Alistar Overeem at Superpro Koh Samui

A lot of people including myself thought maybe going to Thailand to train for his upcoming UFC fight wasn't the best idea.  Coming off of a two straight loss, the UFC would have been forced to cut Alistar if he lost to Frank Mir.  Personally I thought Overeem is a fantastic fighter and he just got cocky and got caught.  Even his losses were great entertaining fights.

UFC Fight Camps in Thailand have never been the best idea.  The 18 hour time zone difference alone makes it extremely hard to get used to before a fight, just ask Ray Elbe when he auditioned for The Ultimate Fighter.  Or guys like Roger Huerta that came to Thailand and ended up relaxing more than training.

Alistar Overeem in Koh Samui Thailand

However, Overeem was the exception. He showed up in shape, fully rested, injury free and ready to fight.  His cardio was excellent and he fought smart against Frank Mir.  It was clear that Overeem could have tried to finish Mir but he was smart enough to know his career was on the line and taking a clear decision victory was a better choice than rushing in.

Video of Alistair Overeem in Koh Samui.  

So why was Overeem's Thai fight camp so good?

There are times to train hard, and times to train smart.  Maybe what Overeem needed more than anything was to get away from the stress, the media and to center himself and relax.  Either way, it's clear that whatever he did over at Superpro Samui worked.

Training Muay Thai and MMA at Superpro Samui

While there are plenty of Muay Thai gyms in Thailand, along with Tiger Muay Thai, Phuket Top Team and Team Quest, Superpro Samui is one of the few MMA gyms. Located on the island of Koh Samui, Superpro is on the east side of the country.  The weather there is perfect all year round except for the monsoon season during November which is to be avoided. Read the book "12 Weeks in Thailand: The Good Life on the Cheap" for more tips on planning your fight camp in Thailand. 

An island over is Koh Phangan where the legendary Full Moon Party is held every month, and next to that is Koh Tao, the cheapest place to learn to Scuba Dive.

Koh Samui however, is known for being the luxury touristy island.  Expect to pay a lot more for everything including taxi, food, accommodation and even your flight into Samui's private airport. However if you can afford it and don't mind the upper crust crowd Samui is a nice island with a good mix of lifestyle and beaches. 

Superpro Samui

Costs of Training:

I don't like that Superpro Samui doesn't list their prices on their website.  But you can email them to find out how much it costs to train.  Basically if you're there for less than 2 weeks the price will be a lot, but you can rent out a cheap fan room and pay for a discounted monthly rate if you're staying for a while.  Their website is: Superprosamui.com/

Even though Koh Samui can be extremely expensive compared to the rest of Thailand, if you look around enough you can still eat and sleep like a local and manage to live and train for under $1,000US a month.  But don't expect it to be easy.

2018 Update: From the new webmaster of Superpro: "I liked the review you did back in 2014 of the camp. A Lot has changed since then like we now provide pricing on the page for example. 

We also do MMA, Yoga and Crossfit now.

Love your work on the site there - I've been following your endeavours for a while now."

The author with Overeem at the K1 tryouts.

As for Alistar Overeem, I'm excited to have seen him get back on his win streak and look forward to his next fight in the UFC!  

Warm Regards,

Johnny FD
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www.12WeeksinThailand.com - Read the book if you're thinking about coming to Thailand.