July 3, 2015 – Grand Thai Boxing Stadium, Hua Hin (video – part 1 above, part 2 below)
I got a message from this promoter a short while before this fight. We were aiming to head up to Chiang Mai for a string of fights (three scheduled in a week) and figured we could just rent the car a day early and make this fight, too. Which is what we did. More is more.
My last fight in Hua Hin a month before, where Kaensak cornered for me, was actually when I first met Kradaitong, who I’d be fighting tonight. She was sweet and clearly bigger than I am, but seemed within the realm of size of girls I fight. I’d actually offered to suggest names for her to fight, since it sounded like she’s active but always looking. I was surprised when the promoter told me the fight he wanted to book was with Kradaitong so I contacted her gym to see if it was a reasonable match. I have far more experience than she does, although she had a maybe 3-4 kg weight advantage. Her gym said they were happy with the match as she’d recently fought Zaza, who is a former WPMF champion making her comeback, and close to her own weight. I was happy that the fight went through. When you are building relationships with promoters its important to take fights when offered.
Kradaitong was a hard fight, man. She’s comfortable and aggressive in the ring beyond her “fight number” experience and she gave me a difficult time – not so much with her physical strength as with her energy, she was strong in heart. There were a few times I thought I could maybe finish her in the clinch but she would take a moment to recover when the ref broke us and then come back hard. I felt very safely guarded in my own blocks, but she was launching some full-body powered elbows at me at times. Going into this fight I had one thing on my mind – don’t get cut. I had another fight in two days, and then two more a few days after that. My priority was to avoid stitches at all cost as I didn’t want to disappoint Den who had booked me up in Chiang Mai, so I stayed very closed in my guard – it wasn’t going to be easy. She wasn’t fucking around.
To complicate matters somewhere in the second or third round I started having trouble with my right hand. I thought the glove wasn’t on right, it felt too loose or something. This was a bare-bones adventure. We had driven down solo and I’d wrapped my own hands with just training wraps, it wasn’t the first time. The promoter had one of his students corner for me – a very good fighter from Lithuania who got my style right away and was actually a great corner. I felt like this loose glove thing was making my hand cramp or something. Like I couldn’t really get a grip in the glove.
wrapping my own hands, and oil for this fight
After the fight when I was taking my gloves off I realized how painful it really was. I thought maybe my thumb had been dislocated or something as it felt a bit similar to when I’d done that in training a while back, which was from a loose glove in clinching. Taking the warps and tape off my hand was insanely painful and I couldn’t close my fingers into a fist. The back of my hand was swollen and there was a lump on the bone, so it’s very possible it was broken. I have no idea how. I’d guess with the lump it was impact of some kind – maybe a random knee?
Post-Fight Video Update
above, how I was feeling after the fight
Me and Kradaitong Por. Promin – post fight.
the next day driving 10 hours up to Chiang Mai with Jai Dee chilling.
We spent the night at a hotel outside of Bangkok, a few hours drive, and then in the morning hit the road to Chiang Mai way up north, I had spent the whole drive up to Bangkok that night just trying to open and close my hand to keep the range of motion, then the whole drive to Chiang Mai 10 hours doing the same. Guess I’d have to fight with a broken hand; I did hope it would get a bit better in the two days I had between fights though. I’d be facing Nong Ying, the physically for me huge (54 kg to my 48), hard hitting Thai fighter who fights everyone up there…I was in fact scheduled to fight her twice, on the 5th and again on the 8th.
my hand in the hotel the next night
