Adventures In Thailand - Mike

[DamianMavis]

I'm going to tell you a bit about my best friend. He's a great guy and has helped me alot and without him... yadayada, I'm getting all weepy.... anyhow, he's a cool guy that has lived here in Thailand for 8 years now. He's the only Farang (foreigner) I have ever met here that speaks PERFECT Thai. I don't mean he sounds good, I mean he sounds like a native and people here refuse to believe him when he says he's only been here 8 years. He's the type of guy that really throws himself into whatever he's after and when he wanted to speak Thai he studied and practiced for hours every day. His name is Mike. He's a TKD instructor from Canada like me teaching TKD in Thailand and also like me has trained Muay Thai and fought in the ring here. He fought 5 times and the first 4 fights were all joke fights, meaning he won them VERY easily. He either knocked them out with a good punch or body knocked them out with spinning back kick.

I'll tell you about his 5th fight since that is the most exciting one. Somehow he got hooked up with a promoter that wanted to fly him to Cambodia to fight the ex Cambodian champion. So off he goes to Cambodia, when he gets off the plane there is a cheering crowd waiting for him (they billed him as Canadian Tae Kwon Do Champion haha) and they put something similar to a leigh around his neck and treat him like a superstar, filming the whole thing. They send him off to a 5 star hotel and treat him like royalty. The fight is nationally televised and Mike is feeling a little freaked out at all the attention. On top of all that, the promoter is some huge promoter guy from Thailand that is famous for handling top fighters and champions, apparently NOBODY was sent to be Mikes corner man so the famous promoter had to go in the ring and be Mikes corner man! Now Mike has a picture of this famous dude rubbing his legs getting him ready in the ring, Thais see that picture in his TKD school and FREAK OUT.

So the bell goes, the opponents close on eachother and Mike throws a fast front snap kick to the Cambodians chin right up between his guard and drops him like a sack of poop. Mike is standing there staring at the guy trying to figure out what just happened (even though he threw the ###### kick). The ref is counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.... then the ref looks at Mike standing there and gets all mad and stands up and leads Mike back to his corner and then goes back to the fallen Cambodian and RESTARTS THE COUNT! It was like a bad scene in WWF wrestling haha! The famous promoter was flipping out, Art (Mikes friend) is screaming, everyones yelling and freaking, nobody could believe what was happening. So after the initial 8 seconds, another 8 for walking Mike back to the corner and then the restart which is a few more seconds... the Cambodian finally got back up. So the fight went on.

The Cambodian was WAYYYY better than anyone Mike had ever fought or sparred and was wearing Mike down. Mike landed a couple of full power spinning back kicks right in the torso of the Cambodian and sent him flying across the ring both times, the Cambodian was visibly winded but just shook it off and trudged forward again. Mike was a tad freaked out by that. Mike got in a few other good shots but all in all the Cambodian dominated. It lasted 5 rounds and then the Cambodian did what he was being paid extra to do... he cut Mike wide open with elbow strikes. Mike found out later that he was being paid PER STITCH. So Mike was cut open and the ref called the fight. The Cambodian had won.

The promoter dude and Art were red in the face mad and calling foul about the blatant cheating to make the Cambodian win but there was nothing they could do. Mike didn't care at all, he went to get his picture taken with his opponent and his opponent apologised for cutting him open and said he was just doing his job. Mike told him not to worry about it and that he really enjoyed the experience and thanked him for the excellent fight.

Damian

[taxexile]

fascinating story , got any more ?

Mike told him not to worry about it and that he really enjoyed the experience and thanked him for the excellent fight.

does your best friend speak khmer as well?

[dttk0009]

Admirable behaviour from your friend and a good rocky-esque type story, but shouldn't the title read 'A story about life in Cambodia with a hint of Thailand'?

[kratindaeng]

and?......... what a fantastic advernture, perhaps they should make a movie, Mike:farang warrior

[deon]

Cool story, though i am surprised to hear that folks are teaching tkd here .Jkd i could understand ,but not tkd as most of the fights i have seen betreen tkd and mauy thai. The Thais have always won ,Which did surprise me to tell you the truth .

With all the jumping and spining kicks though from tkd fighters ,the thais just bloked them and the tkd fighters just could not cut the mustard ie keep up the pace .

And in the end it was the mauy thais who won .

Anyway ty for the story.

[kmart]

Did he later build a glider from the labels of discarded mustard jars and fly out of Tuol Sleung prison, after his audacious system of ventilated tunnels were discovered by the brutal prison guards?

Real "Boys Own" stuff there, Damien.

Btw; most Tkd guys get slaughtered in the ring. All flashy energy-expending kicks and no hands.

[Neeranam]

He'd hve to be good fighter if he has a silly haircut.

[kayo]

nice story D.

And, although blatantly unfair, I think Mike did the right thing.

[girlx]

i just want to know who told mike how much the other guy got paid, sounds a bit fishy but good story anyway!

[November Rain]

Any more of your friends we're going to get introduced to, DM?

[DamianMavis]

Yes you'll hear about at least one more friend heh.

GirlX, it's pretty standard to get paid a certain amount for doing certain things in the ring for special fights. The word got back to Mike through the grapevine. Thailands a crazy place (and Cambodia I guess!) there's no need to lie, life here is interesting enough without needing to do that. I'm sure you all know that.

I made an error though, it was the 3rd round not the fifth that Mike got cut (I just spoke to Mike), he got one elbow cut across his cheek and the doctor said it was ok so the fight went on, the Cambodian just walked right up to Mike and gave him a huge 45 degree elbow across the forehead and split it right open. Mike didnt feel a thing, so when the doctor stopped the fight to look at Mike he honestly didnt know what the red stuff was spraying all over the Doctors white shirt. When the Doctor would turn his head the spray would move along his shirt.... Mike put it together and realised he was cut bad. If it wasn't clear, this guy outclassed Mike badly but Mike got a nice shot in right at the start that would have ended the fight if not for the cheating, he surprised his opponent. After that the Cambodian let Mike beat on him for the first 2 rounds and then did his job in the 3rd round.

Neeranam.. silly haircut?

Kmart and Deon, when it comes to muay thai Mike and I are NOT TKD guys, we are muay thai guys that have a background in TKD. We respect muay thai and trained it for years and learned to fight that style, not a TKD/muay thai hybrid and definately not TKD Vs muay thai, but we do use a few techniques from TKD sparingly, and they work. If you watched some TKD fighter with little or no experience in muay thai get in the ring with a muay thai guy they were fools. Kmart you mentioned flashy kicks and no hands.... I teach traditional original form of TKD (before the sport version was created), we box to the face, the more popular form of TKD you see on TV is sport style and does not have hands. Deon, TKD is the worlds most popular martial art, you're really surprised that people are over here teaching it? Or did you mean because Thailands national sport is muay thai? If thats what you meant you have to understand Thai culture, muay thai is for really poor people, TKD is seen as elite and for middle to upper classes. In fact not many parents would let their child learn muay thai as it has a stigma attached to it. Not saying that is fair, its just the way it is here. In North America muay thai is seen as a really macho tough martial art and is very popular amongst young men (such as myself when I started).

Taxeville, lots of Cambodians speak a little Thai apparently (broken Thai), Mike spoke Thai with his opponent.

Damian

[taxexile]

Taxeville,

hey i like that , sounds french and sophisticated.

[DamianMavis]

Doh! Taxexile sorry

Damian

[dave111223]

What a great freaking story, really made me freak out!

[kayo]

Taxeville,

hey i like that , sounds french and sophisticated.

You tosspot!

In reference to Damien's last reply, and the last big paragraph in it:

I don't know much about martial arts, but the way D describes the difference corrolates with what I saw in Thailand.

The wealthier families (kids thereof) often attended private classes of TKD.

Their parents would brag about it at the bar or dinner table.

And yeah, Thailand & Cambodia (more so) are wonderfully crazy places.

Edited July 26, 2007 by kayo

[cooL_guY_corY]

how did you get your hair and beard like that ? looks very high maintenance

[howtoescape]

Good line coolguycory

I hope that specific look isnt out of my price range!

[Naam]

Any more of your friends we're going to get introduced to, DM?

i can't wait to hear more!

[DamianMavis]

OH! That's what he meant by weird haricut, heh. Ya no that is a pic of me on the set of Hanuman, a Thai action movie I finished shooting in April, hopefully comes out before December here and in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. I'm the main villain and play a "Tiger" type of guy (I have speed and strength from the Buddhist Tiger god, and the main hero has the same from Hanuman the monkey god, my henchmen are panther and crocodile). They dyed my hair yellow and black in a striped style (had to wear it that way for 5 months), I grew my beard in a striped style, not too hard and yes my beard is red naturally. Every morning I had to go through an hour of makeup to do the "Tattoos" on my face and for my love scene it took another hour to do tattoos on my body.

Damian

[taxexile]

is there no end to mavis's talents ?

[kmart]

Wonder if Damian has ever had to face martial-arts midgets, or.... A Lion????????

Apparently this happened in Cambodia.....?

midgets vs lion

Funneeeee!!!

[Neeranam]

is there no end to mavis's talents ?

Every time I hear that name, I think of the woman who worked in Rita's shoppie.