This was a rematch against the same woman from my 22nd fight, Petchaodoi Jit Aree Gym. Our first fight she just China Walled me in the clinch when I caught her kicks and countered me with high right kicks the whole time. This fight was pretty much more of the same.
I trained intensively on blocking that kick instead of catching it, but as my head came forward in this fight I wasn’t in a position to block and I just caught it without thinking, then my head came in just like last time and she kept grabbing me. It was difficult to turn her from that position, my gloves were locked in and I got a few elbows through, but generally didn’t do enough to release my arms to get a better position. Den told me to scoot my hips backwards off of her leg-bar across my hips, but I wasn’t able to do that (or kept forgetting to try) so that didn’t really go well.
In the 4th round the electricity in the stadium goes out for a few minutes and we just have to sit there in neutral corners and wait for it to come back on. When the lights did return there were maybe I30 seconds left in the round. It was an interesting experience, but I wish I could have tired her out more instead of having a few minutes rest in such a critical part of the fight.
I’m disappointed to have lost this bout, especially because I worked so hard on keeping my hips in and covering distance to land kicks after setting up with punches. I didn’t see that or feel that in this fight. I was much better at cutting off the ring, which is what Den was most upset with last time. He’s upset again because I’m stronger than this girl and should be able to just crush her, but I’m trying very hard to get my Muay Thai looking better, cleaner, more deliberate and when I got stuck in the clinch with her I didn’t have a solution. So she basically won this fight on a handful of kicks. I did more damage – got a knee to her head and a few elbows, but that’s not how the game is played if you’re going to let the judges give the decision. Andy said he thinks I did enough to win in the final rounds, but even if I had I don’t think I did enough throughout to make me happy with this fight.
I have a lot to work on and ultimately my coaches’ disappointment is a good thing because it means they believe me to be capable of more. I believe that I’m capable of more also and I’m eager to wash this fight off with training and another fight. If the fight were just the 10 minutes in the ring I don’t think fighters would be interested in doing it; the fight is every minute leading up to the competition – the hours spent pushing and struggling in order to bring about change, replacing weakness with strength and doubt with confidence. If a record were kept of that part of fighting… well, I guess that’s what I do.
The Whole Fight
