I was watching a video on Youtube today which made me think about where I want to take MMA in Pakistan. Here’s the video.

Basically, my opinion on MMA culture namely in the United States is that it has become a commercialized fad, with MMA fans needing to wear “fight clothes”, MMA slang popping up, calling wins W’s, Ground n Pound, “I can sub him” etc… If you aren’t wearing a “Fight Shirt”, don’t have a Mohawk and tribal tattoos, you aren’t fitting the part of a “fighter.” This is the sort of thing that is bugging me.

I do think that the acceptance of MMA into the mainstream as a legitimate sport is a good thing. The fact that people are making money by making gear companies and clothes companies is a good thing as well. All this puts more money into the sport which translates into more pay for fighters at all levels.

What bothers me about this though is that while the athletic aspect of the sport is being drilled into peoples perception of MMA in the sense that the fact that these are trained athletes. People understand that these guys spend hours training. Two things that I think have been lost over time is the martial art aspect of the game. I think a good way to understand how the attitudes toward MMA can differ is by looking at Japan. There are no boos during the match. In fact there is total silence, it is like watching a tennis match or two people play chess. There is no emphasis on “hey look at this undressed woman parading around”, “drink this beer”, “look like these tattooed screaming idiots in the audience. It is just a total absorption into the techniques being observed as two men battle in the ring. Another thing which I think has been lost, but MAY come back is the idea that the MMA arena is not made for the competition of the style called MMA. Rather it is a place where any style can come and compete and see what works and what doesn’t. A place where people can come and test themselves and their techniques not merely a place to get famous, where a belt and be on a magazine cover. From watching the Ultimate Fighter is seems that most individuals are training in MMA to be famous, as if they were trying out to be an actor and training to better themselves or enjoy the art. The fact that it seems quite apparently obvious that if given the choice many of today’s MMA fighters would spend their lives in a drunken stupor, if there was no arena for competition. What I mean is that the only thing stopping these guys from drinking irresponsibly is the desire to be famous and if that opportunity did not exist they would have no interest in training for the sake of training or to develop a better character.

I do not want this to happen in Pakistan. I would like to work closely with the traditional Martial Arts community so that Traditional Martial Arts and MMA competition are not two entirely separate entities but rather go hand in hand. I would like MMA competitors to serve as examples of responsible moral people who take of their bodies, minds and souls. Definitely nothing resembling some of the guys you see on MMA reality TV shows or the caricature you see on this YouTube vid.

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I had a very good night. I am waking a little sore on my shin, a slight belly ache and my elbow tweaking a bit but all in all I feel good. I had a good fight, I have gotten better and I can train tomorrow there is nothing more that I ask for.

I arrived at the stadium feeling very confident. I was going to perform to the best of my abilities and I was not concerned about winning although that’s the result I pictured in my head. I think it would be more fair to say that I did not needlessly fret over the possibility of losing.

I arrived and was sent to the doctor to get my heart rate checked. In my 7 fights in Thailand, this is the first fight that I have ever seen a doctor. My guess is he is here to check and see people aren’t using yabba (methamphetamine) before fights, something he could tell with a racing heart beat.

My opponent came to see who he was fighting and he was a very solid, athletic Thai who I guess was 10 pounds lighter and 2 inches shorter than me. He actually looked at me hesitatingly and I felt like I had already won the mental battle. He seemed scared.

I asked Bee if he knew who he was. Turns out that he was the younger brother of the guy whom I had beat in November at the Loi Kratong festival in Pai. Very weird. It also turned out that Bee had taught this guy when he was younger. He was 21 years old and had over 100 fights. My guess is that he had been doing Muay Thai for at least 10 years. Opposed to my 3 years and 7 fights. Nonetheless I was still not nervous since I thought he was scared of me. A few moments later he came back and started talking to Bee about something and I got the feeling that he did not want to fight me. He had asked Bee to switch himself with Charlie’s (My trainer who was also fighting on the card) opponent. I would Charlies opponent and he would fight Charlie. He said the fight would be better since the guy Charlie was fighting was not that good and the guy I was supposed to be fighting was more on Charlies level and so the matches were turn out more even. I didn’t believe it and thought he was scared of me but, I did not understand this, for one why did he want to fight Charlie who has fought at Lumpinee and on TV instead of me? Second, I was not comfortable fighting the guy who was supposed to fight my TRAINER, the guy who beats me up every day in training, I didn’t think it was fair. Regardless, I didn’t protest too much. What can I do right? Just bite the bullet and fight as hard as you can.
Later the guy came back, and said it would continue as planned and I would fight my original opponent. I felt better, and I assume his brother, who was also at the show told him he had to fight me since last time we fought I knocked him out in the second round. I am not sure about this, but that’s my guess.

Soon after I started getting wrapped and oiled and massaged. For those not familiar with the way Muay Thai is fought in Thailand. Instead of concentrating on a warm up a fighter gets massaged with a bottle of extremely hot Thai Oil (Bengay on steroids).

I was the last fight on the card. A special attraction because I was a foreigner. Charlie, despite being far more prestigious than me in his achievements was the fight before me.

Charlie stopped his guy in the second round with a lot of vicious elbows to the head of his much older and less experienced opponent. It was very apparent that this guy should not have been in the ring with Charlie. The guys from my gym were coming up to me and telling me that maybe the issue that came up earlier about switching fighters was a valid one.

Time for me to fight. I got in the ring, feeling very comfortable and did a basic Wai Kru. Everyone was staring at me and I have a feeling i was most definitely the favorite in this match, at least in the eyes of the mostly farang crowd, who quite honestly had no clue what they were watching.

The first round I had hoped to put this guy off guard. I was going to go light and move around him for the first 30 seconds and slowly start applying the pressure in the hopes that he would break because he was scared of me. What happened instead is that after 30 seconds he started doing spinning heel kick and cart wheel kick a la Saenchai Sor. Kingstar. He wasn’t doing these kicks but he was doing them very well. Regardless from what I felt in the first round and what most people tell me, the feeling was that the first round was somewhat even with my opponent doing some crazy acrobatic S*&T. Looks like it was going to be a good fight.

The second round I felt I had the upper hand and in hindsight I really should have come forward a bit more instead of being as careful as I was in the fear I would go all out, not knock the guy out and end up gassed with my hands at my knees ready to eat his shin. He threw some good kicks but nothing connected solid. I landed a lot of solid punches to his head but my boxing was not as sharp as it is in sparring. I also did not do well with following up with a good low kick. He saw my kicks coming (and most of my punches) very quickly and hitting this guy was very difficult.

The third round was similar and I got put on the ground a few times. Whenever I tried clinching with this guy he would tie me up and hug me in a sort of stalling type of move where I was not able to change position to throw a good knee.

Fourth round i must admit, the energy in the ring had definitely turned and this guy knew he was much better than I. Any fears in his were gone and he kept coming forward and giving me a hard left knee to the liver. Every time I got hit I would make a “hooh” sound of letting my breath out as to diminish the effect of the blow but I think the ref thought it was too much and stopped the fight. Although I cannot say had it gone the distance I would have won, in fact I highly doubt that. The third round was somewhat of a toss up but the 4th round was clearly his. Regardless it was a very early stoppage in every ones opinion and he did not even give me a standing 8 count. I should have protested but that’s not my style and I humbly left the ring.

Looking back at this fight, yes it sucks that I lost. I wish I had won and as I look back at the video I know there are some things I could have done to change the outcome for the fight. But to be honest, I am very happy with myself. I didn’t make any major mistakes, and I looked good in there against a much more seasoned opponent. I have a lot of room to improve and I am still at the beginning of my journey in this sport but it feels good, REALLY good to know that I can get in there with solid Thai fighters, guys who may have fought at Lumpinee a couple times and hang with them. To me it feels like getting in the ring on your first pro fight with someone who has fought in the UFC once before and hanging in there and sometimes giving him a run for his money. I know now that I have reached the next level in my training and in the competition I am capable of and will be facing now. It feels good, it feels really good. I know what I need to work on. Most of that is just more sparring and getting a good judge of distance and timing. Also, I can’t forget this fight number 8 and that although I am getting closer to how I perform when I spar I still have a while to go. My guess is maybe another year before my fighting catches up to my sparring.

Regardless here is the video, any questions or comments please feel free to let me know.

I just came back from breakfast with my trainers while this video was loading. They joked with me how I liked to have things difficult, referring to the fact that I took this fight instead of the other. They were happy with how I did because they said, at the stage i am at now, my best shot would have been to tire this guy out, as his technique at this point is beyond mine. So, as I have said before, I feel good despite the loss. In fact, had I scored a lucky punch in the first or second round I am not sure I would have the opportunity to evaluate myself and where I am at, as I can do now.

Tags: Pakistan Mixed Martial Arts, Pakistan Muay Thai, true bee gym

I left Pai yesterday at noon and got on the public bus crammed full of people in every possible space. I could have taken the mini van which is more comfortable in terms of seating but is much worse when it comes to motion sickness. The ride from Pai to Chiang Mai is not one that can be done regularly.

The ride down I gave much thought to this fight which I have a hunch is going to be against my toughest opponent yet. I took my focus off of winning which just makes me nervous and concentrated my thoughts onto doing the best I can and to putting my skills to the test and getting a chance to see where I have reached in my knowledge of Muay Thai.

Arriving in Chiang Mai, I started to get the nervousness that is natural before a competition. It was odd for me having to make a 4 hour trek from my small valley town of Pai into the big city of Chiang Mai. This fight experience is definitely going to a unique from my previous fights which were all within 15 minutes of where I trained.

I took a tuk-tuk from the Bus Station to Tha Phae Gate where Bee and Charlie (who is also fighting tonight) were staying. There was some sort of street festival going on with people selling random foods and sweets in street cards on the side and parents bringing their little kids dressed in traditional Thai clothes to dance for the tourists in the ancient style for money. I navigated my way through this with my back pack with my fight clothes, and bare essentials and my shaving kit stamped with U.S ARMY that I have had for 7 years swinging in my hand.

Since then I have been pretty much holed up in my hotel room enjoying my first hot shower in a month. I had gotten very accustomed to using the buckets of water in the gym toilet and so now this very plain hotel room is quite the luxury. I have about 7 more hours until I have to begin getting geared up for the fight. In the meantime I can only relax and eat and get ready for the encounter tonight.

Tags: Pakistan Mixed Martial Arts, Thailand training journal, true bee gym

Five days out from my fight. Training has been going very well since I last updated the blog. Last week was 80 percent intensity with a lot of sparring and technique. These past three days have been a lot of heavy boxing sparring and a lot of conditioning. I’ve been having these sparring wars with one of the younger trainers here named Charlie. Charlie is twenty years old and the youngest trainer here. To me he looks very unassuming and the first time I sparred with him 2 weeks ago, I have to admit I really underestimated him and figured this might be the first time I could give a trainer a little trouble during sparring especially since I had been sparring with only Ae up to that point, who in terms of prestige and experience was ahead of Charlie in the Muay Thai circle back in his day. So I went into the sparring session throwing a little more kicks than usual and than I learned that Charlie is just as good as any professional Nak Muay his age in Thailand and so I went to bed hurting. Since than we have been sparring regularly but mostly boxing. We build up to quite an intensity further into our rounds till we are probably going about 80-85 percent. Yesterday, in our last round we were in a heavy exchange and I threw a hard cross at him which he dodged and my 14 ounce glove went hurtling past his head into a really badly hyper extended elbow. Very painful. I slept on it and this morning it was still painful but better than before and I think tomorrow is going to really show how long it might take to feel good enough to fight. I have to say though that I am optimistic and I already consider myself fully healed. A good thing if an injury was to happen it came in the last minute of the last round of my final training session. Today is going to be very easy with maybe some planning and watching videos of great fighters. Tomorrow depending on how I feel I may shadow box a few of my favorite combinations. I must say, the injury aside, I feel very good for this fight. In fact, this fight and the second fight I ever had (back in the US, my only US fight) I feel most prepared for mentally. My last fight was also good but that was because I took the fight on three hours notice and was under no pressure. I feel very confident in my training, and feel it has built up very well to the fight as opposed to feeling like I didn’t focus or stick to a training plan for three weeks and tried to cram in fight training the week or days before the fight. I feel good, I feel confident. I am looking forward tot his fight.

Every fight I have had has been a wonderful learning experience and this one is no exception. The days before and the days after the fight are times of serious reflection about who I am and why I do this. I really feel that every fight I have is a big step in my maturing process as a person. Every single fight holds itself as a great teaching moment in my life on the same level as other moments of trial or challenge such as the illness or death of a relative, a difficult period in my life etc. These are all specific events which have had a strong influence in shaping me as a person. The fights I have had, win or lose have the same effect.

In other matters, the gym had some fighters fight last week in Chiang Mai. The three kids that stay here and one student from Sweden fought. The two young kids, 11 and 12, fought well against more experienced opponents and lost. It was the Swedish guys first fight and he won by referee stoppage in the 4th round. I watched the video of his fight and I was very impressed with how cool he kept himself for his first fight. He did a good job of staying calm and being aggressive when he needed to be. The slightly older Thai boy at 14, fought a twenty year old, got beat up for the first two rounds and ended up KO’ing the guy with a knee to the ribs or belly. I saw this kid fight for the first time in November when I fought as well at Loi Kratong festival here in Pai. He fought against someone bigger that time as well and it looked like it was going to be a short fight in the first round but he kept coming forward and kept building his momentum and stayed determined the whole time and he ended up winning in an awesome fight. The trainers are really happy with Anu, which is the boys name. When he returned his family asked him to come back 3 months and help harvest garlic and rice because it would get them 100 baht a day or about 3 dollars US. This made my trainer Ae, who also is responsible for taking in the kid to live and train at the gym quite upset. He argued with the mother that by fighting Anu can earn just as much money for the family now and later some time when he can fight in Bangkok or in more serious bouts in Chiang Mai can make far more than that. I am assuming the mother finally agreed because three days after coming home he’s back here at the camp and taking a nap in the bed next to me. This incident really made me think about how for many young Thai families sending a kid to learn Muay Thai is a chance for a better life. Now this is something I always knew since I started Muay but it is means something much more and becomes far more profound when you can personally and emotionally relate to it because it’s a story of someone who is currently interwoven in your own life. Anu has so far showed me that he has a lot of heart in the ring and I really wish him the best (even if he keeps stealing my blanket at night) and that a career in boxing can help his family.

Tags: Lahore karate, Mixed martial arts karachi, Mixed Martial Arts Pakistan, MMA clubs Pakistan, MMA conditioning, MMA fighters UK, MMA Karachi, MMA Lahore, MMA Pakistan, MMA training, MMA Virginia, MMA workouts, Muay Thai, Muay Thai camps in Thailand, Muay Thai training, NOVA MMA, Paddys Gym, pakistan, Pakistan Martial Arts, Pakistan Mixed Martial Arts, Pakistan MMA, pakistan MMA Gyms, Pakistan Muay Thai, Pakistani Fighters, Thailand, Thailand MMA camps, Thailand MMA Gyms, true bee gym, Ultimate Challenge UK

I am looking for Pakistani fighters who wish to compete on behalf of Pakistan. This is your opportunity to be a pioneer in Pakistan’s MMA history. Fighters do not have to reside in Pakistan but can be Pakistani in origin. I prefer fighters over 80 kilos right now but anyone who is interested please contact me as there will be many future opportunities. MMA experience is not mandatory but a solid base in any martial art or combat sport is. If anyone reading this is interested or know someone who might be please get in touch with me through email.

I thought I would write up a post on how my training is going since I am fighting in exactly 2 weeks Monday 18th May at Thae Pae stadium in Chiang Mai. This is my second full week training, the first week I trained four days. It’s going very well and my conditioning is improving very quickly. I have been very careful to make sure I don’t try and kill myself every day at every session and it is paying off. Of course I have my hard days, last week in one session I ran 5 kms and did 5 sprints up the temple stairs (there are about 400 steps), jumped rode for 15-20 minutes, did 400 squats, 250 push ups, 50 pull ups, 400 ab exercises. hard pad rounds, with sets of 30 kicks along with the regular shadow boxing. But then I made sure to spend the next day and half doing light jogging, a little jump rope and working on technique. I plan on having more of those kind of physically demanding days this week up until Wednesday of next week and than focus more on technical aspects with a lot of light sparring, I am thinking of maybe adding one hard session Friday morning, but I’ll read up on it to see what people say.

My mind is being challenged more than my body though. I spar about 4-5 times a week with my trainer Ae and although we are going 50 percent he does not make it easy on me and the ratio of strikes cleanly landing is about 9-1. But IT IS improving, especially with the kicks. When we first started I would land only a few punches, the second week I started landing a few leg kicks and today, the first day or the third week I actually landed a couple of body kicks that did not result in my being clinched with or tossed.

Ae (pronounced like the letter A) is the reason I am at True-Bee, as much as I love Pai and as much as I love the other trainers and the family atmosphere of the gym and its students at the end of the day I am in Thailand to become a better fighter. If Ae wasn’t here, I would have still rated True-Bee gym at the top but I cannot say 100% that I would decide to make this my home base for all my training in Thailand. He’s never been reluctant to help me with anything or take my input as to changes in how I should train and what I should work on. He comes at you hard during the pad work to keep your hands up and sometimes he is throwing more strikes at YOU than you are at him. He’s willing to spar with you regularly and will strike a perfect balance at giving you a really hard time but also giving you opportunities to try out the specific techniques you have been focusing on lately. On top of all this he is a really good guy. I have never met a trainer I didn’t like but he definitely has more of what the Thai’s call “jai-dee” or a good heart.

In other gym news, True Bee was recently featured in the Thai Boxing Magazine Muay Siam. However, it is written in Thai so I can’t tell you what it says but I am sure it is positive. Bee didn’t even know it came out until he had boxing friends from all over Thailand giving him phone calls and congratulating him.

I have gotten very used to living in the gym now. The kids love having me here. It must be quite a novelty having a foreigner living with you. These kids see foreigners every day, but they come train and then leave and the far majority of them cannot speak any Thai.

So right now I am here with one of my trainers. Wild guy named Saen, he’s showing me one of his videos of when he fought in China at Art of War 7 (click to the left to access the video). His name is listed as Ming Meng Saen.

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