Who am I? And why did I decide to do this?

I don't know, but maybe that's why I fight?

My three month fight camp all began with a short three week vacation to Phuket, Thailand.  Luckily I was reading the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris on the plane and just happened to be stressing out from my normal life back home.  If everything was perfect, maybe I wouldn't have come?

Either way, I decided to quit my job...which was tough!  Sell my stuff, and go to Thailand for three months.

I had never done Muay Thai or really any martial arts before I came.  But I used to wrestle in high school and loved it.  I figured, why not?  But my first three month trip to Thailand wasn't for a fight camp, it was to learn how to scuba dive.  It just happened that there was a little gym, Island Muay Thai on the island of Koh Tao.

Island Muay Thai - Koh Tao, Thailand

It was a good experience for a beginner and aside from kicking a heavy bag in my friend's garage, it was all the experience I had with fighting.  At that time I wasn't even into watching UFC. Island Muay Thai is a medium sized muay thai gym in a island full of tourists, mainly there to scuba dive.  It was pretty cheap and Koh Tao really nice island to live on, but in pursuit of better scuba diving I ended up in Koh Lanta and trained  at a gym called Lanta Muay Thai. 

I trained there for three months and even had my first fight.  I thought it would be easy, but boy was I wrong. I'm actually really happy I lost my first fight, as it taught me to put in the effort during training, instead of suffering in the ring.  

Koh Lanta Stadium - My first fight

The fight went all five rounds, and my cardio lasted about two.  I thought I was ready for it, but as soon as I got hit, I realized that mentally I was not.  It's a different feeling when you are across the ring from someone trying to take your head off, and there is only two ways out.  Regrettably  I chose the option that a lot of beginners make, and did everything I could to hope the five rounds would end and no one would notice that I wanted out of the fight long ago. 

The days after the fight, I really had to be honest with myself, and decided to ask for a rematch and really do it properly this time.  I added running to my daily training, something that I hate doing, still to this day.  But fighter's run.  And every time I would want to quit, I'd tell myself that I'd rather suffer now than in the ring.

Here is the rematch, exactly one month after the first fight.

And that was just the beginning, and where I discovered the importance of hard training and the quote: 

"Train hard, and Fight easy." 

Warm Regards,

My Fight Camp.