Last night was a big fight night for the gym. Lindsey from Canada was fighting, and she is dearly beloved by everybody at Rawai Gym. As a result, two (mini) buses were hired to transport all of us from the gym to the stadium, where we could cheer not only her on but also another stellar gym personality, Michael from Denmark. The fights here cost about $30 U.S. dollars so it was a tight squeeze for a lot of us but hey, we're here to learn Muay Thai and some of us are not opposed to getting in the ring one day ourselves, so it's something all gym members should check out at least once. Here she is with ME (yikes!) There were about 8 fights, starting out with the kids. The kids were about eight years old, I'd say, meaning that they were my nephew's age. They have great, great form, which is excellent to watch, and thankfully they are not allowed to fight "until the end", or beat each other to a pulp. They still can take a beating, though!
Unfortunately, at least a few students saw the katoy's opponent lock eyes with the bookie, watched the bookie nod, and then watched as the opponent fell to the ground, "knocked out", after that. Even though it was a great fight, it appears to have been arranged ahead of time. Lindsey's fight against a Thai champion turned into a fight with a local pizza parlor chick, who never struck once and bailed in the first round. The person she was supposed to be fighting bailed, so they just will find any Thai chick, pretty much, who wants to make a buck, and put them in the ring. So there was essentially NO fight, and that is what we paid to see. Lindsey trains hard, but all of her fights thus far this year have been similar bullshit. Apparently, this happens a lot and the fights advertised on the posters are sometimes just to get you in the door.
Another interesting feature is that they will lie about where you are from. Michael from Denmark and Shane from Boston were both listed as from Australia since 5% of Thailand is Australian and it will sell more tickets.........Shane, by the way, is 22 and has fought Tae Kwon Do since he was six. He fought 3 nights ago and won with a 2nd round knockout. I like Shane a lot, and am glad he won. He did say that he was overconfident, and would never make that mistake again. He fights again at the beginning of October, and I wish him the best. This picture is, from the left, a gym member, Deng (a trainer), Shane, and Yib.
Some of the students felt a bit ripped off, and that is understandable. Who wants to see a rigged fight? I'm a bit dissapointed, too. But there are shady aspects of most businesses, plus they don't seem to complain when they pay 1/4 the price for the same meal here as they pay back at home. I'm not hung up on it, overall, although I doubt I'd go again unless I was fighting . . .
All in all, it was a fun night --- just a little bit too late considering that we had training this morning. BOY was it hard to get up!
Oh! This is a shot of some of the guys (and my neighbors) at the gym, from left to right: Bob, Shane, Cha-chi, Troy, Matt and Jamie . . . 
2 comments:
i have seen most of the videos of fights between rawai boxers and thai opponents and most of the matches look rigged clearly. I dont think this is healthy for the scene of muay thai. Can u tell me if they are actually rigged? or jus that the opponents are lousy boxers who dont train?
Hi Puneet! I wish I knew. I would think the trainers here, who take it very seriously and have respect for their students, wouldn't knowingly sign up for that crap. The Katoy fight I actually don't believe was rigged, personally, anymore. I think the issue is less that of them being rigged and more that of pairing them up with people who are CLEARLY not very good at all, thus ensuring an easy win and possibly encouraging more tourism here-? It's a poor country, so many would get in the ring just for the few baht you get even to lose. Some of the foreigners here fight hard and fight real fights, though, and some lose. So you know they are definitely not all rigged! I hope this helps, I'm going to try to explore the issue more as I'm open to fighting if I ever can figure out blocking, lol!
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