Sorry for not updating for so long. It's been a BUSSSSSSYYY 2 weeks. I have visited 5 cities in Thailand in 2 weeks!!! I was in Samui,Krabi,Koh Phi Phi,Trang and Koh Phagnan!!!
I was in Samui for ONE night and caught a flight out the next day to Krabi. Where I stayed and trained at Emerald Gym for a week. However upon arriving at the airport,My trainer Bangman said to me in Thai "You're fighting on Sat in Koh Phi Phi.Ok?" I was like...."WHAT?!? It's Thursday today!!!" In the end I thought whatever......been training pretty well the last 2 or 3 weeks so it should be alright.
So I accepted the fight and worked a couple of stuff with him over the next day and a half!! It's always so good to train with him. He immediately see's my mistakes and corrects me back to the way he wants me to fight. Everytime I see him he goes,"Everytime you go back to Singapore ...You train Muay Thai but Farang style!! I always have to slow you down and work on techniques again rather than rush through 5 rounds."
Here's an older video of me training at Emerald Gym.
Saturday morning came quickly and I've had a day and a half training. Was actually abit sore even from grappling with the other Thai trainer,Petch and the owner of the gym,famous french fighter Wilfred Montagne!! We had to drive to the Pier in Krabi and then jump on a ferry that took an hour and a half to Koh Phi Phi. Upon arriving we went straight to Aswindum Stadium where I was to be fighting. They showed us the room...and it was like 3 mattress (and there were 4 of us!!!!!) and the room was sooooooooooooooooooooo hot and had a tiny fan!! So we weren't too pleased and we all decided that we'd get a room elsewhere. Eventually found a room and me,Bangman and Jason (An American Korean Guy who was staying at the camp) shared a much nicer room with a better working fan! Everyone went off to walk around Phi Phi and I decided to stay in the room to rest.
Arriving in Koh Phi Phi!!
730pm and I went to the stadium. Where I met my fighter who was called in to fight coz my opponent couldn't make it. (This was the first of many changes in my opponents!!!). Bangman was actually supposed to fight that night too,but had his fight canceled. Reason: They were scared of Bangman =) His is pretty known now in the South Thailand as he's been winning all his last fights with some nasty elbows. The promoter than says to me,"We gonna go do promotion"...this is prolly the FUNNIEST thing I've ever had to do for promoting a fight was to wear my muaythai shorts and walk around the whole of Phi Phi Island distributing flyers =) hahah Uhmmmmmm didn't help that the poster said..."SixSax from Australia" AND IT WAS A BLOODY WHITE GUY ON THE PICTURE!!!!!!!!!
SIXSAX!!! We look soooo alike!!
Got back to the stadium and by about 10pm and I got ready and saw my opponent wrapped and ready. And the promoter tells me.....There's a thai guy who wants to fight you? I was like????? Bangman said it'd be better to fight the tall guy coz he's about the same height and size and it would be a better fight for the crowd. But the shorter thai guy kept insisiting he wanted to fight me....Bangman got pissed and said,"Whatever,he'll fight either of them. See you in the ring." haha So yeah I basically had no idea who I was gonna fight til about 20mins before the fight when I see the shorter guy's trainer massaging him. Funny enough while massaging his fighter....his huge ass PISTOL gun slipped out from under his shirt and me and the boys were all like..."Ohhhh shit!!Right...maybe I should lose this fight????" but the thai guy assured us that it was for he was from the Army and was a high ranking officer. Yeah ok...that still didn't really make me any more comfortable!! haha
Getting Ready to Rumble!!
Was really not in the mood when I got in the ring. I just did a quarter of my wai kru and even realized I forgotten my armband!!...Bell went and off we went. Started out nice and easy and I kinda gauged he wasn't THAT good so wanted to take my time and pick him apart slowly.....But he had other plans!!! Next thing I know he's coming at me hard.....So I covered up and threw a couple of straight knees to keep him away. Alot of em landed but he didn't go down. So kept him away with a couple of hard left kicks and then he came at me again. Right I had enough. He dropped his guard alot so I lef loose a couple of left elbows when he punched and the 2nd one cut him open. I saw some blood...the Ref checked and said it was ok to carry on. He still kept trying to come towards me and I must have landed about 5 elbows on him and he didn't go down. There was one I hit right across his forehead and I looked at him and smiled and I was thinking this MUST cut him!! But Nope....NOTHING!!! Bloody hell........Bell goes and we're in the corner.
After some words of wisdom for Bangman. I stand up and am ready for Round 2. I try to keep my distance but he keeps pressing forward hoping to land a good punch on me to knock me out. I just throw some straight knees and same thing it all catches him but he just didn't go down!!! He gets me in the corner and starts firing straight punches and for a minute I think the crowd thought he had me. I covered up well and waited for him to stop then landed a huge elbow and a big knee into him. He stumbles...The ref tries to pull me apart but Im desperate to keep going....I get back to the neutral corner and the ref gives him an 8 count. Once the counts over I charge in and land a huge knee again to the solar plexus and as he covers up I land a HUGE right elbow on the jaw and you can hear a loud "CLUCK" sound as his eyes go back and he stumbles,I land another left elbow and he goes DOWN!! Fight was over Rd 2. =)
I was hoping to not be injured and fight again the next week in Phuket. But yeah my Elbow was sooooo sore from hitting him on the head!! D'OH!!! hahah So yeah it was party time in Koh PhiPhi and when we got back to Krabi I just trained abit on techniques with Bangman and did a couple of weights session.
During my time off from training one day. Me,Bangman with his wife and kids took a road trip back to his home town,Trang. Which was about an hour and a half drive from Krabi. Was nice for me as I got to meet his family and he took me around his favorite places. Loads of people knew Bangman coz he's one of the FEW that has made a name for himself in Muaythai coming out of Trang. There was a small Thai Boxing gym next to his house that his ex fighter,Siamchai had built for the kids. There were about 20 - 30 kids and one of the 8yr olds had to get on a bike with his dad everyday 20km just to get to the gym. Shows you how much they LOVE the sport. Then there were all these old men who would sit there and give advice and tell the boys what to do. It was really nice to see so much KNOWLEDGE and so much PASSION for the sport from all the villagers. Bangman had to train his son,Bao,as he had a fight soon. So the whole gym watched as Bangman trained Bao. Bangman does not show ANY mercy when he's training fighters....not to his other fighters in Bkk...not to ME...and definetly not to Bao!!!! After Bangman finished training his son,some of the fathers who were siting around asked him to please just do one or two rounds with their son. It was very cool to see that people respected him so much back in his small village....Bangman the superstar trainer! =) Everyone from Trang knew that Bangman was a very good trainer and loved Muaythai very very much. The stories I can tell you about Bangman are pretttttty damn cool. He left home at 12years old with very little money and against his parents wishes to chase his dream of being a Muaythai Fighter in Bkk!!
Bangman and one of the boys doign some technique before he fights next week.
After my quiet days in Krabi at Emerald Gym it was time to head over to Party town Samui again. And this time it was just pure HOLIDAYING!!! =) I was actually there for Jaymee Ong's wedding. yes thats right guys.....I can hear all your hearts cracking into a million pieces as I said that...Jaymee Ong's Wedding!!! Becky introduced me to Jaymee and Matt (her husband)...and we've known them from even way before Contender Asia. So was weird when we found out we were working on the same show =) There gonna be people from America,Singaporea and mainly Australia who were gonna be at Jaymee's wedding.
My home for a couple of months in 2004!
I managed to head over to the WMC Camp in Lamai where it was once my home for 4 months!! Some of the old trainers are still there and the little boys have all grown up. Some familiar faces and some people from the shops around the gym still even remember my name!!! I mean this was the first time in 5 years that I've been back in Koh Samui!!! So much has changed and yet still some of them still remember my name. Crazy!!
DJing at Hush on Soi Green Mango
On the Friday night in Samui I even scored myself a DJ gig at the club HUSH on Soi Green Mango. Samui is a real paaaaaaaarty town with some very cool clubs and after hours places playing some decent dance music. Tho alot of places still play the same old shittyRnB and HipHop music that I last heard 5 years ago too!! YUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!! The DJ before me played exactly what every other DJ played... RnB/HipHop crap that was going on everywhere....I got tired of listening to him and my friends were telling me to go on ASAP....So I kicked him off the decks and soon the club started to get a flow of crowd going. Had an awesome night DJing some good proper dance music!!...Another club to add to my list. =)
So after a mad night of DJing and 2 hours of sleep...It's Sat morning and I suddenly find myself on a speed boat headed for Koh Phagnan with 25 loud drunken aussies giving wedgies to whoever had anything on under their boardshorts!! (Im soooo glad I didn't have any on!!!!) The day goes by and it only gets "fun" when soon one by one started spewing and one by one started to fail the "follow the line" drunk test we had on the beach!!! Yes this was a a sign of a good bachelor party!! =) hahah
Sunday left everyone unable to do much except lie by the pool and relax in the sun. Not that it was a bad thing coz the Baan Taling Ngam Resort was just BEAUTIFUL!!!! There was a Buddhist Wedding with 9 monks blessing the bride and groom on Monday which was very special for Jaymee's dad who is buddhist, and even just for the Aussies and American guys who flew over to see something different. Tuesday arrived and it was the actual wedding day,and I have to say that this wedding on the beach was one you would imagine out of a movie. Everything was PERFECT!! The music that played as Jaymee and her dad walked down the aisle,the exchange of vows...everything was verrrrrrrryyy touching. Yes yes even I had to shed a tear!!!
After the sun had set and we finished listening to a couple of touching speeches. We had to go to the beach and light paper lanterns that flew up into the sky. It was prolly the most beautiful thing seeing all those lanterns go up in the sky. Just AMAZING!! We were then seated down for a buffet dinner and had to listen to a couple more speeches. And I think Matt's brother,Reds prolly wrote one of the BEST POEMS/BEST MAN SPEECH I HAVE EVER HEARD!!! It was 3 pages long telling us about what Matt was like as a young boy and all his mischief right up til the wedding day. It was soooooo funny and best part is it all RHYMED too!! Damn he must have a lot of free time!!! This was followed up by the bride and grooms first dance. Was very beautiful to see them so happy. And to top the night off.....There were some SERIOUS fireworks!!!!!!!!! That was the icing on the cake to end an amazing night and amazing few days at the hotel!!
Leaving Baan Taling Ngam Resort was hard....but I gotta get back to the real world. It was a GREAT trip altogether,having had good training at Emerald Gym...Fighting in Phi Phi...DJing in Samui....and then the beautiful wedding to end things off. This trip is gonna be one of the best in 2009 I think!!
Arriving in Koh Phi Phi!!730pm and I went to the stadium. Where I met my fighter who was called in to fight coz my opponent couldn't make it. (This was the first of many changes in my opponents!!!). Bangman was actually supposed to fight that night too,but had his fight canceled. Reason: They were scared of Bangman =) His is pretty known now in the South Thailand as he's been winning all his last fights with some nasty elbows. The promoter than says to me,"We gonna go do promotion"...this is prolly the FUNNIEST thing I've ever had to do for promoting a fight was to wear my muaythai shorts and walk around the whole of Phi Phi Island distributing flyers =) hahah Uhmmmmmm didn't help that the poster said..."SixSax from Australia" AND IT WAS A BLOODY WHITE GUY ON THE PICTURE!!!!!!!!!
SIXSAX!!! We look soooo alike!!Got back to the stadium and by about 10pm and I got ready and saw my opponent wrapped and ready. And the promoter tells me.....There's a thai guy who wants to fight you? I was like????? Bangman said it'd be better to fight the tall guy coz he's about the same height and size and it would be a better fight for the crowd. But the shorter thai guy kept insisiting he wanted to fight me....Bangman got pissed and said,"Whatever,he'll fight either of them. See you in the ring." haha So yeah I basically had no idea who I was gonna fight til about 20mins before the fight when I see the shorter guy's trainer massaging him. Funny enough while massaging his fighter....his huge ass PISTOL gun slipped out from under his shirt and me and the boys were all like..."Ohhhh shit!!Right...maybe I should lose this fight????" but the thai guy assured us that it was for he was from the Army and was a high ranking officer. Yeah ok...that still didn't really make me any more comfortable!! haha
Getting Ready to Rumble!!After some words of wisdom for Bangman. I stand up and am ready for Round 2. I try to keep my distance but he keeps pressing forward hoping to land a good punch on me to knock me out. I just throw some straight knees and same thing it all catches him but he just didn't go down!!! He gets me in the corner and starts firing straight punches and for a minute I think the crowd thought he had me. I covered up well and waited for him to stop then landed a huge elbow and a big knee into him. He stumbles...The ref tries to pull me apart but Im desperate to keep going....I get back to the neutral corner and the ref gives him an 8 count. Once the counts over I charge in and land a huge knee again to the solar plexus and as he covers up I land a HUGE right elbow on the jaw and you can hear a loud "CLUCK" sound as his eyes go back and he stumbles,I land another left elbow and he goes DOWN!! Fight was over Rd 2. =)
I was hoping to not be injured and fight again the next week in Phuket. But yeah my Elbow was sooooo sore from hitting him on the head!! D'OH!!! hahah So yeah it was party time in Koh PhiPhi and when we got back to Krabi I just trained abit on techniques with Bangman and did a couple of weights session.
During my time off from training one day. Me,Bangman with his wife and kids took a road trip back to his home town,Trang. Which was about an hour and a half drive from Krabi. Was nice for me as I got to meet his family and he took me around his favorite places. Loads of people knew Bangman coz he's one of the FEW that has made a name for himself in Muaythai coming out of Trang. There was a small Thai Boxing gym next to his house that his ex fighter,Siamchai had built for the kids. There were about 20 - 30 kids and one of the 8yr olds had to get on a bike with his dad everyday 20km just to get to the gym. Shows you how much they LOVE the sport. Then there were all these old men who would sit there and give advice and tell the boys what to do. It was really nice to see so much KNOWLEDGE and so much PASSION for the sport from all the villagers. Bangman had to train his son,Bao,as he had a fight soon. So the whole gym watched as Bangman trained Bao. Bangman does not show ANY mercy when he's training fighters....not to his other fighters in Bkk...not to ME...and definetly not to Bao!!!! After Bangman finished training his son,some of the fathers who were siting around asked him to please just do one or two rounds with their son. It was very cool to see that people respected him so much back in his small village....Bangman the superstar trainer! =) Everyone from Trang knew that Bangman was a very good trainer and loved Muaythai very very much. The stories I can tell you about Bangman are pretttttty damn cool. He left home at 12years old with very little money and against his parents wishes to chase his dream of being a Muaythai Fighter in Bkk!!
Bangman and one of the boys doign some technique before he fights next week.
My home for a couple of months in 2004!
DJing at Hush on Soi Green Mango
So after a mad night of DJing and 2 hours of sleep...It's Sat morning and I suddenly find myself on a speed boat headed for Koh Phagnan with 25 loud drunken aussies giving wedgies to whoever had anything on under their boardshorts!! (Im soooo glad I didn't have any on!!!!) The day goes by and it only gets "fun" when soon one by one started spewing and one by one started to fail the "follow the line" drunk test we had on the beach!!! Yes this was a a sign of a good bachelor party!! =) hahah
The wedding was like a fairytale! It'sgGonna be hard to top what they've done!!
Sunday left everyone unable to do much except lie by the pool and relax in the sun. Not that it was a bad thing coz the Baan Taling Ngam Resort was just BEAUTIFUL!!!! There was a Buddhist Wedding with 9 monks blessing the bride and groom on Monday which was very special for Jaymee's dad who is buddhist, and even just for the Aussies and American guys who flew over to see something different. Tuesday arrived and it was the actual wedding day,and I have to say that this wedding on the beach was one you would imagine out of a movie. Everything was PERFECT!! The music that played as Jaymee and her dad walked down the aisle,the exchange of vows...everything was verrrrrrrryyy touching. Yes yes even I had to shed a tear!!!
After the sun had set and we finished listening to a couple of touching speeches. We had to go to the beach and light paper lanterns that flew up into the sky. It was prolly the most beautiful thing seeing all those lanterns go up in the sky. Just AMAZING!! We were then seated down for a buffet dinner and had to listen to a couple more speeches. And I think Matt's brother,Reds prolly wrote one of the BEST POEMS/BEST MAN SPEECH I HAVE EVER HEARD!!! It was 3 pages long telling us about what Matt was like as a young boy and all his mischief right up til the wedding day. It was soooooo funny and best part is it all RHYMED too!! Damn he must have a lot of free time!!! This was followed up by the bride and grooms first dance. Was very beautiful to see them so happy. And to top the night off.....There were some SERIOUS fireworks!!!!!!!!! That was the icing on the cake to end an amazing night and amazing few days at the hotel!!
Leaving Baan Taling Ngam Resort was hard....but I gotta get back to the real world. It was a GREAT trip altogether,having had good training at Emerald Gym...Fighting in Phi Phi...DJing in Samui....and then the beautiful wedding to end things off. This trip is gonna be one of the best in 2009 I think!!
Until next time! =)
LaterZ
LaterZ
3 comments:
Some of the old trainers are still there and the LITTLE BOYS have all grown up.
HAHAHAHAH WHY DID U LOOOK ALWAYS AT BOYS
AND NOW SPECIALLY LITLE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It was fun reading your blog. What an experience! I laughed out loud when I read the part about the other fighter's trainer dropping his gun...like I stated before...what an experience! You experienced more in a couple weeks than most people do in a year!
Randall
Have you been to Las Vegas in your entire boxing career? Cause I haven't seen you there.
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