As some of you may know, Non-Thai people cannot officially own any land in Thailand. So if an American or European owns a home or business in Thailand, they either have a Thai business partner that controls the majority of the company or they are just leasing the land. Westerner can't buy houses in Thailand but can legally own Condos as they are built on isn't officially theirs and only leased for 30-99 years.
Without knowing the Thai partner's side of the story, it looks like he got greedy and decided to let Tiger Muay Thai build a world class gym, and 48 rooms of accommodation before telling them to fuck off his land. TMT hired lawyers but legally they were screwed. When I asked the manager why they don't demolish the buildings before they leave, he informed me that it would be illegal if they did.
I'm not sure what the Thai guy is going to do with the space, but I'm sure he will have terrible karma for what he did. Will he get respect and face for having a world class Muay Thai gym all to himself or will it remain empty and unused because whatever gym gets built there, I'm sure no westerner would go to after hearing how shady he was in obtaining it.
It's a shame that what could have been a great alternative to Tiger Muay Thai Phuket in a quieter, cheaper location near Chiang Mai is never going to exist. I'm sure some people are happy about it, but either way, it's really sad news to hear of anyone getting ripped off that badly. Here is a video of what could have been, would have been.
Warm Regards,
Johnny
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Thinking about coming out to Thailand for a Muay Thai camp?
Make sure you read www.12WeeksinThailand.com first, it'll save you TONs of time and money.
Not a big fan of Tiger MT, but that really sucks. Reminds me to not start a land business in Thailand.
ReplyDeleteI dont know the whole story, but if it is as you have told then TMT has themselves to blame. I studied a bit of Thai law and if you just get a decent lawyer there is ways that a majority foreign-owned company can own land and have all the rights. Almost every big supermarket company like Tesco, Big C etc. are all foreign own and the foreign owners have total control. So if TMT decided to not invest in a good legal way of preventing this sort of thing, then its their own fault, because this is a damn common occurrence.
ReplyDelete/The Marcus you know
thats a one fuck-up thai, hope he dies miserably and his family.
ReplyDeleteI know TMT in Phuket... don't like the idea of big "Muay Thai Machine" as it is.... prefer smaller gyms to train in. But that's really bad. Don't dare to think about the money and the motivtion the gym owner lost now...
ReplyDeletePoor Will Elliott, he has had his ''profits" reinvested on his behalf for the Chiang Mai project. I'm sure his ''salary'' is going to be effected for some time to come thanx to the poor investment. A quick google search makes it apparent to anyone that you have to visit the department of land registry if you are planning on having any leasing contract for more than a 3 year term. Embarrassing. I bet Ray Elbe is glad he jumped ship when he did.
ReplyDeleteboy thats good news tiger muay thai is as western and as unspiritual as it gets ,professionally run outfit completelely losing the clue of the purpose of figthing ,when we have guys like kru villalobos we dont need tmt in chiang mai.
ReplyDeletecheers
Will mcnamara who owns TMT has a Thai wife. Why did he not just buy the land in his wifes name ?
ReplyDeletewhy not buy the land? land in CM is cheap and the owner of TMT have mad ALOT of money in phuket and he have thai wife, i think they just did a big mistake of trying to lease the land..
ReplyDeletene soyez pas surpris si le véritable propriétaire de Tiger à Phuket, un homme du nom de Will, me suis fait avoir. Il a l'habitude de forcer sur la concurrence et la fermeture des gymnases bas. Si quelqu'un se souvient de Chalong Muay Thai qui a également eu un emblème Tiger (mais un design différent, cette wa syears il ya). Il faisait partie détenue par Will. Mais seront-elles chassées et leur baiser. Il la baise ses partenaires d'affaires pour le profit. Le gars est aussi un menteur constante. Il m'a menti, de façon flagrante, de choses sérieuses quelques fois quand j'étais là-bas. Donc, je ne ferais pas confiance sa version de l'histoire. Si il a obtenu forcés de quitter le pays, il est plus probable que le Thai finnally réalisé juste quelle sorte d'homme il avait affaire et a agi pour éviter le même sort que les partenaires précédents de volonté.
ReplyDeleteD'autre part, avec son arrogance obsesive et l'habitude de pervertir Muay Thai dans le mercantilisme, peut-être la justice a finnally rattrapé avec lui? Je l'espère.
I would be surprised if the actual owner of Tiger in Phuket, a man named Will, got screwed. He has a habit of forcing out competition and shutting gyms down. If anyone remembers Chalong Muay Thai which also had a Tiger emblem (but a different design, this wa syears ago). It was part owned by Will. But Will forced them out and fucked them. He screws his business partners for profit. The guy is also a constant liar. He lied to me, blatantly, about serious things a few times when I was there. So I would not trust his version of the story. If he did get forced off the land, it is more likely the Thai finnally realized just what sort of man he was dealing with and acted to avoid the same fate as Will's previous partners.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, with his obsesive arrogance and habit of perverting Muay Thai into commercialism, perhaps justice has finnally caught up with him?
The whole thing was a scam by the owner of tiger Muay Thai will McNamara. He had UFC fighters investing huge sums of money. It was them that lost out and threatened him with legal action
ReplyDeleteHey I don't know where you've heard that, but it's definitely wrong. It was the Thai land owner that kicked Will and TMT off the property. Will personally lost a ton of money because of it.
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