Having sparred with him and knowing he had pretty good boxing, I told him that he'd be fine and was confident that he would have a pretty easy match. But I was wrong.
Turns out, Muay Thai fights in Chiang Mai are VERY different from fights in Phuket. I used to defend Phuket's stadiums whenever someone would say things like, you're just fighting Tuk Tuk (Taxi) drivers, and all the knockouts are fake as people take falls. Most of the time the guys saying it were random guys posting online hiding behind their computer screens, who knows if these guys have ever fought themselves or even train. So my default answer was shut the fuck up, unless you were the one in the ring. The only two people that know if someone took a fall were the two people fighting.
Having fought twice at different stadiums in Phuket and having seen a bunch more while I was there I would say that most of the fights in Phuket are real, in fact, all fights are real up to a certain point, since at least one of the guys in there is trying to knock the other's head off. Do I think people take falls on purpose? No. Not the way in boxing. But I do think a lot of the Thai fighters in Phuket don't care that much if they win or lose so once they hit exhaustion and don't see an easy way for them to win, they may just lie down, even if they could have gotten up.
In my personal history, I've had all fair fights, with the exception of one that was mismatched. The first guy was in Koh Lanta and that was a young Thai guy, 19 years, the same size as me, with around 10 fights under his belt. It was legit. The only thing that wasn't legit was they cut the rounds short when they saw that we were both exhausted. I lost to decision and ended up fighting him in a rematch a month later. He was trying to win just as bad as I was, and when I knocked him out with an elbow, it was legit, he was out. I know this because I'm a pretty big guy and I hit him literally as hard as I could with all of my body weight in his temple with my elbow. He was out cold.
My third fight was in Phuket, and was a mismatched weight wise. I was 18 kilos heavier than my opponent. The only thing that made it a bit more fair is he had twenty something fights and I had two. I also happened to be in really good shape and confident during that fight as I had just finished a three month fight camp at Tiger Muay Thai. I dropped him three times in the first round and the referee declared it a TKO. He was legitimately trying to win, I knew this when he started throwing big elbows trying to catch me.
My my recent fight was also in Phuket against a guy in his 40's. He has had over 200 fights but was now old and over weight. If you watch the fight, you may think it was mismatched, but the reality is, he was trying to knock me out. He hit me with 5 short elbows straight to my nose and teeth, but they were so small and fast that you can't even see them on video unless you really slow it down. This is when I realized that people in the audience, and people in front of their computers watching fights on youtube don't know shit. The only two people that really know what was truly going on in the fight are the two people in the ring.
I'm confident that this guy took a fall in the 2nd round. I hit him with a knee in the body that may or may not have actually dropped him, but either way, I'm almost 100% sure that he could have gotten up if he wanted to. The reason why he didn't was he knew he was going to get paid the same win or lose, and he also knew that I was trying to knock him the fuck out and wasn't going to go down anytime soon. He was exhausted as I was really pushing the pace, and didn't want to take the risk of really getting knocked out since he was too tired to keep his hands up.
During the first two rounds I hit this guy as hard as I could over and over with blows to his body. I punched and kicked him harder than I do when I hit the heavy bag, and he just took it. I was legitimately trying to knock him out for two rounds. His short elbows to my mouth ended up losing my teeth to a point where I couldn't spar for 5 months. If I hadn't been wearing a dentist molded mouth guard, I'm pretty sure I would have lost some teeth. These are the things that make me have zero respect for internet tough guys who talk shit online in youtube comments, and on forums. If it wasn't you in the ring or cage, you don't know shit. I know this, because I used to be one of these idiots.
I specially remember a conversation I had with a Swedish guy named Erik, we had just finished watching an episode of The Ultimate Fighter where both guys gassed out and had a pretty boring, shitty fight. I said to him, dude, I could beat these guys. His response really shocked me. He straight up said,
"No you couldn't. You have no idea what the fuck you're taking about."
At that time, I had just started training Muay Thai and hadn't stepped in the ring yet. In my mind, some of the low level guys on TUF, the ones that gassed early on and didn't look very impressive would be easy to beat in a fight. I seriously thought that I'd be able to step in with my zero fight experience and minimal training and whoop these guys asses. Boy was I wrong, and looking back on it, I was a fucking idiot.
If you truly want to understand and enjoy watching UFC and K-1, train and fight, and you'll see it completely differently especially when there's a "boring" fight. Everyone can enjoy watching epic knockouts, and of course I prefer those matches as well, but only people who have never trailed Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu will say shit like:
"UFC is boring, guys just hold each other on the ground."
I know, because those exact words once came out of my mouth, long before I did my first MMA class and got into BJJ. Even though I still find it boring when a guy like Jake Shields or Josh Koscheck takes a guy down and just controls him with wrestling without ground and pounding or going for submissions, at least I understand where the guy on the bottom is coming from and how difficult and tiring it is to be in that situation.
Anyways, my official stance on fights in Phuket vs. Chiang Mai are, in Phuket for your first fight since they don't know you and randomly if they can't find a good opponent you will get mismatched and the Thai guy often doesn't have any incentive to give it his all and win. However, the fights are legit because if you give the Thai guy a chance, he will happily knock you the fuck out.
In Chiang Mai however, from the fights I've seen so far, the Thai guys are legitimately trying to win every fight and will fight their hearts out until the end. I think it's because these guys are generally younger and up and coming, from poor towns in the north of Thailand, and want a good enough record to fight in Lumpinee and Ratchadamnoen.
Here is a video of Phil, an American guy that trained at KC Muay Thai here in Chiang Mai's first fight. I've sparred with him and thought he was pretty good and was confident that he'd get an easy fight since it was his first, boy was I wrong. Luckily, he has tons of heart and fought well. The first round starts off pretty slow, like most Muay Thai fights do, but then it becomes an EPIC battle.
Hope you enjoyed the fight as much as I did. I know it's a bit different when you know the guy in person and am emotionally invested, but either way it was a good fight.
Warm Regards,
Johnny @ My Fight Camp
As always, make sure you leave a comment, even just to say what's up. Just remember, the next time you decide to leave an anonymous comment regarding someone's fight, ask yourself if you really could have done any better.
Ones vacation to Thailand should by no means become complete in case you have not installed feet with Phuket, metropolis which includes everthing. You can virtually complete whatever in Phuket, whether inside your home as well as out-of-doors, whether rainfall as well as shine.
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