It is almost time- in less than 24 hours I should be in Bangla stadium, Patong, waiting to go into the ring and go to war with someone for five 3 minute rounds. It will be my first proper muay thai fight, and unlike back home where you go through different levels, it will be full thai rules. However it goes, this is going to be one hell of an experience.
The training here at Sinbi has been tough- twice a day, 6 days a week, about 4.5 hours a day total (not including going for runs), but that is exactly what is needed. This is a tough and gruelling sport- physical fitness, conditioning and mental toughness are paramount. I'm feeling pretty confident- win or lose I don't mind so much, I just want to make a good fight.
On Wednesday morning I had another private session with Tun, in part to allow the Sinbi camera guy Dave to film me training for my video- a short highlight montage of my fight and training here. It should look good, with shots of me hitting the pads and bags, sparring, clinching, running on the beach and doing strength work as well as my fight. Dave is a cool guy who has been here for 5 years (not jealous at all) and only goes home for Christmas. I'm beginning to think I need to find a job that will let me stay here permanently.
During the private session Tun informed me that he intends to place a 1,000 baht bet (around 20 pound) on me for my fight- I'm flattered by the confidence and intend to use it as extra motivation when I'm tired and hurt. Gambling is a huge part of muay thai- one of the only times it is actually legal here- and a big part of the great atmosphere at the fights in Thailand is the gamblers going crazy and shouting on their guy. It's not uncommon for gamblers to try to motivate fighters by offering them money for turning around a fight they are losing, or to reward those who have won them money with a cut of their winnings.
That night three of the lads from Sinbi were fighting at Bangla- Paul and Hector from Mexico, and Miguel from Peru. I have sparred and clinched with all three and become quite friendly with them, so decided to go along to support them. It also seemed like a good opportunity to get a feel for the venue and see how it all works before I go there myself,so it isn't all new when I will be nervous as hell already. It was a good night of fights- Bangla may not entertain the same quality of fighters as say the Lumpinee or Rajadamnoern in Bangkok, but it was fun nontheless. Miguel won his fight via leg kicks, with his opponent unable to come out for the fourth round, but Paul and Hector both lost on points. They both fought well though, and should be proud of themselves.
The promoters here seem to have a thing about getting the fighters nationalities wrong- Miguel was advertised as from the UK, Paul from Australia and Hector from France. During Paul's fight the commentator even shouted out "ozzy ozzy ozzy!!" For my own fight, I am being advertised as Russian! Apparently, this is all a trick by the promoters to try and bring more people into the fights- a huge proportion of the tourists here are Russian.
Today I did virtually nothing- as ordered by the trainers, my day consisted of eating and sleeping. After a lie in- as much as one can get living yards from the gym- I had breakfast and went for a massage. There is an awesome massage place literally 30 seconds from the gym, offering proper sports massages with a discount for muay thai students. The lady there worked me from head to toe, cracking my back, toes and fingers and rubbing away the aches and pains of training. Afterwards , I felt awesome. The delicious ginger tea they give you afterwards is an added bonus. At 300 baht a time (about a tenth of the price back home) you really can't complain. The massage had the added effect of making me sleepy again, so I got an extra few hours.
With little else to do, I watched the afternoon training, which included two young kids about 6 years old- one thai, one felang- having an enthusiastic spar. Sinbi Taewoong- the gym owner- pulled me aside to check my weight for the fight. I asked him if he knew who I was fighting, but he had no idea. Typical Thailand. It doesn't matter- whoever it is, I will be doing my best to make sure it's my hand that is raised, preferably before the full five rounds are completed.
Afterwards, a few of us headed out for some dinner to a place called Brown Rice, which we had heard good things about. I have been unimpressed by the portion sizes in a couple of the places we had been to previously and wanted to make sure I stocked up on carbs, so asked if they could do me a big portion of pad thai. I was duly obliged with a huge and tasty plateful, and wasn't even charged any extra- a filling, tasty and healthy meal for a mere 50 baht. The other guys wanted to head out to a cool reggae bar by the beach we found last week, but knowing what was to come I decided to go home and chill for the night. There will be plenty of time to party once his fight is done.
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