Muay Thai website offers unrivalled range of clothing and equipment

The popularity of Muay Thaiboxing has grown over the last couple of years. With it, the demand for quality Muay Thai equipment and clothing. Whether its Muay Thai shorts, gloves or shin guards, the demand has grown considerably over the last few years. Within this market one innovative Muay Thai equipment website is proving to be particularly popular, that website is www.muaythaichampion.com

With a multitude of pages on Muay Thai equipment and training, this resource has gained rave reviews. Quality pervades this website and its products, which are manufactured by the big 4 Thaiboxing clothing and protective equipment suppliers, Twins Special, King Professional, Raja Boxing and Windy Sport.

Adding to its burgeoning reputation, is the fact that www.muaythaichampion.com now offers a custom design option which allows anyone to design their own shorts. All that's required is for them to provide their own design that they would like on their Muay Thai shorts and www.muaythaichampion.com will have them manufactured by one of the big four manufacturers, such as twins special or windy sport. This has proved to be a very popular option adding a touch of individuality.

This impressive website has become a top resource for anyone looking for Muay Thai equipment or related items and supplies, it's reputation is growing, as is it's readership, and with many new people looking to enjoy this sport, there really is only one place to go, and that place is

www.muaythaichampion.com

A bout of aggression

The action inside - and outside - a Bangkok boxing ring fascinates Steve McKenna

As the sparse crowd stands for the Thai national anthem, two fighters, seemingly no older than 14, climb into the ring. With their cropped dark hair and wiry frames shorn of any excess body fat, they look almost identical. In fact, the only way to distinguish them is by their trunks - one is wearing purple, the other red.

As they limber up, a band of four middle-aged men armed with drums, cymbals and a flute begin playing a tune that sounds as if it had been lifted from a snake charmer's handbook.

As the referee stands impassively, the fighters work their way around the ring, caressing the ropes, kneeling, stretching and jigging.

For a sport famed for its fast and furious action, where finely chiselled competitors hammer each other with hands, shins, elbows, knees and feet, this calmness is surprising.

Superstitious Muay Thai operators believe, however, that these pre-bout rituals ward off evil spirits and are as important as the physical encounter itself.

Their ancestors would have followed similar routines and applied similar fighting techniques, only with swords as well when defending the kingdom against Burmese and Khmer armies in the 14th and 15th centuries.

These days Muay Thai is mostly about leisure, entertainment and, of course, money and honour. The action, minus the swords, takes place nightly throughout the country, including events staged almost exclusively for tourists at beach resorts such as Ko Samui and Phuket.

Bangkok, however, is the epicentre of the sport and on Thursday nights, Rajadamnern Stadium is the place to be. With my 1500 baht ($66) second-class ticket, I have an elevated standing position above the ringside seats and below the third-class tier, which is encircled by view-obscuring metal-cage fencing.

After the five-minute pre-fight rituals, the band stops playing, the fighters' garlands, pra jiad (armbands) and mong kon (headgear) come off and the bell sounds for the first round. Then, to my surprise, the band recommence their repetitive, trance-inducing performance.

In the ring, concentration levels are initially as high as the fighters' guards. Children begin their Muay Thai training as young as seven and these boys circle each other with the caginess of wily pros.

There are a few punches, looping kicks and clinches, where they grapple each other and manoeuvre their knees in round-house, potentially rib-crunching motions, but even though sweat soon begins to glisten on their taut, flexed muscles, first-round action is sporadic.

After a two-minute rest (Thai boxers get twice as long as regular boxers), they loosen up and the crowd, which has swelled noticeably since the first bell, gets louder.

Soon enough the action outside the ring is as intriguing as inside.

Tourists calmly fill the ringside seats, while the second and third tiers are choked with talkative Thai men, who seem to have one eye on the boxers and the other on catching each other's attention. They keep making a series of twitching gestures with their hands.

After five largely uneventful rounds, the boxer in the purple shorts is awarded the judges' decision and begins bowing to the crowd. I duck out of the arena and find Boae, a ticket tout I'd spoken to earlier. I want to know what the spectators are doing.

"They're betting," he says. "They agree on the odds with finger signals. Then, if they're right, they have to remember who they bet with so they can collect the money afterwards."

When I return to the stadium, it suddenly makes more sense. Wads of baht are being exchanged either side of me, further bets are being made and, at last, the fighting becomes more exciting.

The next two boxers display admirable, though somewhat scary, levels of passion, not least when an eight-punch combination draws blood from a nose.
I recall Boae's response when I asked him if the fights are fixed.
"No!" he'd cried. "It's real. Very real. When the fighters are in the ring, they look like they want to kill each other. But after, they're cool. They'll eat together, laugh together and be friends again."
Despite appearing slightly deranged, the bloodied competitor is sticking by the rules, refusing to succumb to biting, gouging, head-butting and aiming shots at the groin area - all banned in Muay Thai, along with swearing.
When the final bell rings, and with the judges' decision imminent, both fighters throw themselves to the canvas and begin doing press-ups. The bleeder does it one-armed.
I don't know if this show of fitness tips things in his favour but the referee duly raises the bleeder's arms aloft.

Muay Thai action usually takes place at Bangkok's Rajadamnern Stadium (often called Ratchadamnoen stadium, as it's on Ratchadamnoen Avenue) on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Lumpini Stadium (on Rama IV Road) has bouts on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets cost 1000-2000 baht.
See muaythai.co.th.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Exclusive; Q&A with Tim "The Machine" Cook, Who Makes Pro MMA Debut at ICF

Tomorrow night (March 14, 2009) at Turfway Park in Florence, KY, Tim “The Machine” Cook will make his pro MMA debut, competing at 160lbs for Intimidation Cage Fighting.

Tim has been featured in two other FightTicker.com articles (3/2/09; 6/24/08) and took a few minutes to do a phone interview with me yesterday evening, discussing his motivation for fighting, family life, and perspective on his pro debut. FightTicker.com’s Brian Furby will be in attendance covering tomorrow’s event. Go to http://www.icfmma.com for more information.

FightTicker.com: So what weight are you taking this fight at?

Tim Cook: I’m actually taking it at 160lbs, so it’s not as bad as what I’m used to. I usually fight at 155lbs but I took this fight on ten days notice. Just due to the (short) timeframe, they told me that I could make 160.

I just weighed myself a little while ago, and I’m at 164.4, so I’ve just got about four and a half pounds to go.

Right before I started making the cut I was walking around at about 172. I was on a pizza and beer diet after my last amateur fight and I got up to about 180 (laughs). That was right at about a month ago. I work at a gym, a fitness gym, and on my breaks I’ve always got 30 minutes or an hour and I’ll just get a body part and crank it out (lifting).

FightTicker.com: So is it hard being with your daughter (Lily) and family while trying to make weight?

Tim Cook: Yeah, I’ve got her tonight. Cutting weight is always hard when I’ve got her. My mom just got pizza from Papa Johns, so they’re all eating pizza right in front of me, and I can’t deal with it (laughs).

FightTicker.com: Can you talk about who you’re training with?

Tim Cook: I'm now training in Jeffersonville, Indiana with Team Full Force, coached by Brent Maddox. He comes from Team Quest with Dan Henderson out in Temecula, CA. He fought for them once and went 1-0. I wouldn’t say we’re a limited resource gym, but we’re definitely smaller than what I’m accustomed to. I try and cross train with a couple of other gyms around town, but this is my home team.

FightTicker.com: So this is going to be your first pro fight. What’s going through your mind now?

Tim Cook: It almost feels like my first MMA fight all over again. The other amateur fights, it just seemed like nothing, easy stuff, go in there, do my thing. But now I look at it knowing this guy is also good enough to be a professional. He’s actually 1-2 as a professional, and he’s 6-4 as an amateur (also Tim’s amateur record). So pretty close record. The thing that makes me nervous about this guy is he’s a state champion wrestler in Ohio.

I mean I never really get nervous about getting hurt, but I guess I’m just nervous about losing my first pro fight. That’s not what I want to do. I’m a little nervous about the fight, but I took it on short notice because I was pretty injury-free. I’ve fought pretty tough guys under pretty weird circumstances. This guy that I’m fighting, I’ve actually fought one of his trainers out in Louisville in an amateur fight.

FightTicker.com: So he knows something about you.

Tim Cook: Yeah, and I know nothing about him. I mean I’ve seen some of his fights on YouTube. He looks like a pretty tough guy. I mean I’ve gone through my game plan over and over and over. His wrestling is definitely something to watch for, so I’m gonna try and stand and strike with him as much as possible, but I’m sure his game is gonna try to get it to the ground, but I’m not stranger to the ground. I feel like my jiu-jitsu is pretty decent. I really don’t have anybody to give me a belt ranking, but I would say I’m well above a blue belt status, but I just don’t train under anybody that has a black belt.

FightTicker.com: What’s your favorite discipline to train?

Tim Cook: Muay Thai. I started karate, and then boxing with my uncles and cousins, but muay Thai, you know, the most vicious type of striking you can think of.

FightTicker.com: Do you prefer the ring or cage?

Tim Cook: I’ve fought three times in a ring. I actually do prefer a cage to the ring for the fact that different organizations have different rope rules. If I get pinned up against the cage fighting a wrestler, I’ve got cage walks and a little bit of offense I can throw from there versus if you’re underneath those ropes, you’re pretty much stuck, you can’t kick off with your feet or anything like that. Definitely fighting his style, I feel better that it’s going to be in a cage.

FightTicker.com: That’s interesting because a lot of wrestlers like being in a cage too.

Tim Cook: Yeah, getting takedowns and cramming your opponent’s head into the fence, but I train that constantly mainly against walls. I try to label myself a striker, but of course it usually goes to the ground in MMA. It usually ends on the ground. But I feel more at home in the cage.

FightTicker.com: How do you feel about the judging in MMA?

Tim Cook: As far as the Kentucky Athletic Commission, who is going to be in charge of this fight, especially stepping from amateur to pro, I feel better as a pro because sometimes they stop fights prematurely at the amateur level. People get maybe a scrape or small, small cut and the official will stop the fight. As far as the judging, it feels like we’ve got a lot of boxing judges because the boxing commission has taken over in Kentucky. So as far as the ground game, jiu-jitsu styles, it’s kind of still an iffy thing in this area.

FightTicker.com: You’re with your family now. Can you talk about them, in particular your daughter (3 years old)? Does she know what you do?

Tim Cook: I’ve got her three nights a week, and she knows daddy goes to train, but she also knows daddy fights. If somebody asks her, “What does your mommy do?” her mommy works with an optometrist, so she’ll say “Mommy talks to people.” And we’re not together. If somebody asks her, “Well, what does your step daddy do?” She’ll say, “Andrew makes food for people.” “What does your daddy do?” She’ll say, “Daddy fights” (laughs).

With her being so young, I think she thinks it’s kind of like pro wrestling. She thinks it’s fake. We were watching UFC Unleashed last night, and they showed the Octagon from an outward view, and she asked, “Daddy, is that your work?” And now it kind of is, so that’s pretty cool. She’s very smart and understands it pretty well for a three year old. She’s seen me fight on YouTube, but she has yet to see me fight in person.

FightTicker.com: And what about your mom, what does she think about you fighting?

Tim Cook: My mom, she kind of has her moments with it. She’ll say, “I hope you go in there and really kick this guy’s ass. Win, make me proud,” all that stuff, but I can tell deep down inside she hates it (laughs). Yeah, she says no matter how much she supports me, she could never come watch it. I don’t blame her.

FightTicker.com: When they announce your name on Saturday, what will be going through your head?

Tim Cook: When they announce my name, I know I’m gonna go through that same thing – butterflies, that sensation of it being like my first fight. I’ll go through that, then I’ll see my opponent and understand this is what I’ve worked my whole life for. Just growing up as a kid, this is a family thing. I’ve always watched the UFC since I’ve been 10 years old in 1993. I remember watching the very first UFC with my uncles. They were huge UFC nuts. So it’s always been a thing in my bloodline. I never imagined that I could take it to this level.

Around here anybody can say they’re pro, you know take one fight and get knocked out. I’ve fought ten amateur fights and I feel pretty validated (as a fighter). There’s a sense of pride going into this fight, but more than anything I don’t want to let my friends and family down. I want to prove to everybody, that I deserve to be a professional MMA fighter.

FightTicker.com: And will your uncles be there?

Tim Cook: Well, that’s just it. One of my uncles had a stroke earlier this year and the other one passed away a while ago. In a way this fight is for them too.

FightTicker.com: Well, best of luck Saturday. Is there anything else you’d like to say or people you’d like to thank?

Tim Cook: I would like to say thanks to a ton of people, but mainly to my friends and family for believing in me, and thanks to my daughter, Lily. Maybe one day when she’s old enough to read, she can look back at it, but she’s the biggest reason I do anything, especially this.

By David Mayeda, PhD, FightTicker.com Social Issues Contributor

David Mayeda, PhD, is lead author of Fighting for Acceptance: Mixed Martial Artists and Violence in American Society, the first political book on mixed martial arts that attempts to reform the sport by increasing violence prevention measures through interviews with forty mixed martial artists, including Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, Guy Mezger, Antonio McKee, Chris Leben, "Rampage" Jackson, "Mayhem" Miller, Travis Lutter, Frank Trigg, and Cleburn Walker.

Knocking on the door of success

Peter McCarthy threw himself into Thai boxing to heal the mental scars of an assault and ended up selling the resulting film door-to-door, writes ARMINTA WALLACE .

IF YOU BOUGHT a DVD on the doorstep recently from a guy with a sad story and a sunny smile, and you haven’t watched it yet, for goodness’ sake dust it off and put it into the machine. Made by Good Dog Films, the documentary feature Fight or Flight is well worth a chunk of your time – which is perhaps why it’s beginning to attract attention on the international circuit.

The film, which took six years to make, has already picked up awards at festivals in Hamburg, Toronto and California, and is in the running for another couple of prizes in Wisconsin and New York’s Long Island over the next couple of weeks. Last weekend it was pipped at the post for an Irish Film and Theatre award, in the editing category, by Lance Daly’s Kisses.

Curling his lanky frame around a table in a tiny coffee shop in a south Dublin suburb, the film’s producer and chief protagonist Peter McCarthy explains how Fight or Flight came to be made. “About seven years ago I was walking out of a fast food shop with my brother,” he says. “We’d been for a beer, then something to eat.” As they walked past a group of about six people on the footpath, he heard remarks passing between the group and his brother, turned around to see what had happened – and got a bottle smashed in his face.

“It got a bit chaotic for a while after that,” he says with a grim smile. “I can’t exactly remember what happened, but I think my brother dragged me into a hackney office. When a taxi driver pulled up he didn’t want me in his taxi because there was blood everywhere.

“They got me all the way down there,” he says. He sweeps his hand downwards from his eyebrow to his mouth, all along the side of his nose. “If you look in the white of my eye you can still see a black mark. I was very lucky not to lose my eye.” So far it’s a story which is, sadly, all too common in contemporary Ireland. McCarthy’s physical scars healed up pretty quickly; the psychological scars were a different matter. “From a mental point of view,” he says, “it took about . . . well. Years. And a film. Figure that one out.”

The attack left him totally paranoid, and obscurely angry. There seemed to be conflict everywhere in his life, even – perhaps especially – with his brother. But mainly, as he admits at the beginning of the film, he wanted “to be able to walk down the street and not get the s**t kicked out of me”. So when a friend showed him a newspaper article about the extreme sport of Muay Thai boxing, he decided to go to Thailand and sign up.

Talk about facing up to your worst nightmare. An opponent in Muay Thai doesn’t just wear boxing gloves and a murderous expression: he can also, suddenly and without warning, lash out with his feet.

McCARTHY THREW himself into this extraordinarily macho world with a will. He trained, sparred and, eventually, got into the ring for a full-on fight. It’s all documented in Fight or Flight in vivid and, at times, unsparing detail. What gives the film its strange fascination, though, is that despite his obvious dedication, determination and courage, McCarthy just doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who gets into fights. When he’s not jumping up and down on rubber tyres or taking tactical advice from his Thai trainer and a translator – both of whom speak an amusingly impenetrable language which is definitely not English – he’s travelling around Thailand on a motorbike, developing a healthy respect for the local people and weaving a compelling documentary out of an unlikely cocktail of Muay Thai, the monsoon, cockfighting and Buddhist principles of non-violence.

At one point McCarthy even spent a number of weeks in a Buddhist monastery. “It drove me mad,” he says, “so I had to get out. You’d get up at four in the morning and sweep your room. The first day they give you an hour of meditation and then they gradually increase the time from one hour to two, to three, to five, to seven. Eventually you’re doing 14 hours of meditation a day.” Too much, he says, for the western brain to handle without serious psychological support. “But I think if you stay there for a couple of months, it probably works itself out.”

If you’re looking for a happy ending at this point – McCarthy becomes a monk and lives happily ever after – forget it . Fight or Flight is a non-judgmental exploration of themes of machismo and cultural rites of passage; and much of its appeal lies in its eschewal of simplistic solutions.

In any case, McCarthy’s story still contains a twist or two. He had brought a camera to Thailand with a view to making a television documentary about his odyssey, but couldn’t get a backer for the project. “I pitched the idea around to try and get it made, and just didn’t get anywhere,” he says. “I spoke to TV3, TG4, RTÉ, Channel 4. Nobody was interested. So I made it myself.”

There followed a lengthy and difficult period during which he re-mortgaged his home, borrowed from family and friends and “burned out credit cards pretty badly”.

Good Dog Films got some completion funding from the Irish Film Board – but it was a drop in a large and increasingly murky ocean.

“Before Christmas, I hit the wall financially,” he says. “After going bust and not being able to afford the mortgage or credit card payments, let alone basic living, I decided to take to the streets to sell my film door to door. I mapped out my routes, made a grid of the city and then hit the streets of Clontarf, Fairview, Sandymount, Ballsbridge, Blackrock, Monkstown, Killiney, Dún Laoghaire, Sallynoggin and Ballybrack, among others. I also took to the streets of Cork.”

It was, by his own admission, an extraordinary experience. “It’s one of the toughest things I’ve done,” he says. “I’d say I’ve rung two-and-a-half to 3,000 doorbells in the last couple of months.”

Like all fledgling sales people, he swiftly found himself on a steep learning curve.

“Saturday’s good because everybody’s in – but if there’s a match on, it’s not good because they don’t answer the door. Dinner time can be a pain in the neck, because when people come to the door they’re eating something and you’ve just interrupted their evening meal.”

Among his customers were Pat Kenny and Neil Jordan, both of whom happily stumped up for a copy of Fight or Flight. “Some people will go ‘cool, yeah, okay’,” he says. “Other people get grumpy.”

One man slammed the door so hard that McCarthy feared for structural damage to the house. Another woman shooed him from the doorstep as if he were a stray cat. “That was just funny,” he says. “Although it generally took me a couple of minutes to recover from rejections like that.”

THERE WERE OTHER, more subtle, ethical dilemmas.

“I rang one doorbell and I could see an elderly woman making her way along the hall, very slowly. Now, I prefer not to talk to somebody who I think really isn’t gonna be into the film – but I didn’t want to just ring the bell and run away. When she answered the door I said, ‘Ah, I’m just selling a DVD’. And she said, ‘I’ve just got my pension – what’s it about?’ So I said, ‘Ah, it’s just a story, you know? You probably wouldn’t like it. It’s about fighting and stuff like that’. But she said, ‘I’ll have one.’ Then I tried to reduce the price, but she was having none of it.”

McCarthy made enough cash to keep the credit wolves from his own door – and is currently discussing a fiction version of Fight or Flight with various interested parties in the US. He’s also exploring the possibility of a new project based on the story of the donations made by the Native American Choctaw tribe to Famine relief in Ireland in 1846. “I’m looking for a serious co-producer for that one,” he says.

If it doesn’t work out in the short term, he won’t exactly be idle. His stint as a door-to-door salesman for Fight or Flight has opened a number of, ahem, unexpected doors.

After he sold a DVD to a doctor in Clontarf, the man’s psychiatrist wife expressed an interest in having McCarthy speak to groups of young people who had suffered unprovoked assaults and were finding it difficult to recover. After our interview he’s off to Ballymun to meet a class of 15-year-olds whose contract teacher showed them the movie and impressed them no end.

“I’m not sure how that’ll go,” he says, as he gathers his stuff to leave. But who’s going to argue with a Muay Thai expert? Not me, that’s for sure.

Fight or Flight can be purchased online at www.fightorflight.tv, €19.99
http://www.irishtimes.com/

Exclusive: DellaGrotte tips Egan for big future

Hugely-respected MMA trainer Mark DellaGrotte has exclusively told setanta.com he expects Tom Egan to become a "top-level 155-pounder".

Muay Thai man DellaGrotte, who coaches Kenny Florian among a number of top fighters, has taken Egan under his wing after the Dublin fighter fled to the US in search of the world's best coaches.

Having lost his UFC debut to John Hathaway without throwing a punch in anger, inevitable question marks have surfaced regarding whether Egan has what it takes to compete at the top level.

DellaGrotte is in no doubt though, although he admits the 20-year-old may need to drop to 155 before he makes his most telling impact.

“Between the first fight he had in my gym and the last fight just recently, I have seen a huge difference in the space of two weeks in Tom Egan," DellaGrotte told setanta.com.

“Nobody wants to go to a new gym and try to be the hero and try to be the tough guy. Tom was humble, very willing to learn, it took a couple of weeks to fully open up but he is showing his true self now - that's for sure.

“Between the first time he was here and the last time, it’s like night and day.

“The biggest thing Tom lacks is experience. It’s not like you look at him and say he needs to work one thing – he just needs experience. He needs to be around good training partners, good coaches, and he just needs time.

"But I don’t see any significant holes in his game. He’s very well-rounded and he is only going to get better.

“He has an absolutely chance of making it. I’ll be honest, like I am with Tom, the US has most of the top fighters and top coaches. We’ve taken the sport by storm. But the longer Tom works with top level guys he will develop further and faster and in my opinion he is right up there with all the top-level guys at 155."

Elaborating on his 155 theory, DellaGrotte believes Egan can compete at either weight category...but he hints the lightweight division is best-suited to the Irishman's title dreams

“Tom is fighting at 170 now, but Tom could potentially make 155. He’d be a very strong 155. I’ve got him sparring with 170s and 155s and he does great in both weight classes.

“But he may have to adjust to 155. A lot of fighters do that. They make their breakthrough in the weight class where there is a space, but then they migrate and adapt.

“Both divisions are difficult, but in my opinion he could fight in either one of them. It’s just a question of which one he is gonna make the greater impact in."

http://www.setanta.com/uk/

Fighting fit for Arafura

TERRITORY Muay Thai fighter Andrew "Cold Steel" Castle is already glowing with Arafura Games anticipation.

Castle will lead Darwin's charge on to the international stage when the famed martial art is debuted at the 10th instalment of biennial Games.

And already he knows that none of his fight experience - spanning an impressive eight wins from 11 outing - will compare to the four-day showcase of action which will see more than 160 fighters from 15 countries go toe-to-toe.

"Wherever we fight there is interest and excitement in the Games," Castle said. "The energy is going to be amazing, it's going to be nothing but Muay Thai wherever you look. That sort of energy can bring something extra special out of you in the ring."

Castle was there in 2007 when the Muay Thai's addition as the Games' 27th sport was made.

His attitude then is the same as now - it's good for the local, national and international profile of the sport.

"The Arafura Games is a huge thing to be a part of and an important step for Muay Thai one day getting into the Olympics."

NT representative for the World Muay Thai Council and tournament organiser Corey Impelmans is keen to put Darwin on the world Muay Thai map.

"I've coached hundreds of fighters, successfully run this club (Man Ho Academy of Martial Arts) for 25 years, hosted local, national and now an international event.

"It's a proud achievement to know we are playing a part in putting Muay Thai on the Olympic agenda."

Traditional Muay Thai powers Thailand, Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore and China have committed teams to the tournament with Australia also fielding an elite-amateur and development squad.

Andrew Aloia
http://www.ntnews.com.au/

Suspect in killing of Muay Thai association head falls in Rizal

MANILA, Philippines - The suspected killer of the head of the Muay Thai Association of the Philippines was arrested in Tanay town in Rizal province, a radio report said Wednesday.

Radio dzBB's Benjie Liwanag Jr. reported that Sonny Sumales was arrested in an operation conducted by police and military operatives in Barangay Daraitan in Tanay.

A joint team of the Philippine National Police's Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines arrested Sumales.

Sumales faces criminal charges for the killing of Muay Thai Association of the Philippines president Robert Valdez last Saturday.

The report, however, did not say if investigators had determined the motive for the killing. - GMANews.TV