Documenting my journey as a female Muay Thai fighter in Thailand, sharing techniques, culture and personal perspective - over 250 fights fought

When you walk into a gym, how do you spot the fighter? Some would have it that he’s wearing a certain color shirt or shorts or prajaet on the arm; some would tell you just look at how she hits the bag; some places would have that caliber of customer quartered off into a special ring or area of the gym so everyone else could feel that separateness, something to aspire to. Look for the guy who is dripping sweat and grunting and that’s him. But it’s not the chiseled...

At some point around 130 fights, when I became the westerner with the most fights ever in Thailand, my new goal of 200 fights was met by some of my followers with a kind of, “awesome, and after that?” Like, the 200 was inevitable, rather than insane, which is what that number had felt like prior to breaking the 100 mark. It was insane, if you think about it. Only one western fighter I knew of had even fought a 100 times in Thailand. Then, having cruised past 100...

Kevin came up with the idea to publish the commentaries I do on my privates with legends and top krus for the Muay Thai Library – Preserve the Legacy project as a podcast. I watch the sessions and record the voice-over to point out details, explain further the techniques or strategies being taught, as well as putting into context some of the experience of these lessons for those who don’t have the rare privilege of being there. Kevin then listens to these recordings many times over, getting the volume right and...

In the first week of April, we will be hosting a 4 Legends Seminar in Bangkok with Dieselnoi, Karuhat, Chatchai and Namkabuan. You can find out more about it here. Each one of these men is absolutely amazing, very different styles, different techniques, different strategies, and quite frankly a lesson with any one of them is a wonderful opportunity. I’ve trained with all 4 and they’re some of my favorite fighters. But they’re also some of my favorite men, just in their personalities and how they express themselves through their Muay....

above, my extended interview with Gary Boyson, someone who plans on coming to Petchrungruang for years now. Listen to what Petchrungruang has been like, and why he’s fallen in love with it (27 min). He’s lost over 40 lbs. Gary has been training with me at Petchrungruang for the past 5 months. At first it was just in the mornings and he was so quiet and non-intrusive, I didn’t know he spoke English for the first few days, other than him saying “hello” and “goodbye” at either end of...

Kevin and I are sitting in the car, driving up to a fight in Isaan and listening to one of Joe Rogan’s podcasts with David Goggins as the guest. Up until a couple days ago, I’d never heard of David Goggins. A man posted on Instagram that he’d been listening to mental toughness mentors and he quoted me alongside his own trainer and David Goggins. That’s some awesome company to be in the midst of, for me. I looked him up and he is fucking incredible. above, the Joe...

Kevin and I are looking for my fight. It’s early still, so we have time, but I have a growing nervousness in my stomach as we wind down ever-darkening roads with fewer and fewer streetlights. I actually love looking for fights like this. We get out in the country roads and they’re just so dark and there’s nothing on either side except a few banana tree groves and enormous rice fields that seem to stretch into forever. But how can you know? You can barely see 10 feet in any...

February 18, 2017 – Thapae Stadium, Chiang Mai – full fight video here, or full fight video with commentary here In my first couple years in Thailand, I fought Yodying a bunch of times. This one was our 12th time in the ring together, although it had been about 4 years since our last meeting. This is the thing about Thailand: rematches. I like them, for the most part, as they force you to grow and change. Once someone knows your game – like, really knows it by experience, not because...

In the dimming light of evening training, when the fluorescent bulbs above the ring become more severe, the Jade Dragon Set comes running through the gate and leap onto the tires that line the far side of the ring. They bounce up and down on the tires, yelling for Kru Nu’s attention. He looks over and nods to them, sometimes talks to them for a moment while still holding his pads up for whomever is smashing them in the ring. The four little boys are all the same age,...

My bag swings away from me and in the pendulum peak away from me I glimpse inside the ring, where a 13-year-old boy is sparring with a man three or four times his size. The bag starts to swing back toward me and eclipses their figures, then there’s the thud of my kick and the process starts over again as I push the bag away from me once again. When the bell sounds I step in front of the bag and put two hands on the side of the ring,...

Yodkhunpon, the “Elbow Hunter of 100 Stitches,” has this favorite fahn sok forward elbow that he likes to teach. You have to lean forward and step around to the blind spot of your opponent, pretty much at the same time you’re slicing their face open. Being on the receiving end of it, while he’s demonstrating it, is truly horrifying. I know he’s not going to cut me, but you can feel a violence in it. Like a knife grazing your throat. I’ve learned this elbow from him and I’ve gotten much better...

February 10, 2017 – Pak Thong Chai  full fight video here with commentary Nong Mat was not the opponent I was expecting when I arrived at the temple in Pak Thong Chai. I’d been told by the promoter that it was a rematch against an opponent I’d defeated a few months back, on his card also, and that there was a side bet. But when I got there the name on the card was different, which is usually – usually – indicative of there having been a switch. When I located...

Below is a long technique vlog, basically explaining an adjustment I’ve made to my training in the last couple of weeks. Usually my training consists of things that promote my conditioning and lots of work focused on specific techniques that I want to develop. These can be techniques or tactics I’ve picked up from legends while filming my Muay Thai Library project, or things I already do that I think I should sharpen up for my particular fighting style. I’m always working on something and it’s always hard, always with...

My arms had just begun to sweat, ever so slightly, from the direct sunlight as we walked around the outside of the 20 chedi in the yard of Wat Phra Chedi Sao Lang in Lampang. It’s December and my brother and mother are visiting for Christmas, so we’re up in Chiang Mai to have a more relaxed environment than Pattaya and I can have some fights at the same time. I haven’t seen my brother Shane in 6 years, not sharing the same physical space, that is. I kind...

February 6, 2017 “Tiger King Muay Thai Day” – Bangkok, Thailand (3 rounds) – full fight video or  full fight video with commentary I got the call for this fight while I was driving home from another fight. Kevin had wanted me to fight with Zaza for a while, although she doesn’t fight often or on the kinds of shows I frequent, and is pretty big, so the chances of our paths crossing were quite slim. So, when this fell into my lap it was kind of a, “oh,...

January 29, 2017 – Lopburi, Thailand – called in on the morning of the fight – see full video here Pi Nu called me at about 7 AM and asked if I could fight that night, probably at around 9 PM. It would be in Lopburi, which is a 4-5 hour drive from Pattaya, so I just told him I had to see if I could get a car for the day and I’d confirm. The place we rent from had one, so I had a fight that night....

As I turn by motorbike onto the small side street, Soi 39, I see two little kids – maybe 5 years old – running arm and arm against some hedges taller than I am. I recognize one, a little brown-haired boy named Pepsi, both of them have these tiny white shoes that kind of flash against the dusty gray of the pavement as they run. As my motorbike pops over some overly large speed bumps and slowly swerves around roaming chickens and uncoordinated puppies in the road, I see...

Below is a 9 minute extended clip from my session with Sagat Petchyindee, the Thai fighter who was the inspiration for the Street Fighter character Sagat. He now is over 60 years of age, but scary as can be…still. As amazing as the video game character is, the fighter maybe was more impressive with 6 national stadium belts, and over 150 KOs to his name…in an age where KO numbers even in the best fighters tended to be low. In this segment he teaches what he believes develops the...

The two front seats in the main part of the van are usually full beyond capacity. On most mornings, Angie and I share one seat, while Pi Nu’s wife and sister-in-law share the other. All the boys are just a mess in the remaining seats behind us, so I don’t know how many are crammed into each one. I consider it “not my business,” what goes on back there in the boy world of endless jokes and jostling. But this morning the usual seating is rearranged, and the van...

Guest Post: A Husband’s Point of View One of my favorite people in all the world, Andy Thomson, is not doing very well right now. As of writing this he’s just come out of a medically induced coma as doctors try to figure out just what is wrong, suspecting a serious brain infection of some kind – you can help here if you would like – but this is about something else. I went looking through our old YouTube videos for all the times we filmed Andy who was...

When I first moved to Thailand, it seemed pretty common for westerners to just refer to their opponents as “a Thai”. In part this is understandable because not only can Thai names be long and confusing in English transcription (until you get used to the patterns), they can also sometimes just not be in English at all, or not known all together. But it is also more than this, there is something kind of fetishizing and alienating at once. I’ll not forget one memorable “bucket list” check, by a then...