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Preserve The Legacy and Local Traditional Muay Thai Cards in Hua Hin
🕑 Added 2023-09-14 03:42:57 +0000 UTCTLTR: With local traditional Muay Thai ailing, and my difficulty in finding opponents, we've created a mini 5 round traditional rules Muay Thai show in Hun Hin, this Patreon is donating to the fight pay of all fighters, including raised pay for my opponent and a substantial victory bonus. This is 100% funded by this Patreon. This helps grow the local traditional scene, and supports local promoters. This is our card, help support and spread the word!
Starting to Support Traditional Muay Thai at the Local Level
10% of this Patreon goes to the Krus & Legends of documented in the Muay Thai Library, and has for years now, but this Patreon has always been the primary way to support myself as a professional fighter, and remains how I fight, paying for my training, travel & health, and making fights possible. Altogether its about my love for Muay Thai.
If we can put together more sponsors and investment we can grow traditional rules Muay Thai.
In my last update I talked about my new, revised goal as a fighter in Thailand: 300 fights in this beautiful country in the sport & art that I love and have dedicated my life to. This post is about something Kevin and I have decided to do to give back to that commitment and also to help make possible my goal, offering prize money and donated pay to local Muay Thai shows that matter.
The Thinning of Traditional Muay Thai in Thailand
For some time now, partly due to the rise of Entertainment Muay Thai (3 round, non-Femeu style fighting) in the country, its been very difficult to find opponents for fights. If you are outside the country you may not realize that traditional 5 round fights, especially for experienced women, fights which were once incredibly plentiful now have become an increasing rarity. In the tourist centers of the country where Western fighters and Thai fighters come together the Entertainment format has become embraced. Some of this has been a real boon to Thai female fighters as many of them have had their careers extended, and their fight pay significantly increased. But, on another level, the life's blood of Thailand's traditional sport is being tested a bit. Traditional, local fights are becoming more scarce. You would be surprised that if you came to Thailand to train seriously you might not even be able to fight in a traditional rules Muay Thai fight. I talk about my reluctance to fight Entertainment Muay Thai here in this recent podcast, around min 42.
Finding Opponents, Creating Opportunities
As said I've had a very hard time finding opponents, so I am told by various promoters, because high level names simply turn down fights with me, despite me being willing to give up very large amounts of weight, offering substantial dern pan (side bets, as can be the custom). Over the last two years we've reached out to the biggest and best names in the sport within 2 or 3 weight classes, if not more, and got back almost a uniform and instant "no". It is not uncommon in the arc of top female fighters in Thailand to "run out of opponents", which is the way that Thais think and talk about it. I've faced it a few times in the past, and for Thais this is almost a desirable state, to be "at the top of the heap", but for someone like me who improves themselves through fighting it's not preferable at all. It doesn't actually mean that you've run out of opponents, but its just that the conditions for fights have changed. For me some of this may be due to the fact that I'm just so small (my proper weight class is 100 lbs) I'm not worth taking a chance to lose to, but most of it is likely because Entertainment Muay Thai shows pay much better than local traditional shows, sometimes much, much better. It makes no sense to fight me in traditional Muay Thai, given its pay structure. And, as a difficult, small clinch fighter, I'm not an attractive opponent either.
So what we've decided to do, in part because of my dearth of opponents, in part because of the difficulties traditional Muay Thai is facing as tourism hit a downturn - is to donate from this Patreon to support for local, traditional rules Muay Thai, to see if we can bolster traditional, grassroots fighting, which is ailing, a grassroots fighting I've always been a part of. This comes out of the passion I feel for traditional rules Muay Thai, the project of the Muay Thai Library documentary project, and its traditional fight knowledge, and the belief that the higher profile shows in Thailand are feed by local, traditional fighting. I don't want to just complain about there being no traditional Muay Thai shows, something I've talked about quite a bit. I want to see if we can do something about it, even on a personal scale. This Patreon makes this possible. We want to help bring about more traditional fights at the local level, donating to support the ecoystem that makes Muay Thai what it has been in Thailand, and perhaps inspire others to invest as sponsors in this too.
What we've done is donate to make a mini-card of traditional fights, within a larger card in Hua Hin Thailand (the larger card below). A Preserve The Legacy card that is funded directly by this Patreon and your pledges. The aim is to raise the fight pay for the fighters on this traditional card, and also to raise the fight pay of a possible opponent of mine as well, to draw in top fighters. The idea is to strengthen local traditional Muay Thai so that it can become as attractive, or more attractive to fighters who might otherwise only just pursue Entertainment fights.
For me this involves also offering a substantial cash prize for victory in fight with me. A female fighter will get improved fight pay (10,000 baht would be about what televised pay would be about 5 years ago), and a chance for a significant bonus (a bonus we hope to grow with sponsorship). This improvement is through our Patreon, in addition to paying raised kaduas for the other fighters on this traditional card. This also supports the finances of the promotion itself, carrying the burden of expenses so that they can turn a profit and more regularly put on fights. The promotion I'm working with is an absolutely great local show put on by Kaisuwit, who has shows on the land of his Hua Hin Muay Thai gym, pulling together local Thai fighters and non-Thais from gyms in Hua Hin. It's helping nourish the local fight economy, and at the same time offer incentive for my future opponents.
In general, unlike many, I don't really pick my opponents or have advocates to pick them for me. I don't have gyms with political power who work to build my career and opportunities (or, as sometimes happens in gyms, ignore and let me stagnate). Instead I have always relied directly on promoters to find good fights for me, and within the scene of Thailand's Muay Thai to create matchups that make sense to Thais. I think promoters like to work with me because I'm extremely dependable and flexible. One television promoter jokes: I just ask "Is it 5 rounds" and nothing more, but its true. I offer incentives like giving up big weight differences that other fighters or gyms might not accept, I'm almost never leveraging for a fight advantage (a negotiation which is customary in Thailand, almost like haggling.). Sometimes matchups are inconsistent, but we have to build opportunities. This is a chance to support some of those scenes.
The First Show
This weekend is our first show, which is something of a proof-of-concept show, trying to see if all the moving parts fit together. We're putting on 4 traditional Muay Thai fights with increased fight pay, through a donation totally supported by this Patreon. If you are in Bangkok consider coming down to Hua Hin this Saturday to support the local show. It's a festival fight energy and one of the best local shows I've come across in all my years in Thailand.
If we can raise the fight pay for these kinds of traditional fights, maybe even create sponsorship for them from other Western business or passionate personal generosity, then the rareness of 5 round, traditionally judged fights will change, and at the local level grow again. There is a lot of will to fight in a traditional format, but the economics have to support it, and in this small way we hope to be part of that change.
So if you would like to help sponsor future traditional, grassroots events, let me know in a message. As a patron you are already sponsoring them, if we can continue to donate to this promotion. And, with this first show and the improved fight pay for my opponent (the pay we are donating is shown at the top of this page), as well as the 30,000 baht bonus ($840 USD) on victory, better fighters in Thailand would be more willing to fight on this traditional show. I don't really know my opponent Leam Tanawat, though I do know she's fought on Super Champ/LWC and she'll weigh in at 50 kg (I walk around at about 47-48 kg now). Hopefully this show, its pay & its victory bonus will bring in more interest in top female Thai fighters.
This particular show is a show I've fought on several times, and it feels good to give back to it. In my last matchups there, since COVID hit the economy I didn't take fight pay from Kaisuwit, to help with his finances as a local gym owner. Kevin's photographed the show in the past so you can get a feel for it through those. Kaisuwit is also in the Muay Thai Library (#120 Kaisuwit "Kru Pern" - Muay Maat Centrifugal Power (104 mins) watch it here), and I've known him for years. He's a friend of Kaensak's and Karuhat's, in fact I met Karuhat at one of his promotional shows when Kaensak was in my corner when he was visiting Thailand many years ago. I've probably fought on a Kaisuwit promotion 12 times or so.
If we can bolster this show it will also nourish Hua Hin Muay Thai. Hua Hin is just 3 hours South of Bangkok, and has some wonderful gyms, including the very technical, traditional Sitjaopho (in fact they have a fighter on our mini-card). Kru F is also in the Muay Thai Library, #118 Phettho Sitjaopho - Muay Femeu Excellence (70 min) watch it here. If we can entice bigger name fighters to appear on these traditional cards, and also raise the general level of fight pay, I think we can feed the local fight scenes upon which all of Muay Thai depends. If this experiment works it could become a trend to support local traditional fighting.
The Hua Hin Show is One of the Best Local Shows In the Country
There is nothing like festival fighting in the provinces. It's a combination of 4th of July-like picnic and park joy. Fights can range from kids getting the bones so they can one day fight in Bangkok to higher level fighters honing their skills against each other. They are always also celebrations of the local community. Its these fights that make up the life's blood of Thailand's Muay Thai. There is a certain kind of spirit to them. Yes, they happen all over Thailand in Isaan or in town and villages that Westerners seldom see, I've been fortunate to have fought in festival fights many times and it really some of the best experiences I've had as a fighter, both in and out of the ring, but the also can happen in local Muay Thai scenes that include tourism Muay Thai, and this show in Hua Hin is like that. Customary Muay Thai and tourism Muay Thai come together in the most excellent way. I've fought world champions on this show, its an incredible mix of local and worldwide Muay Thai. This is the show we are supporting. It's just 3 hrs from Bangkok, if you can help spread the news of it on social media it would be great.
Our mini-traditional card, with higher pay & opponent bonus is inside the larger card (you can see above in the carousel of photos) which may feature 3 round fights. These are Sport Authority Sanctioned, professionally refed and judged fights. We're donating and raising the pay, and creating a traditional base of fights.
above, as fighters arrive. Fighters will lay their mats out on the grass. Everyone is assembling. Fighting under these tin rooves is classic Thailand Muay Thai. This is the layout.
above, the back of the ring where gamblers and family members gather.
One of the young, local Thai female fighters who get a chance to develop on cards like this, and one day fight on the Bangkok shows (above). In Thai they call this growing bones. If young Thai fighters don't have local traditional fights to fight on, they won't grow their bones in traditional fighting styles.
Putting together the show in the morning (below)
Kaisuwit preparing the ring.
This show is where West and Thailand come together in a non-commercial, more customary way. Something to lend yourself to if you can.
