Hi Matt,
First of all, thank you for reading and following my blog. I'm very excited to hear that you want to fight multiple times in your time in Thailand and that your girlfriend will be sharing this experience with you. Very cool.
The easiest place to find fights in my experience has been Chiang Mai. There are various stadia right in the city and they have fights every night of the week. At my old gym, Lanna, I saw that straight beginners (never trained or fought before) can get a fight within a pretty short amount of time, as well as folks with more experience getting a range of opponents. But I'm not really sure about other gyms in the area. Lanna, and the head trainer there Den, was very pro-fight, and my experiences there may not reflect the practices of other gyms. At 150 lbs (~68 kg) it should be fairly easy to find you a fight in terms of size, although perfect matches up there aren't guaranteed. But that's all part of fighting, too.
Master Toddy's is a great place to start out in Bangkok and get a feel for a gym that's western-friendly but also still very technically oriented. I don't know how the fight opportunities are looking in Bangkok at the moment, but maybe Emma, Tu, or Katy can jump in on that front. Down here in Pattaya there are a few stadia going on throughout the week, some satellite festival shows, and down on Phuket there's Bangla Stadium for the whole island. I don't know much about how it all works on Phuket and the last report I heard about Sinbi in particular wasn't positive, but gyms (all gyms) go through phases and changes and different people need different things all that. Emma knows someone training there so maybe you could get some input from a source who is actually there and enjoying it through that contact.
As with any of these locations, the gym is going to want to see you training for at least a week or so before they think about booking you a fight. This is so they know what you're about, how to match you, etc. Keep in mind a couple things: 1) in your first week of training full-time you're going to need to sleep A LOT; 2) letting your gym know as soon as possible that you want to fight more than once is a grand idea, but then make sure you SHOW them that you want to fight by how you train. Be consistent and coachable. I'd recommend getting your first fight quite early in your stay if you can, maybe within the first two weeks. That way you can gather from the first experience what you need to work on, see the pace and feel of a fight for yourself, etc. If you're going to be moving around to different gyms, dedicate two weeks to the first one you feel is going to support and push you and get a fight there. Then maybe move around a bit and consider coming back if the gym suits you best. Realize though, it may not be easy to get a fight booked at all gyms. My friend Robyn just came out here trying to get 2 or 3 fights down in Pattaya, having already visited me and fought at Lanna two years ago, and it was difficult to find her fights down here (she fought only once).
And lastly, if you want to fight a few times in a short amount of time, you're going to have to consider active recovery as part of your training routine. Diligently treating small injuries as you go and training around them after fights will be necessary. In the words of my trainer up north, "eat good, sleep good."
I'm fighting up in Chiang Mai twice between May 1-4, so if you're there at that time let's say hello. In fact the fights are arranged through Lanna gym, and I'll definitely visit there during those days. These are scheduled against two extremely tough opponents, some of Thailand's best 2 weight classes above me (Tanonchanok and Cherry) so they should be great fights to see. I'm in Pattaya after that (driving back down on the 5th), so if you're here, I'll be here. Definitely keep in touch either way and hopefully your adventures can be something we all can hear about and maybe help with when needed.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask. Anyone have anything to add or clarify?
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