What I learned from fighting Muay Thai in Thailand.

On the 14th of May, I was fighting in Koh Samui against a Thai. That’s right, I stepped into the ring with a guy who probably trained before he was even born. Muay Thai is in their DNA, they get into it young and they’re tough as nails. You know that you’re stepping into a crazy fight when you are facing a Thai because they never fight amateur. They fight from the age of 6 without shinguards, headgear and elbow protection. So you fight full Thai rules against a killer. I never really was a fan of the way people fight in Europe anyway. They wear way too much protection in my opinion, they then crumble under the stress when they have their first “real” fight. It’s a false sense of protection that will catch on to you.

I never had an amateur fight, I never even fought before I came here. I just told the trainers that I wanted to fight and put the work in.

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: What you need to know before we go on.

So I agreed to a fight in Chaweng stadium in Samui because the competition is a lot better over there. The fight weight would be 70 kg (155 lbs aka my walk around weight). In Thailand, they have an unwritten rule that you face a smaller but more experienced Thai fighter in your first bout. Some people think this is unfair but facing a heavier more experienced opponent isn’t a gift in your first fight. They mostly have 100+ fights at a very young age because they fight very often. You also know nothing about your opponent going into the fight. You might end up fighting a guy that’s not even on the poster.

Aside from that, they can change the fight date whenever they want. I was scheduled to fight the 10th and they changed the date when I was a week out of that fight. That’s how it goes in Thailand so you better get used to it. The “rules”, if we can call it like that, are very flexible.

I was injured going into this fight. But I won so don’t worry about it.

This was a well-kept secret but I injured myself a week out from this fight. My elbow and forearm were filled with fluid. I had to go to the hospital to get an X-ray to make sure that it wasn’t broken. It turned out to be an inflammation aka tennis elbow. They probably call it tennis elbow because it looked like I had a tennis ball right under my skin. The swelling went away mostly due to the sauna, massage, turmeric, vitamin B and K2 and magnesium oil but it didn’t go away completely. The fluid remained a bit on my elbow so I knew going into this fight that I could throw my left hand but I couldn’t throw my left elbow. The art of 8 limbs suddenly became the art of 7 limbs in my case.

You rarely go into a fight completely healthy. That’s something that most people don’t seem to realize. It’s still a contact sport. Bumps and bruises are just a part of the sport.

But things were a little different in my case.

That’s what happens in theory. It just turned out a bit different for me. My Kru (trainer) was wrapping my hands and suddenly he pointed at a guy and told me that I was fighting him. I looked at him and didn’t believe it. He looked too big to be my opponent for my first fight. But he said it one more time and then I was 100% certain that my first opponent was going to be a big boy. I changed my game plan immediately. The original plan was to use my range and jab to set things up and slowly pressure my opponent. The new plan was using my footwork a lot more. Just touch, hit and move. Standing and trading with him would have been the worst idea ever.

 

A trainer said this about fight matchups: “they lie…. we lie…. it works out.” I guess it does.

The locker room experience and the walkout.

My opponent tried to stare me down in the locker room, which is a smart move because he was bigger and more intimidating than me. He tried to be the big bully.

Too bad I wasn’t having any of it. I didn’t care about him. To me, he was just a bigger obstacle than I intended. Nothing more and nothing less. There were no emotions attached to this. It’s like they say: “The obstacle is the way” (also the title of one of my favorite books. You can buy the book here.). All the pre-fight excitement/nervousness went away as soon as I was getting massaged with Thai oil and vaseline by one of my cornerman (sounds romantic I know).

I didn’t feel anything while I was walking out. No fear, no second thoughts, no regrets,… I didn’t think or feel anything because deep down inside I knew that I belonged in that ring. It was a peaceful feeling right before the war and chaos that was about to be unleashed in front of all those people.

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: the calm in the chaos.

I remember 2 things that happened during the fight. I hit the guy flush on the chin twice in a row with a clean head kick and I saw the water/sweat flying around in slow motion (you can see the kicks on Instagram). Suddenly I thought, ‘wow this is cool’ and continued fighting. Another thing that I remembered was me thinking somewhere in the third round “What do I need to do to put this guy away? Maybe I should stop thinking and keep punching the shit out of him!”.

You see I hit him with good shots and he ate them like candy. I didn’t get it back then but I got it as soon as I saw how much of a weight difference there was when I rewatched the fight. He was a thick boy and smiled every time I hit him straight in the face. After that, I started aiming more at his body to slow him down. Which worked. I had to because this guy was looking to take me out. He threw everything full power and I just had to block or endure.

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: it doesn’t hurt so don’t count me out.

People always want to know it hurts. The truth is that it doesn’t. Adrenaline is one hell of a drug, I can tell you that. I can remember feeling some pain twice. He head kicked me and it landed a bit so I felt that one but it didn’t rock me. I also felt his last leg kick. Fun fact about the leg kicks. Most people assumed that the guy was going to win on leg kicks because he threw a lot of them. A lot of people also counted me out of the fight after the first round because the guy was bigger. How can you count me out if you’ve never even seen me fight before?

What was your whole opinion based on? Other fights? I’m not everybody else!

The only thing that I can say to that is footwork works. He never trapped me against the ropes or in a corner, we never cliched and I evaded his elbows like Neo evaded bullets in the Matrix. I deserve extra style points for that one!

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: the scorecards and the fifth round.

I have no clue how scoring works in Thailand. I don’t care either, to be honest, the only thing that I know is that the fourth round is the most important one. The fight was close and I could have been losing slightly on the scorecards.

A trip back in time.

2 days before the fight my mom sent me an email telling me that a Mexican had died in the ring (great timing but didn’t bother me). 2 days later I was ready to get into the 5th round. My legs hurt from the tree trunks kicks. It hurt more after the fight but I felt it a bit in between the fourth and the fifth. My left elbow was swollen because the guy hit me flush on the pre-existing injury. His corner asked him repeatedly to kick me on that spot. The kick on my elbow just made it worse and results in diminished power in my left arm. Aside from that, I knew that it was a close fight, that I might have been losing on the scorecard (even my corner wasn’t sure).

All the struggles from the training camp flashed before my eyes. The 7k Sunday run, the hill sprints, the airdyne bike conditioning….. So I said, “fuck it, I’m willing to die right here and right now”. I stepped towards my opponent and suddenly I asked myself a simple question “what do we say to the God of death? Not today”. It’s a Game Of Thrones thing for the ones who don’t get it. So I just bit on my mouthpiece and went southpaw and touched my way in. Why southpaw with a swollen left arm you ask? Because he was worried about my left straight, that was the money shot in the fight. So I used that to set up my left kick and I kept kicking just above his elbow.

His elbow either broke or he broke mentally and went down. After the fight, he couldn’t straighten his arm so I guess he took some damage.

In a fight, you just push it to the limit, like the famous 80’s song just with a little more swagger.

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: enter Mystic Alpha.

I predicted a lot before I came into this fight. On Instagram, I predicted how I was going to feel before entering the ring without ever being in one. I also claimed that being in the ring with Saenchai was probably more nervewracking than fighting. That was right, I had more nerves entering the competition at Fight night Samui, where I just had to do a Wai Kru and kick pads in front of the legendary Saenchai (you can read the whole story here). Weird right because I couldn’t get hurt in that one. The reason why I was nervous there was pretty simple, I didn’t know what I was getting into. I was nervous about the unknown. There wasn’t anything unknown stepping into the ring to fight beside the outcome.

Fight predictions and betting odds.

People also kept asking my prediction for the fight. I always said, “I hope that we go five rounds but there’s a 50% chance that one of us goes down and he better brings a whole army because I won’t go down easily, I worked way too hard for that one”. It’s simple math and still, people call it arrogant.

Why would you want to fight 5 rounds?! Are you crazy?!

Fighting for 5 rounds is not easy. Most people can fight for 3 rounds maximum in their first fight but deep down inside I wanted to dance 5 rounds. That’s the only way to prove to yourself what you’re made of. It’s as real as it gets. You only know what you’re capable of if you go into the deep waters and that’s what I did.

Fighting in Thailand: will my talk catch up with me?

I’m pretty outspoken and I’m aware of it. One of my training partners even was like “yeah you can be a little cocky from time to time but you have a positive mindset so it kind off evens out”. There’s a thin line between being confident and being cocky and just jump in between the two! People said that “my talk” would catch up with me. The only thing that caught up with me was the hype train and the hype train was a little late in my opinion. But it’s ok, Belgian trains are always later than they should be so I’m used to it. My social media exploded after the win, it took me 2 days to reply to everybody.

I talk and I back it up because I put in the work. That’s what most people just neglect or don’t see. I work to prove myself right and I don’t give a shit about what other people think because they don’t understand anyway. I just talk because it’s fun and games to me and it just motivates me to work harder.

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: not my last rodeo.

Some people came up to me after the fight to congratulate me but there was one that stood out. The promoter came to me twice. After the fight, I didn’t really understand him and I just wanted to sit for a minute but he came back as soon as he saw me in the audience. He asked me to fight in Chaweng stadium again so I agreed. I loved walking out in that stadium. Aside from that, I was back in the audience ready to see my mentor Sean Fagan aka The Muay Thai Guy fight.

I got itchy knuckles as soon as I saw Sean fight (about 30-45 minutes after my fight). It’s safe to say that I enjoyed every single second of this experience and I’m glad that I wasn’t like most people who forgot about that part.

I enjoy fighting so why would I stop? I’m 6 years away from my peak. Do you think that I’m going to miss out on that one?!

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: thoughts on my performance.

I want to give myself a 6 out of 10 for this one. Cardio and movement were good, hit him with some good shots. Created angles as it should be but I took too many leg kicks in my opinion. Aside from that, I know that I have a lot more tools in the toolbox that just have to be dusted off. Aside from that, I made a dumb mistake in the third which could have cost me the fight.

My next performance will be better because it won’t be my first rodeo anymore and I’ll study my performance in close detail before my next fight! I’ll just keep on improving because that’s what’s fighting and life is all about!

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: there’s a lot more to it.

Most people don’t understand fighting. They assume that only dumb people fight or call it extremely violent. Fighting is a thinking sport contrary to what most people think. It’s like playing chess but with more painful consequences. Aside from that, you don’t see the work and the struggle that fighters go through. You get pushed beyond your limits just to make sure that you can endure if the fights would turn into an absolute war.

Most people don’t understand but don’t want to understand either. They prefer to judge from a distance because that’s what most people do. To this day on I’ve never met a judgemental person come up to me and be like “what do you like about fighting?” or “Maybe there is more to this than just violence”

Fighting Muay Thai in Thailand: a book release.

I released a book on Amazon while I stayed here in Thailand. It’s called “The Year Of The Alpha: 366 Lessons On Adding Meaning To Your Life”. The book did great until fight week arrived. I didn’t want to spread myself too thin and only focused on training for the fight. The book was close to being an Amazon bestseller but eventually dropped down in the rankings. The main thing that I learned here is that it’s hard to focus on multiple aspects of life, even if you plan everything out.  

The book contains 366 life lessons that I learned over 3 years and people who read it loved it. Just look at these reviews.

The Year of the Alpha is filled with vast and important lessons for life. They are key ideas that, once lived, will change your life forever.

Have met Alex in person and he is a free spirit with a hard work ethic! His life tips are no BS and hit straight to the core!

This is a book to call you out when you know you need improvement. It doesn’t bother with trivial things it gets right i the heart of the matter and if you want to change this book is the read for you.

A very clear, grounded, no-nonsense book on living a more healthy and conscious life. An easily digestible introduction for those starting out, and a helpful refresher for those already on the path. You’ll learn from this and you’ll use it.

You can buy the book here. It’s available on Kindle and paperback.

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Till next time

Alex

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