canada Muay Thai in Montreal?

[Barbara_K]

Hello together,

two months ago I was moving from Finland to Canada and now need to get settled again over here which is not that easy.

So far it's been quite a hard time, I'm lacking proper training and work out, have a hard time arriving here and getting used to everything.
That's the reason why I didn't visit one of the 2 gyms over here yet, since they're advertising a lot of combat sports and "being a family, a gang, ...".
I'm not in for such group thing these days, I just need Muay Thai.

So if one of you knows someone who knows someone, a Thai who's into Muay Thai who moved to Montreal a while ago or so, who would just train me, hold pads, etc - I'd be very very grateful.

Thank you all in advance and best wishes!!

[Joseph Arthur De Gonzo]

Hello, 

So there are a few gyms in Montreal, it really depends what you're looking for. Most gym are (if not all by now) multi sports gym. 

I know they were two brothers, I believe they were from Cambodia or Laos, but practicing their version of 8 limbs fighting, but I can't find them on google. 

But for gyms here is a quick review. 

Académie Frontenac. Mostly for beginniners and people who want to be fit. Classes are both boxing and muay thai and often the coaches are not muay thai guys, they will just add a kick at the end of a boxing combo. But the main coach, is really good and if you're into advance classe, fighting and sparring, then he's running these classes. Also, pretty cheap and lots and lots of classes for anyones schedules. 

Underdog Boxing. Primary a boxing gym, a very good one (you'll see pros like Jean Pascal train there once in a while), run by two brothers. They have a muay thai "program" run by two other brother, I believe there is only 3 classes a week, tuesday, thursday and saturday. Also very cheap. The advanced team is good, fun sparring, fun training. The two brothers are pasionnated and fun to train with. 

Thai Long: never trained there but it has a good reputation, they do pretty well in local competitions. 

Titans: Pretty good main trainer Kru Ash, active and involved in the Montreal and eastern canada muay thai community. Never trained there. 

Skarbowsky Gym: So Jean-Charles Skarbowsky is apparently taking over the world, he has gyms in France, China, Thailand and now Montreal. I don't think it is open yet, but should open soon. You can contact him on facebook I am sure he will respond. But he obsviously won't be there on a regular basis and the main trainer he choose to run the place seems a bit of a knuckle head, but I don't actually know, I only base this judgement on his facebook profile. 

Tristar: don't go, their muay thai guy suck and they always lose in local fights. 

Finally, I got a friend of mine, Ben Rancher, he coaches at two gyms but also in his garage with a small group of people. He's awesome, nice, respecful and very good. You might want to try this. I don't know how much it is. Here is his instagram. https://www.instagram.com/ben.rancher/

Good luck

 

 

[Barbara_K]

Hey Joseph,

thank you so much for that detailed message and insight!
About Thai Long I only found that they're closed but that seemed to me a proper gym for what I'm looking for.
Same goes for your friend Ben. Actually I don't care where I'm training if only that person has Muay Thai in his/her blood.

My first gym in Finland was inside a 35sqm apartment but it was the best education I could get, a really special and precious place.

[Joseph Arthur De Gonzo]

Hey Barbara, 

Happy to help. 

Thail Long should be open. I know why it was closed, they have a schedule on their website. I was asking my friend Ben and he said, Angry Monkey and Apex are also pretty good. 

Also, it depends where you're located. Thai Long is just north of the Petite Italy and Ben's home gym is in Rosemont, while angry Monkey is in Verdun.

If you ever come to Ottawa, I train at Ottawa Fight and Fitness, it's a very nice a friendly gym. Thought recently they absorbed a boxing gym that closed, so there is a lot of focus on boxing lately, but still a good gym. 

Anyway, let me know where you go, especially if you go to Thai Long, cause I am moving back to Mtl int he comins months, year, and I was thinking of joining Thai long. 

[Barbara_K]

Hey both,
just today I had my first private at Angry Monkey. I feel bruised, I ran out of air after 7months break, my knee hurts - but I'm happy to be back in the game!
Next training's already scheduled and things should go for the better now.

I was contacting Ben as well, but he's really busy these days.

As Angry Monkey is located close to where I live (and work) and training today was promising, I'm looking forward to further trainings over there.

What I didn't know so far that Muay Thai was illegal on amateur basis in Quebec and still elbows are not allowed in fights. For proper full contact fights, you'd need to go to Ontario.

Thank you as well for the tip for Ottawa since I'll be staying there from time to time due to work!

[Phil Boutros]

I'm rather disappointed and sad to hear that my old home gym, Tri-Star, doesn't seem to have a good reputation in the Montreal Muay Thai scene anymore. 

I haven't lived in Montreal in almost 20 years now, but back then (when Conrad owned it), it had a great reputation.  Heck, it was one of the few places where you could learn real Muay Thai back then.  I learned first under Conrad, then under Peter Sisomphou (known on the Internet as the rather comical Muay Thai Masta) there for years. 

Is David Loiseau's gym (The Crow Training Center) still going?  I have no idea what the place is like, when I left Montreal, David had just been training at Tri-Star for a bit.

On 11/7/2021 at 5:45 PM, Barbara_K said:

What I didn't know so far that Muay Thai was illegal on amateur basis in Quebec and still elbows are not allowed in fights. For proper full contact fights, you'd need to go to Ontario.

My goodness, is that still true?  Back then, we could only do "American kickboxing", with kicks only above the waist, etc, in amateurs.  But if you did Kyokushin Karate, you could have low kicks.  Brilliant.  I thought they had started allowing low kicks and knees for amateurs. 

[Joseph Arthur De Gonzo]

On 12/16/2021 at 5:08 PM, Phil Boutros said:

My goodness, is that still true?  Back then, we could only do "American kickboxing", with kicks only above the waist, etc, in amateurs.  But if you did Kyokushin Karate, you could have low kicks.  Brilliant.  I thought they had started allowing low kicks and knees for amateurs. 

It's a complicated issue that is actually federal. They changed the criminal bill on prize fighting when they modify the Bill to permit pro-MMA, but they added a clause made amateur mma, muay thai, bjj or any other combat sport not recognized by the Olympic committee, illegal. Now, the Lieutenant Governor in each provinces can change this, but it's quite complicated and the combat sports community needs to get together and lobby as a group. Problem is that, in Québec, few gyms have been in a feud (KB vs MT) so it is not happening. Actually the whole thing started (because the police had not known about the clause and was letting people fight for years) because a gym sntiched on another one for organizing an event, then the other did so too with resulted in amateur MMA, KB, MT and BJJ to be banned throughout the province and only organized in first nation reservations. Anyway, long story short, since MT is not recognized by the OIC, it should be okay if the gym owners get they head out of their asses. 

I don't know Loiseau's gym is still a thing. 

Tri-Star: Well, it is what it is, you know. When a gym become that popular.... 

[Phil Boutros]

Yeah, I'm very familiar with the federal issue (to say the least, read ahead), and how every province has decided to interpret the laws however they want. There are a few ways to get it done, either with approval of the lieutenant governor, as you stated, but also by a body designated by the legislature.  For some reason, here in BC, they had allowed amateur specifically, but not pro kickboxing or Muay Thai.  Pro (and amateur) MMA was sanctioned for years.

A bunch of people had been hounding the BC commission for years to try to change this here.  I finally got tired of it, and actually wrote a bunch of stuff down.  It turned into a rather popular petition.  And, in large part thanks to that (or so my sources tell me), pro kickboxing is allegedly legal here now.  No one has done a show yet, because it was supposed to start in early 2020.

Feel free to use any of this if you so desire (it's public domain, after all).  It took a while, but it eventually worked:

https://www.change.org/p/bc-athletic-commission-allow-professional-kickboxing-and-muay-thai-in-british-columbia