Rosy

Sylvie if you ever get the opportunity to talk with Jitti, Jitti's gym (sorry I don't have a more accurate name) he would be a good lead on female muay thai in Thailand. The gym trained 1st class male fighters yet was also open for female foreigners from very early on - I trained there in '93- at that time Thai women fighters were invisible in the media, I scoured the papers and actually found one picture of Lisa Howarth - 1st English world champ- but not a sign of a Thai woman-

The incredible Kathy Long . QR throwback series brings us this 1989 kickboxing match between Kathy (USA) and Yoshikai Wakana (Japan). These women and others like them broke down the barriers preventing women fighting and in particular fighting Muay Thai - it took small increments ... the fighters here wear garlands . Kathy fought a week or so ago at the age of 51 winning her 2nd MMA fight. We stand on the shoulders of giants. http://qr.livedoor.biz/archives/51800391.html

Here is Erika fighting another Thai fighter (Neung Siam Por .Pramuk). Erika's opponent here has fought overseas a fair bit ... she fought French fighter Florence Dela roche and Russian Ekaterina Vanderieva- both those at 53kg. There is an interview at 2min 50 sec and the fight after https://youtu.be/cr47KpJbeJk

http://qr.livedoor.biz/archives/51793058.html Kathy Long- in a class of her own in terms of her media profile in the Martial Arts scene , and still fighting!!! in her 50's now and about to return to MMA which she has had a dabble in before. This fight with Kyoko was reported as being a big payday for Kathy in one of the martial arts mags- $20,000 ... Kathy inspired a young Angela Riviera to take up the sport - Angie trained under Mater Toddy ... met John Wayne Parr there and moved with him to Australia- they now have 3 children with daughter Jazmine clocking up a few fights of her own and Angie co-promoting after reaching heady heights in the sport herself.

I have something but it doesn't amount to a tv doc. Like a long training montage. There was tv coverage of a couple of Lisa's fights and I have those . The quality of the video is awful though and I need to get it converted. I wish Toddy had decent copies ! I tried to get some video converted recently at a studio and the clips I was interested in were unwatchable ...despite being decent quality on video...the guy working on them was particularly unhelpful so I'm back to square one with converting stuff.

yes 1990 .... first show I saw live . and Anne had already fought Apple Dong Kong Far in a 5x3min ftr fight which Apple won ... this was the first fight I saw on video ... I got a pretty warped idea of the standard at the time :). Both shows had TV coverage which was transmitted in Thailand ... not sure if all fights were broadcast. At that time study material was a lot more scarce than now- Master Toddy made and distributed a video of 5 ... maybe 7... training camps in Thailand ... just footage of training really raw but gold to many people outside Thailand. One of the camps had women. I like that analogy with the childrens fights - it exists but isn't taken that seriously ... but you would have to take it down a few notches ... I stopped talking about the fact that I was a Thai boxer quite soon after I took up the sport ... I got asked in all seriousness if I did it topless... and in England that was the public perception of women boxing. In all sport at that time (1990)- to make a huge generalisation!!- strong, dedicated and talented women were the exception not the rule, there had been a spate of strong female sprinters in the 1980's but the view now is that was a steroid fueled blip. The strength in depth in all female sports right now is incredible in comparison to what existed a generation or so ago.

as a p.s :bunny: :bunny: :bunny: lol sorry love those bunnies. The talent drain to boxing deprived the female side of the sport with many 'passing the baton' matches ... the old guard just left! Many who switched to boxing didn't fare so well in it and were forgotten. We didn't get to see Anne Quinlan fight against a hungry up and coming fighter , nor Lisa Howarth, Lucia Rijker, Michele Aboro and so on . The first fight that struck me as a change in generations was Jemyma Betrian's win over an absolute legend Christine Toledo (who now works with Lionfight).

Hello Sylvie - sorry just saw the replies. I don't have a source. But there were articles written at the time describing the renaissance amongst a few Thai women who were the first professional fighters for a long time. And there were articles on the first foreign women to go to Thailand to fight in 'visible competitions'. Mary Hart, Vanessa Belgrade of Canada, Melissa Godfrey of Australia and others - this was when Muaythai's iron curtain was ripped down :). The first global amateur competition - the ifma's or its early incarnation took place without a womens division and the inclusion of women was again a huge turning point and occurred at the same time as the professional shift ... it was late 1990's/2000. I don't think it was ever illegal or anything for women to fight it was just ignored or invisible, there was also a niche for 'girly' boxing (various degrees of nakedness) which would come to peoples minds whenever female fighting was mentioned - it all built toward women not being taken seriously in the sport... that attitude rippled through the world but thankfully was countered by equal rights consciousness and a few savvy men who just didn't care - such as Master toddy and my coaches (who have Toddy lineage). It was a man also who headed up the female fighter renaissance in Thailand amongst Thai women ... it is astonishing to see how far it has come along. Rangsit stadium was the Mecca of female fighting in Thailand at the time. The sport of female Muaythai had been decimated as womens boxing became legal and drained the talent from our sport with the promise of paydays. It was a handful of women on the international circuit along with the timely about face of Thailand who began organising womens competition tolerating and promoting it- that kept female Muaythai alive during a treachorous time. I have as much information as I could gather at the time covering this era! As many magazines as I could get hold of. It was in the very early days of the internet so not much from the time is on the net. I will scan and copy the articles here and hope others would add to it - I would love to know the perspective from other countries.

meanwhile in America at 112lbs/50kg - The incredible Kim Messer v super tough Yvonne Trevino - amazing the performances these fighters could put on with only a handful of fights behind them.

fantastic fight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=12&v=n7HwHoZmPVE Mary Hart an Icon of 1990/2000's female global Muay Thai scene- this generation was kind of usurped by the new and sunshiney new sport of womens boxing ... into which most of the former generation of female muay thai fighters had drained- these women stayed put maintaining high standards in one of the most difficult times for women in the sport- pre internet - pre interest from Thailand ... I believe the interest from Thailand circa 2000 was desperately needed but the fact is they caved to international pressure - their women were beaten consistently until A few enlightened Thai's paid the female scene the attention it deserved. This is actually a key moment in my life - to live through Thailand taking a 180 regarding females in Muay Thai has given my a belief that any dogma can change- Muay Thai has been an example to me in so many ways - I am very thankful for it.

I loved this fight too, and your blog posts. I think you are fighting the toughest girls in the world at your weight one after the other right now, every time you announce a fight I think wow!!! what a match :). It is interesting to me the amount of international but Thailand based fighters who are being matched against each other right now... from a sport perspective and also the dynamic of the relocated fighters who to me are in a way comrades and now facing each other in the ring. Like to follow your fight career very much Gemma thank you :)

Japanese scoring can be really strange - the 10 point must system is pretty universal but I have seen Japanese judges scoring less for each fighter in a round ..... like the former gymnastic or diving scoring where only the perfect performance gets a 10.

she has to defend it abroad too, Haru Tajima has a burgeoning profile - a win over Saya Ito and chosen as opponent for Erika Kamimura's last fight... kind of a testimonial . Off topic - I would like to see more retirement/testimonial fights like Erika had- a chance for fans to cheer out their hero. Back on topic - I like them both but hope Duangdanoi stays champ - I am totally charmed by all those fighting siblings

:thanks: :thumbsup: :bunny: :banana: test pic didn't accept link from facebook this is from lady go Saya fights June