There’s actually been quite a lot going on in Female Muay Thai, which Emma and I get to go over. We cover quite a lot and we’ve tried to be conscious of giving a bit of reference to names we mention, and I’m pretty excited by how much we were able to cover in this podcast. As a bit of a footnote, we do sound a bit disparaging when discussing the shit-show that is disorganized shows, bad matchups, poor media coverage and the meaninglessness of a lot of “world title belts” for women due to disorganization. It’s important to lay plain that Emma and I are female Muay Thai enthusiasts, as well as fighters and fans. Our frustration comes from a place of this not being good enough. Promoters and sanctioning bodies have to do better. Fighters deserve more.
above, the YouTube video of our Skype conversation, if you’d rather watch us talk instead of downloading our voices.
Just a quick list of what’s covered in this episode:
Thai Fight has just held a show in Samui, Thailand, in which 4 female fighters were on the card. Thai Fight has never had women on their card before and have, indeed, stated that they wouldn’t have women. So, while neither of us see this as a game-changer or incredible event for women in general, it is very meaningful for the women who were there to fight and hopefully it means the promotion is intending to be more inclusive. Unfortunately, the promotion did not mention the female bouts at all, either on their social media or on their posters or when announcing results. So… that sucks. The four women are: Phetnapa Kiatkitipan (TH) vs Juliana Rosa (BRA) at 58 kg; and Mongkonkaw Polamai-Plakad Gym (TH) vs. Joanna Walorska (POL) at 67 kg. Both Thai women won.
World Muay Thai Angels – season 2. Angels is the biggest all-female promotion in Thailand and season one’s winner was Chommanee Taehiran, who walked away with a million baht and a car. That’s huge for a female fighter. That’s huge for a male fighter. We weren’t impressed with the first round of the tournament, mostly due to terrible matchups and some issues with how the whole thing and the fighters are presented and promoted. We talk about why.
IFMA – Thailand will be sending 3 women to the international pro-am competition in Belarus, starting May 5th. Sawsing (who we both love) is at 57 kg, Loma (my nemesis and best female at 48 and below in the world) is fighting at her walkaround weight of 48 kg this time (usually she’s 45 kg), and Lommanee was replaced by Nongpeng, who has a crazy record at 51 kg.
WMC/WPMF – Phetjee Jaa O. Meekhun, the favorite young fighter of many and for good reason, has recently acquired two world title belts at 100 lbs and 105 lbs. Unfortunately, female world titles are disorganized and, put plainly, full of shit. We talk about why.
Saya Ito – we talk about the Japanese “Muay Thai Genius”, who became 100 lbs WPMF world champ, ran into some political nonsense, has been recovering from an injurty, and in a Japanese promo spot talked about coming to train with me after I beat her at Queen’s Cup in 2014. Pretty awesome, all of it.
What’s up with us? Emma has finally found a gym that feels like “home” at Attachai Muay Thai Gym in Bangkok. It’s amazing for many reasons. I have a broken nose and am working on training Southpaw, as to orders from Karuhat, but this kind of reopened up an aspect of my relationship to my own trainer and gym that has also brought me “home.”
You can read about my visit to Attachai Muay Thai Gym here.
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