April 14, 2016
The first day of Songkran (Thai New Year) was yesterday, the 13th of April, 2016. I took part in an all-female fight event in Bangkok, at the Santi Chai Prakan Public Park. It was a nice place to fight as the ring was right next to the river, so there was a bit of cooler air and as night set in these huge cruise boats were drifting by with their neon lights on one side and the other side is basically trees and people milling on the lawn. Songkran is a huge deal in Thailand and is celebrated with this endless, country-wide waterfight that lasts for 5 days, even though Songkran is officially 3 days. I’m not a fan of the public spectacle (though it is more importantly a New Year day of traveling back to you home, and paying respect to your family). The roads around the venue were completely choked with watergun-toting, menthol clay-covered, alcohol-aided revelers. The worst. But Muay Thai is part of those celebrations and I was happy to be on a card with some really big names and great fights.
Below is my translation of the results from a Thai share from Dtualek Lampang, who covers female Muay Thai for Muay Siam magazine, newspaper and online. I’ve added some notes about the fights from what I witnessed. I’ll add video if I find them (part of the show was televised), but mostly I’d like for readers to become more familiar with some of these names. Emma of Under the Ropes and Tu came to support me and watch the fights. We’ll be talking about this show on our next podcast, “Two Ladies in the Kingdom,” so this kind of serves as notes to that.
Puifai Sor Leksiam lost decision to Getrin Mor Ratchapat Lampang
Puifai is known for being a Playboy/men’s magazine model who has begun fighting in Muay Thai. She has a handful of fights, mostly up North in Chiang Mai and on TV twice now through this promoter. This might be her first loss. She’s not very experienced, either in training or fighting, but she has a very focused approach and stares down her opponent. I’m not familiar with Getrin.
Namdtan Por Muangpet lost decision to Ashley Nichols Kaewsamrit Gym (WPMF interim title) 100,000 Baht sidebet
This was the only fight with an announced sidebet. Namdtan is one of the most famous fighters in Thailand and recently won a WPMF title (126 lbs) last month against Canada’s Janice Lyn. This fight was a catch-weight title of some kind against Canada’s Ashley Nichols, who won a title at the same event as Namdtan’s win last month by a 5th round KO against another big name, Kwanjai Sor. Tawanrung. Ashley came out hard against Namdtan and never let up. Namdtan is generally known as a clinch and knee fighter, but she couldn’t get control in the clinch and was getting clocked by a lot of stiff right crosses from Ashley. It was an exciting fight to watch, as it was uncertain whether Ashley’s high-volume striking could keep up for 5 rounds and whether or not Namdtan would be able to neutralize her in the later rounds. Ashley really just crushed the whole fight for the victory and got both the belt and a fire extinguisher from a sponsor.
Teresa is wore my mongkol in her fight – the 2 western women who have the most in Thailand have worn this mongkol, which is cool in itself, but I also really admire Teresa and was honored to have her wear my mongkol. It means a lot to me.
Petdapi Mor Grungtep-Thonburi defends WMC title (57 kg) by winning decision over Teresa Wintermyr AKA Thailand Gym
Teresa and Petdapi (then called Porkaew) fought maybe 3 or 4 years ago and Teresa says she’s wanted a rematch since then. Petdapi is a tough and very crisp fighter and she’s fought pretty much every westerner in her general weight category (and bigger) that I can name. Teresa is also very experienced, a World Champion, and has been in Thailand for longer than any of the fighters I can name (coming on 10 years) and faces the best competition at her weight and above. I really like Petdapi – I’ve met her a few times when we’re at the same events and she’s a very cool woman, but I also am a fan of Teresa and was in her corner for this fight. It was cool to watch her in person and ringside. I had never met Teresa in person before but we’ve talked online and she let me borrow her cornerman for my fight, Dtor, who has a great energy. Somewhere around round 4 or 5 I had to help put Teresa’s contact back in her eye in the corner. I’ve never put a contact into anyone’s eye before, but you know what? Shit happens in fights and you just go with it. It was a very tough fight and Petdapi controlled it beautifully. She kept at kicking distance and used her teep to push Teresa out, who is also a clinch/knee fighter and used the 5 rounds to keep pressing in. The last two rounds Teresa was climbing, but it was just too late in the game and Teresa needed something very dramatic but just couldn’t grab it in this fight.
Ticha RR Gilakhorat defends WMC title (51 kg) by winning decision over Nong Em Wor Santai
Ticha is a big name. She’s been Isaan champ and has fought abroad. We have a little bit of unspoken beef because we were scheduled to fight and she pulled out, then told the newspaper that I had pulled out and that got printed, which pissed me off. She knows. We shared a look at weigh that let me know that she knows. But tonight she was defending her title against Nong Em, who I have fought and lost to twice up in Chiang Mai sometime ago before I moved to Pattaya. Nong Em is from Isaan as well and went to a Wushu sport school, but she’d come to Chiang Mai and stay at Santai Gym on school breaks and just fight pretty much every few days during those school breaks. She fought on Muay Thai Angels and recently lost to Fani Peloumpi of Greece at the Santai Festival’s annual event. Watching this fight, I could see that Nong Em’s style has changed since she graduated from high school and moved full-time to Santai. She used to use her front leg to kick a lot, not hard but it pins your right hand if you’re Orthodox, and now she follows the Santai style of the big right kick, mostly. Ticha really dominated the fight almost from start to finish. Nong Em would creep in, launch these huge right kicks that mostly hit air, and then would collapse to the clinch where Ticha kept a strong inside frame, landed knees and a very quick left elbow. There was a small window when Nong Em may have had a chance when Ticha got tired late in the fight, some of those right kicks started landing and Nong Em began to turn her in the clinch, a clinch that had been all Ticha up to that point. But Ticha knows how to perform and just ignored all of Nong Em’s points, and ended up being able to stay in retreat (the lead) almost the whole fight even when Nong Em got a few good points going. In the last round Ticha started doing the “dance off,” which is basically performing a “you can’t catch me” thing and in some cases taunting your opponent to try. Her particular brand of taunting was so irritating to me that I became a bit incensed. I can’t imagine how annoying it was for Nong Em in the ring.
Looknam Gor Glomgliaw lost decision to Fani Peloumpi Sasiprapa Gym
I don’t know Looknam but Fani, from Greece, has been on a roll. This fight was total dominance by Fani from start to finish, but Looknam was game and came hard the whole time. Fani used high kicks and her strong right hand, kept beautifully calculated distance to land her strikes while evading what came at her. In round 3 or 4 Looknam was cut over her left eyebrow and there was blood everywhere. She was awesome and fought harder, bouncing up and down to let the doctor know she wanted to continue. There was more clinching at that point and every time they broke there would be blood on both fighters. Fani looked at the ref and in the last minute of the fight, when there was no way Looknam could win without a KO, she seemed almost to be speaking into Looknam’s ear during the clinch. Saying “sorry” or what, I don’t know, but it was a completely inspiring performance by Fani. She’s got beautiful Muay Thai that expresses herself in a way that makes me very excited to watch her.
Rungnapa Por Muangpet lost decision to Sylvie Petchrungruang
This was the 4th time Rungnapa. I won the first two and she won the 3rd, and as I circled the ring during the Ram Muay her coach, Kru Lek, was giving a rundown of each of us to the audience in Thai. He mentioned that I’d beat Faa Chiang Rai and lost to Loma, so people got an idea of where I stand, and said that Rungnapa had only ever lost to me and Phetjee Jaa. This was a tough fight for me and I haven’t watched it yet, so I’ll give you Kevin’s impression, which is that the fight wasn’t as close as I made it seem by kind of flattening out in round 4. Rungnapa was trying to fight backwards, which had worked for her in our last fight, and wasn’t really able to score when she threw kicks. Most of the scoring was from my knees in the clinch, but kind of one knee at a time… which is annoying because I’ve been purposefully working on exactly that problem lately. But it doesn’t all come together all at once. Keep working on it. I was able to dance off the last part of the final round and Rungnapa chased but couldn’t land a definitive, turning moment. I’m sure we’ll fight again.
Mary Veronafarm wins decision over Dokmaibaa Giatpompet
I like Mary. I’ve met her a few times and she’s incredibly sweet, and I’ve seen her fight and she’s really tough. Dokmaibaa is a formiddable fighter and she likes throwing elbows. She’s strong and is a national champion, but while that’s impressive on paper but in person you can just feel what a fighter she is, just how she carries herself. Before the fights she was strutting around and chatting with me a little bit because I’ve fought her ex-girlfriend, who was also fighting that night. Her confidence is just awesome. Mary was a last-minute replacement for this card, as Dokmaibaa’s initial opponent pulled out. I didn’t see the whole fight but every time I looked up Mary was balancing like a ninja with her leg caught by Dokmaibaa. Mary would hop with the caught kick so that she wouldn’t be swept and then would launch a few punches into Dokmaibaa’s face on the side that was holding the leg.
Phetbenja Mor Grungtep-Thonburi wins decision over Mariya Muadatsantiban
[Sorry, I didn’t see this fight]
Sao Sukhothai Sor Boonmeerit wins decision over Buakaw Lookboonmee
I’ve been scheduled to fight both these fighters and neither fight came through. Sao Sukhothai has fought a number of my opponents, but I’ve never seen her in action. Buakaw fights up in Khorat and Buriram quite a lot, frequently against the same opponent (Phetnaree) and for very large sidebets. She’s from the same gym as Loma, who is the best fighter at my weight in Thailand and maybe the world, although they don’t share a style. I’ve seen videos of Buakaw looking very good and I’ve seen her look not so good at all. I think she’s just inconsistent as she’s still young and developing into her own fighting. She lost this fight pretty decisively.
Plaifaa Sor Nidya wins by 3rd round ref stoppage over Danielle Kaosai Muay Thai
This was another last-minute replacement. Initially Janice Lyn had been scheduled to fight Plaifaa, but Janice had been at Kaewsamrit for 7 months and had already gone home, without anyone really telling the promoter. So I ended up being the one to tell one of the head-hunters that she was not going to be there for the fight and he asked me to get Farida Okiko, who is a world champion down on Phuket. She signed on and then there was a problem and again the opponent changed to Danielle, who I don’t know at all. I couldn’t hear everything the announcer was saying, but she trains at Kaosai Galaxy’s gym and Emma said she heard the announcer say that she’s never fought before. So, someone with little to no experience against Plaifaa, who was scheduled to fight champions prior to the trade-out. There was a weight disparity and while they announced a 2 kilo difference, I’d reckon it was much more than that. Danielle looked much bigger. But Plaifaa was able to push Danielle into the ropes and corners with her strikes and kind of keep her there, ultimately turning the last moments of the fight into a string of huge right kicks and right hands, back to back, until the referee stopped the fight.
Dtakadten Sor Boonmeerit wins decision over Hongkaw Sor Sayan
This fight was awesome. Dtakadten has fought both Emma and me and she’s very skilled and strong. Hongkaw is a pretty big name, fights frequently, was Isaan champion before and I was scheduled to fight her once but the entire city flooded. No go. Hongkaw drives me nuts because she’s 90% showboat and 10% strong kicks. She’ll throw one solid kick and then drop her hands and bounce around like she won the fight already (if she lands) or like she can’t be bothered that you moved out of the way (if she misses). Dtakadten wasn’t feeling well, which was evident from her throwing up a few times a couple hours before her fight (she was sitting next to me, chatting and being sick over the side of the river. Seriously, guys… you can fight under all kinds of bad conditions), but you could also see it in her face and body in the ring. She just looked drained even in the first round. But she started coming on stronger in round 3 and got a little bit of a lead. She was just finishing the exchanges stronger than Hongkaw was, maybe even because of Hongkaw’s single-strike-and-then-style approach. Hongkaw really tried to perform that she was ahead, but it got to the point where there was just no way. All Dtakadten had to do in round 5 was keep the lead and in the last 30 seconds of the fight Hongkaw landed a good kick and then there was an awkward clinch that ended with Hongkaw taking Dtakadten’s back (a big point). There were 10 seconds left and I was screaming at the top of my lungs for Dtakadten to not chase, just dance back and pretend it didn’t happen. She did just that and took the victory, despite looking like she was going to puke right there in the ring. I’ve been there; she was a damn champ about it though. It was a great final fight of the show, really.
Emma and I got to sit together and watch the last two fights on the card, Fani’s fight and this last one with Dtakedten and Hongkaw. We don’t get to watch fights together often but we do talk about fights that we watch independently all the time. It was cool to actually interact in person as the fights unfolded (usually we’re chatting on Facebook while watching on TV, so there’s a delay), adding comments here or there and laughing about whatever the announcers were babbling about.
Original Share in Thai, in the same order if you want to check names in Thai
ปุยฝ้าย ช.เหล็กสยาม แพ้คะแนน เกศรินทร์ ม.ราชภัฏลำปาง (จิ้งจอกขาว ศิษย์โยลำปาง)
คู่ชิงเดิมพัน 1 แสนบาท น้ำตาล พ.เมืองเพชร แพ้คะแนน แอชลี่ แก้วสัมฤทธิ์(แคนาดา)
เพชรตาปี ม.กรุงเทพธนบุรี ป้องกันแชมป์สภามวยไทยโลก WMC รุ่น57ก.ก.ไว้ได้ด้วยการชนะคะแนน เทเรซ่า อะก้าไทยแลนด์(สวีเดน)
ทิชา โรงเรียนกีฬาโคราช ป้องกันแชมป์สภามวยไทยโลก WMC รุ่น51ก.ก.ไว้ได้ด้วยการชนะคะแนน น้องแอมป์ ว.สันใต้(ร.ร.นครพนมวิทยาคม)
ลูกน้ำ ก.กลมเกลียว แพ้ ฟานี่ ศศิประภายิม
รุ่งนภา พ.เมืองเพชร แพ้ ซิลวี่ เพชรรุ่งเรือง
เมรี เวโรน่าฟาร์ม ชนะ ดอกไม้ป่า เกียรติป้อมเพชร
เพชรเบญจา ม.กรุงเทพธนบุรี ชนะ มารีญา หมวดอาร์ตสันติบาล
สาวสุโขทัย ส.บุญมีฤทธิ์ ชนะ บัวขาว ลูกบุญมี
ปลายฟ้า ส.นิตยา ชนะน็อค แดเนียล เขาทรายมวยไทยยอม ยกที่3
ตั๊กแตน ส.บุญมีฤทธิ์ ชนะคะแนน หงส์ขาว ส.สายันต์
คู่ชิงเดิมพัน 1 แสนบาท น้ำตาล พ.เมืองเพชร แพ้คะแนน แอชลี่ แก้วสัมฤทธิ์(แคนาดา)
เพชรตาปี ม.กรุงเทพธนบุรี ป้องกันแชมป์สภามวยไทยโลก WMC รุ่น57ก.ก.ไว้ได้ด้วยการชนะคะแนน เทเรซ่า อะก้าไทยแลนด์(สวีเดน)
ทิชา โรงเรียนกีฬาโคราช ป้องกันแชมป์สภามวยไทยโลก WMC รุ่น51ก.ก.ไว้ได้ด้วยการชนะคะแนน น้องแอมป์ ว.สันใต้(ร.ร.นครพนมวิทยาคม)
ลูกน้ำ ก.กลมเกลียว แพ้ ฟานี่ ศศิประภายิม
รุ่งนภา พ.เมืองเพชร แพ้ ซิลวี่ เพชรรุ่งเรือง
เมรี เวโรน่าฟาร์ม ชนะ ดอกไม้ป่า เกียรติป้อมเพชร
เพชรเบญจา ม.กรุงเทพธนบุรี ชนะ มารีญา หมวดอาร์ตสันติบาล
สาวสุโขทัย ส.บุญมีฤทธิ์ ชนะ บัวขาว ลูกบุญมี
ปลายฟ้า ส.นิตยา ชนะน็อค แดเนียล เขาทรายมวยไทยยอม ยกที่3
ตั๊กแตน ส.บุญมีฤทธิ์ ชนะคะแนน หงส์ขาว ส.สายันต์
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Muay Thai
