Rehab and my come back fight in Phuket.

Hey everyone,

I've actually been in Phuket since Thursday morning. Hence the slow reply and irregular answering on the chatbox!! Am happy to read all the well wishes and thoughts of people from all over who have caught the show.

In the last blog I mentioned I had surgery on both my shoulders. I had my shoulders operated on at the end of October and 2 weeks later,at the start of November by Dr.K.C Ang from Orthosports in Gleneagles. Here is the funny thing about this,Dr. Ang operated on a very close family friend of ours,Claudia,as she had a "Frozen Shoulder" injury. He had mentioned to her he was going to be a doctor at some fight??? That fight was my Qualifying fight to get in the Contender Asia. He was again then asked to be the Ring Doctor for all fights at The Contender Asia?!?! And even weirder was how my shoulder both dislocated on the show!! And before doing the operation,I was sitting with a friend and I remember him telling me had his shoulders operated on.....and guess who??? Yes Dr.K.C. Ang!!!!! So I thought that it was only right that I had him to do the operation. Thats why now when I look back and think of what Jabba said to me,it really makes soo much sense. Scary though!!!

I recovered really fast after my first surgery on my right shoulder and after 2 weeks I had the left one done. Usually he'd suggest to wait for a month or so but I was healing really well and since I was dying to get it over and done with,we decided to move it forward.

Surgery is weird...being knocked out by General Anaesthetic and then waking up in a room all by yourself. And imagine having to do that TWICE in a space of 2 weeks!!? Then came the days after surgery...Day 1 was always the WORST!!! I was swallowing painkillers like it was candy!!

After about a month of recovering on both shoulders I had almost normal motion on both arms. I just couldn't put my weight on it or lift heavy things. I got back to running and soon started my physio therapy. And by January I was back at BXG training hitting bags and pads. I took it easy tho and if it felt dodgy I'd avoid doing it.

Funny how time flies so fast as I still remember complaining to my family and friends that all that time off from training and fighting is gonna be so long!!! It was horrible not being able to work and not being able to train hard. But here we are in March already!!!

I arrived in Phuket Thursday morning and straight into training at Rawai Muaythai. My trainer"Dam" (Or Bungman as he is known at Rawai) moved down to the lovely island of Phuket from Bkk so I decided that I would visit him and train with him. I've trained with "Dam" for a long time now. He's a well known trainer in Bkk. I'll write more about him and his achievements and Rawai Muay Thai when I get back home.

I actually called up a few weeks before telling him I was gonna come up to Phuket and that I wanted to get a fight to test out my new shoulders,incase I got the rematch!! He said he'd arrange a fight for me. I had been preparing for it back home but when I got here we worked on abit more technique and abit of fitness. I was scheduled to fight March 3rd...then it got changed to 4th....then it was 2nd of March!!!

So last night,I fought at Bangla Stadium. I was told I was fighting a thai guy. So got to the stadium and I had a quick look at who I was fighting. He looked pretty mean. But yeah which thai guy doesn't!!! I was bout Number 7 and so by bout 4 we got ready. Was awesome to have "Dam" in my corner doing my handwraps and tape before the fight again. And to make it even better!! Jabba was also there in my corner,he is fighting tonight at Patong Stadium so he got here a day early and so he came to see my fight. Was awesome to catch up with him again!!

So moment of truth. I was more worried about my shoulders than I was of fighting to be honest!!So went in did my "Wai Kru". I love doing the Wai Kru,but when there are too many foreigners they get annoyed coz they just wanna see THE FIGHT!!! They don't understand the beauty and meaning of it so obviously they start making rude comments and jeering!! Disresecpectful but yeah you can't blame people when they don't know everything about a sport their seeing for the first time!!

Round 1,I went in and just took my time just trying to test the water and see what the thai guy was like. I like fighting Thai's alot,it's more of a game of chess and using more of your brains than just trying to smash each other. I remember landing some good leg kicks on him. He was trying to clinch me alot as everytime he got close he tried to pull me in. I clinched once and we both kneed each other abit. The Ref breaks it up. We move around punched and kicked and 2nd time we clinched I spun him on the canvas and I knew he wasn't that strong in the clinch. Landed another few good leg kicks and clinched again and this time I spun him to the ground hard and he didn't get up. He was holding his knee and he looked like he was in a lot of pain. He must have fell really awkwardly...?? The ref counted him and that was it. I think my whole "Wai Kru" was longer than my fight?!!? I wish the fight was more interesting...but.....shit happens I guess?

Jabba,Me & Dam (Bungman)

I wanted abit more of a harder fight as I wanted to see how my shoulders would hold up. But I guess it's good that things went well. DR Ang said that,"the shoulder is of a NORMAL persons shoulder meaning it still can pop out,surgery doesn't make it 100% safe but it reduces the chances of it getting dislocated again".

I went to check on the Thai guy after the fight and he was limping pretty badly,I apologised to him out of respect. I think it's more a case of badluck like what I had with Zidov than more of me winning a good hard fight. I wasn't so impressed with myself or the fight but Im still glad I did it. Im trying to see if they can get me another fight on Tuesday 4th March? Am flying back on the 5th!! So we'll see?....

Tonight Jabba fights in Patong Stadium,I'll let everyone know how he goes in my next blog entry. Hope to have some pics and all up when Im back in Singapore!!

LaterZ