamrangsii, Wanpadet Phukrongfaa, Namphon and Namkabuan Nongkeepahuyuth,Cherry Sor Vanich,Orono por Muangubon,Superlek Sornisaarn and many others. He has also fought many foreigners such as Danny Bill, Hassan Kassrioui, and Ramon Dekker.

The gamblers rule the fight game

In Thailand, gambling plays such a big role in the fight game. If the gamblers are not betting because they see the fight is too one sided then no one will bet and the fighter will just back off or even take a dive. Sometimes the betters will scout out the fighters before the actual fight to size them up and even ask them a question or two so they don’t have to depart with there hard earned baht. The gamblers seem to get really involved in the fights, to the point where I’d consider it freak like behaviour. A clear example was when one of the foreigners at the gym was fighting another thai boy. It was a pretty even fight and the gamblers wanted the foreigner to deliver a 2^nd or 3^rd round KO. One of the punters jumped into the corner between rounds and started rubbing the fighter down and yelling at him in thai. Hillarious!

FIGHT TIME! not really….

I was scheduled to fight in a local stadium on Wednesday night, but it didn’t happen because apparently my opponent (another foreigner) injured his leg. I found out about this lunchtime of the day I was supposed to be fighting. This didn’t surprise me however… why you ask? Because it seems to happen a lot here in Thailand. People pulling out, changing opponents at the fight, having no opponent on the night… all the fight shenanigans that you don’t really see happen at home. There’s a bit of a joke or saying going here between the foreigners; your fight is not confirmed until you are in the ring standing opposite your opponent.

This fight was supposed to be at 68kgs because I was sitting pretty heavy thanks to all the $1 market meals and ice creams I’ve been having at night to make myself feel better about training so hard haha. Even with the agreed weight there is NO OFFICIAL WEIGH IN. You just turn up on the day and fight, so you or your opponent could be potentially kilos heavier. It’s only at the local smaller stadiums where they have no weigh ins. At the bigger stadiums like Lumpinee and Raja they have early morning same day weigh ins. So you would weigh in at 7am and fight that night. Even with same day weigh ins, people still cut large amounts of weight.

This was one of the first fights where I really didn’t have to make any weight. This meant I was still able to eat normally and hit the gym hard. I think it would be very difficult if I had to make weight in this environment on top of training for a fight.

This time around I also tapered my training 3 days out from the fight. Ill give you a basic rundown of how it happened:

Sunday: REST DAY for everyone at the gym
Monday: Did a short run in the afternoon and shadowboxed a few rounds
Tuesday: No Training
Wednesday: No Training, Fight Day!

I actually felt real good and strong from tapering like this. By weds my body was buzzing with energy and ready for War. Luckily I didn’t have to make any weight this time around but I’m sure if I did, the tapering process would be slightly different.

All in all I am disappointed with not fighting. I had trained hard, taken time off to taper, and planned for a big week off. Well, all that went out the window and now I’m back at training. Something like this really throws you mentally, its hard to find the energy to refocus after the emotional rollercoaster ride of fight training.