Extremely late post but 2 weeks after the last fight post, I was back in the ring.
This was the first time I faced an opponent who was my weight and height so I was quite excited for the challenge. The camp for this fight was very relaxed. I did mostly bag work and shadow boxing, hitting pads just once. We arrived at the stadium and I was the 6th fight. My teammates Alish from Australia and Ryan from the Philippines were also on the card. I actually had my hands wrapped by Obi ‘Daeng’ Kanobi in the stands instead of the prep area which was a new experience for me.
The fight itself was very anticlimactic for me. The instruction from my corner going into the first round was to be sabai sabai in the first 2 rounds and also to keep a high guard because my opponent was good with elbows.
Well, my opponent had a different idea because he came out hard right from the sound of the bell, catching me with really strong body kicks. I was caught off guard a little because Thai’s usually come out slow.
I remember taking a kick on the hip and smiling immediately. I felt excited, finally a challenge. I came back to my corner at end of the first round and the instruction was to attack first, block his kick and return with a kick of my own. Ajarn Wat, a new trainer at Phuket Top Team then realized that they hadn’t applied any Vaseline to my face when they were getting me ready. Vaseline is applied to the parts of the face such as eyebrows pre-fight so that punches and elbows slide off to reduce impact. So I had actually fought the first round without any the protection of Vaseline haha.
He went for another body kick early in the 2nd round but I managed to get my leg up in time to block. Unfortunately for him I blocked with my knee which caused him to fall to the ground screaming in agony. It happened so quickly and was an unfortunate end to what was shaping up to be a fun fight.
Video Below:
Linguist Monk 