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I brought one of my dogs with me (I intend to bring the other eventually). The biggest thing is making sure you can get them back to your home country in case something unexpected happens. It can be really expensive, but there are a few services here that will help out with information and transport. You definitely need to be careful about soi dogs here. I've gotten into it with the ones in my neighborhood a few times, but luckily they haven't been able to take any bites out of my dog. Socializing dogs here can also be a problem as most of the city isn't really dog friendly. This means most people don't like dogs, and the dogs you will run into aren't used to being around other dogs. I've gotten really lucky with the apartment I live in (there are a lot of dogs here and all the owners seem to be relatively well educated and open to socializing their dogs). That definitely is not the norm though.

Greetings all, This is my first post on the forum. So id like to take the time to say hello! I am looking for the groups opinion and advice to a little problem/situation I have run into over the last few years. In the first handful of years training/fighting I spend the early mornings before my 8-5 office job for a jog/bag work/ solo training. Then its off to work then anther 1-3 hours of training with my teammates. I about 30 or so fights later I spend most of my time teaching classes and training the more greener and novice fighters. Lately I have been trying to find a balance to make my own training more of priory. The last 4 months I have been commuting into Chicago 2-3 days a week which is about a 1.5 hour commute both ways after work. That has become very exhausting task with many late nights. Lately its been hard to find a balance between teaching/training in my hometown and making a commute to try and upgrade my game. At times it steals the passion and true love I have for Muay Thai and Kickboxing away from me. I have taken a brief trip to Thailand after college about 3 years ago for a handful of weeks I often dream about return for a longer period of time but life always seems to get in the way. Well there is my sob story. LOL Can anyone share any common experiences and have any advice or uplifting words of encouragement? Best!

Hellloooo. Wasn't sure what section to post this in. Anybody ever taken their pets to Thailand? Was wondering how you got on, whether this was a shrewd thing to do or not. Last stay in Bangkok, there seemed to be a lot of stray cats and dogs around the sois. Are your indoor pets from the west in more danger from fights etc if they weren't raised in that environment? Appreciate any experience ppl have. Many thanks Ol.

I’m stalking her fb page so I don’t miss the live fight! Thanks!

Hmmm I didn't see any livestream...

The only somewhat similar thing I've seen with something more closely related to Muay Thai was in videos about Burmese Lethwei. In rural Burma people and also Lethwei schools are very poor and so there is not a lot of money for equipment. I've seen students practice on wooden poles with some padding on them (bareknuckle nonetheless) but not actual Makiwara I think.

Dude, if wanna fight..... then fight. Put all the effort you possibly can into living your dream. Don't make the mistake as many of us make and look back over the years and say.... if only. Once your fighting days are over, then teach. Go hard while you can.

I just want to say, as someone who has supported Sylvie, and has been blown away by everything she is and does, my number 1 thing is, just commit, just dive in, just push every line. I'm serious. Every fight is precious, congrats on 30, but even well past 200 we savor every single one. Once fighting is done every one will be a gem in your mind, something taught in a way that nothing else can teach. I say - knowing nothing else - stop teaching, just push your training, save up, come to Thailand for 3 months, 6 months, a year. There is just nothing like it in the world. The country lives and breathes the art. It soaks into everyone. Motorcycle taxi drivers know more about Muay Thai than most western krus (no offense, it's just part of their fluency, their literacy). We overcame a lot to get here. We lived hours away from training. I recall us back in NY on one particularly bad winter's day driving literally 4 hours through the snow to get to a sparring session that lasted 15 minutes, and then 4 hours back. That's 8 hours of travel for 15 minutes of training. It was that bad. I just say you gotta take the jump, throw yourself at your passion. Go on a thin, thin budget, take extra work, and just get the hell to Thailand. Don't go to a bullshit camp, go to a living camp, and feel it. Kill yourself on the bags, the pads, get some fights. Stop training others. You are part way up a huge, huge mountain. When looking down at those below you you forget just how high you want to climb. Put your eyes up, up, up. 30 fights outside of Thailand is no joke. You're heart is in this. note: the above is complete bullshit in the sense I don't know your life, and all the things that may feel very "complicated" to you, but it's my natural response to the feeling I get off of your post...so not bullshit at all.

Is there a reason you can’t reduce your teaching and increase your own training? If your job demand increased ( ie commuting to Chicago) then it makes sense you need to reduce the teaching.

"I would like to address the fans and combat sports community of the concerns I recently raised regarding fighter-promter relations. I hope the issue highlighted the unfortunate scenario we face when promoters exploit fighters, which negatively impact on our lives. I can confirm receipt of the outstanding payment from Lion Fight Promotions since the social media post. I do not intend to defame Lion Fight Promotions - they are coined "the best stand up promotion in America'' for a reason. Their growth and development for American Muay Thai speaks for itself. However, after seeking legal advice and numerous unreturned emails from Lion Fight demanding payment, I was left feeling heartbroken. My only option was to take matters into my own hands. I hope this provided a platform for ALL fighters who put their hearts and souls into their careers, their bodies on the line yet still get the short end of the stick. We knowingly fight for small pay checks, but to not receive payment is just wrong. It’s simple – you do a job and get paid for it. Hopefully there is light at the end of the tunnel for fighters in regards to promoters not paying within reasonable timescales. I would like to thank the fans and combat sports community for the overwhelming support and I hope you all continue to support Muay Thai in America." I'm not sure how you avoid defaming a promotion by explicitly stating one sentence before that they exploit fighters. "Exploit" is a strong word, pretty much a word that is meant to defame. An exploitative promotion is one that nobody really wants to be a part of. Aside from that non-sequitur though I'm a little divided on this. I do appreciate that she took things into her own hands. Fighters are largely locked into a Gym-Promoter power structure. Their images (and futures) are traditionally decided by their gyms, and by promotions. Social Media allows direct connections with fans, and creates a more immediate power. And Tiffany used that, and I applaud that (though she does not seem very active on social media since her move). I have no doubt that she had very little recourse other than this. But...Muay Thai's continued existence in North America, as a commercially viable product, is seriously threatened, even before this happened. If Lion Fight goes, it could very well mean that North American full rules Muay Thai itself will end, aside from very small local shows. I think for people who LOVE Muay Thai, we don't see how incredibly niche it is in North America...that it is far more fragile than we imagine.

I don't think it's fair to say they don't care about their fighters, they just don't have money. Yes, it's terrible business practice and yes it SUCKS for the fighters, but Lion Fight isn't lining their pockets with surplus while screwing over their fighters. They're struggling and trying to keep the shows going in order to recover. I won't defend them not paying their fighters, but I don't think it's because they're bad people.

It's hard to compare shows I think. We can't know the finances and relationships at stake. Hey, I'd be pissed if Sylvie wasn't paid in a timely fashion, but I presume that Lion Fight has made decisions to pay certain expenses, and delay others. How do we criticize these harshly? We don't really have very much information. Are people claiming incompetence? Fraud? Are there not stories of the UFC itself delaying fighter pay for long periods at times? What I don't really understand is the level of some of the online vehemence that was behind the backlash on this? The only reason anyone knows Tiffany's name as a star, in the first place, is probably because of Lion Fight itself...no? The anger towards Lion Fight (and maybe many people have reason to be angry, from personal experience), feels self-consuming. It's the community hating and devaluing the last significant Muay Thai show in the United States. If Lion Fight goes there is really nothing much else. Bellator is not Muay Thai. Glory is not Muay Thai. We should be slow to see Lion Fight fall. That being said, there probably is more to this story than we know. When Tiffany (very quietly...I was surprised how silently she made the move) decided to move to Bali did Lion Fight feel betrayed, or that they were losing a star they helped create? Did they delay her pay on purpose? If so, maybe not smart. Bottom line though, it doesn't feel good that Lion Fight looks like it is struggling to stay afloat - that reversed decision was a fiasco. I believe Marq Piocos said that she's rumored to be going to Bellator now.