jeffkantoku

Noted boxing writer Nat Fleischer wrote a book chronicling the history of boxing and his time covering it, from the first half of the 20th Century to 1958, the year it was published. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_Fleischer 50 Years At Ringside (1958). In the book’s 23rd Chapter, A Dream Come True, he covers his time in Thailand, the lead up, and the monsoon-soaked Carruthers-Songkitrat match in detail, which I’ve attached below. Carruthers-Songkitrat match[edit] Songkitrat (left) and Carruthers (right) fight barefoot in a monsoon In 1954, Fleischer was involved with the "Bare-footed Title Fight", a world championship bout fought in Thailand's open air Chulalongkorn Stadium during a tropical monsoon. Thai General Pichai invited Fleischer as a special guest to his homeland, as a way to ensure that the World Bantamweight Championship bout, between champion Jimmy Carruthers of Australia and challenger Chamroen Songkitrat, would follow the international boxing rules. It rained on the day of the fight, and 60,000 people (including the boxers) were drenched. Fleischer suggested the fight be postponed and that they wait to see if the weather would get better the next day, but General Pichai ordered the bout to take place, reasoning that it would be hard to send off 60,000 people and the other thousands who were stranded outside under the pouring rain, to have them return the next day. In an effort to better their traction in the flooded ring, this became the first recorded match in modern world boxing history where the fighters removed their footwear.[4] Carruthers retained his crown by decision, and retired shortly after. 50 years at ringside - Siamese Boxing chapter - Nat Fleischer.1958.pdf

I am researching and writing an action oriented screenplay set aboard a three-island tramp steamer anchored off the unnamed coast of a country modelled after Cambodia (originally set in 1953, but as I’m developing it, transforming it more into a fable with a non-specific time period, so at a time between 1920 and 1953). Two of the crew members on board are the Thanikul brothers, Siamese twins, but bodily-fused only metaphorically. They are Siamese Boxers who box against each other in a make-shift boxing ring on the ship’s closed cargo hatch. I’d love to know of any sources (books or articles) in English recounting the history of Muay Thai or Muay Boran from the period between 1920 and 1953. Have any Thai sources about Muay Boran from that period been translated into English? Any writers’ names I should know of that period who wrote about this martial art? I just want to get a feel for the attitudes of the people of this period about Siamese Boxing, both the colonialists and the locals. I remember seeing a live Muay Thai match in Bangkok at a small outside ring, somewhere in Bangkok in 1996, as a tourist when I was living in Japan in the late ’90s. Can’t remember exactly where that was. Thank you in advance for any information you could provide! Cheers, - Jeff

The 1929 newspaper article was written by American travelogue author James Saxon Childers who went on to write and publish the book "From Siam to Suez" in 1932, detailing his adventures in Thailand and some his time spent watching Siamese boxing bouts. The book is in the public domain and available to view and for free download from the Internet Archive, here: https://archive.org/details/fromsiamtosuez010141mbp His accounts of Siamese boxing begin in Chapter IV, starting on page 22. And again in Chapter VI, starting on page 31. In the Birmingham News newspaper article, he mentions that 2500 spectators sat or stood in the different enclosures around the Bangkok arena. Any idea where it would have been located?

The 1929 newspaper article was written by American travelogue author James Saxon Childers who went on to write and publish the book "From Siam to Suez" in 1932, detailing his adventures in Thailand and some his time spent watching Siamese boxing bouts. The book is in the public domain and available to view and for free download from the Internet Archive, here: https://archive.org/details/fromsiamtosuez010141mbp