My Muay Thai » The Contender Muay Thai

Sakai’s family wants him back

nopstar — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:15:28 +0000

This is bad… are you kidding me? First of all where the hell are the promoters? Where is his camp? So more developments in the Death of the Thai Boxer Sakai JockeyGym. According to MuayMag.com Sakai’s parents want to bring his body back to Udon Thani (NE Thailand)… but don’t have any money.

I’m pretty sure they’re telling the truth? Seriously the promoter better do the right thing. Maybe the Japanese fighter Niki should chip in…

I’m hoping this is just the Thai media trying to work a story, I’m hoping this really isn’t going to go down like this.

So effing outrageous.

Jordan Watson in action

nopstar — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:00:31 +0000

Props to Spyda for tracking this down and sharing this with us. This clip is of Jordan Watson, who is the representing the UK in the 2^nd Season of the Contender Asia.
I’ve been to a few shows here in the UK and I don’t think I’ve seen Watson in action yet, I think I would have remembered. He fights out of BadCompany in leeds. BadCompany is a very strong camp and it’s other noteworthy nakmuays include Liam Harrison, Rich Cadden and Andy Howson.

According to the Badcompany site, Jordan has been training with the BadCompany crew since he was six. Born in ‘87 he’s had 70+ fights in the junior division and is 22-3 as a professional.

I’m interested to see how Jordon will do… I have to say I’m impressed with his speed and power. Cadden said it best when he likened him to a coiled spring.

This match up is classic NakMuay vs. Kickboxer. This is the classic example of why you don’t hop or skip around against a nakmuay. You will eat leg kicks all day.

Anyway, impressive performance, I’m really looking forward to seeing him in action.

Cedric Mueller in Action

nopstar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:19:23 +0000

Since we’ve spent some time discussing the upcoming 2^nd season of the Contender MuayThai, I thought it would only be appropriate to show some of the Contenders in action. This clip is Cedric Mueller vs. Season 1 Contender David Pacquette.

Many Thanks to Spydaman for taking the time to upload these from his collection.

Upon doing a little bit more research it appears they’re going with the whole mentor model in season 2. The Mentors, Ray Sefo and Clifton Brown…

Thoughts?

Marcus Oberg – Contender Asia 2

nopstar — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:14:30 +0000

Marcus Oberg
Date of birth:1982-02-18
Camp: Malmo Muay Thai
Records: 23 Wins: 4 Losses: 7 KO’s:

Weight: 71 kg
Height: 180 cm

IFMA World Championship Bronze medalist
Contender Qualification tournament winner 2008
IFMA 2x Swedish Muaythai Champion 2008
K-1 Max Scandinavia Champion

Oberg earned his chance to be in season 2 nearly a year ago, when he won the “Rumble of the Kings” event in Stockholm. Oberg defeated Season 1 contender Jaokim Karlsson to get the finals of the tournament. Oberg faced Dzhabar Akerov who had defeated Marco Pique to make it into the finals. I’m not sure what Karlsson or Askerov were doing in this tournment if it was supposed to be a qualifier for season 2? What would have happend if one of the three “Season 1″ guys took the event?

I’ve noticed he’s beaten Dzhabar on two occasions, and is the K-1 Max Scandinavia winner… remind me why Askerov is in this years final 16? Who am I kidding, it’s not like talent has ever really been a factor in K-1. I think Oberg will do well… (semi final well) all the competitors appear to fairly well matched, with the exception of whoever comes out of Thailand.

Anyway enough chit chat, here’s the bout.

Khem Fairtex

nopstar — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 06:33:42 +0000

Photo Credit: Rob Cox MuayThaiFocus.com

Previously known as Khem Sor. Fairtex acquired Ploenchit, last summer in a Million Baht deal. Khem a former 130lbs Rajadomnern champion defeated Egon Racz in the Kings Cup tournament.

I thought the second season was going to spotlight a lot more “up and coming” talent… actually I’m surprised that they allowed Fairtex into season 2 considering all the shenanigans in the first season… I understand them having some heavy hitters in the first season, you want to give a show the best possible chance for success right? I’m personally interested in seeing the guys who are on the way up… not guys who are at the top of the sport. If there going to bring in veterens then i think they should go all the way… bring in a Thai fighter who was at the top a couple of years ago. Bring in the old lion, Samkor, Jomhod et al.

Contender Muay Thai – Rafi Zouheir

nopstar — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 22:39:37 +0000

We’re getting close to having a finalized list of Contender Asia Season 2 contestants. I thought I would do a post a week introducing us to who’s going to be competing on our favourite show. Based on the line up thus far it all looks like a pretty even playing field.

This weeks Contender is the winner of the Spanish qualifiers, Rafi Zouheir. I met him this past weekend and didn’t have a clue he was going to be a contestant. Zouheir qualified in the WMC Madrid contest by defeating Abdoul Tore of France. You can check out their fight here.

Here are his Deets:

Rafi Zouheir

05/23/1978
Club Barcelo & Selles Gym
181 cm / 5′9″
53W – 11L- 19 KO’s

World Champion Superwelter weight WKN
WPKL European Muay Thai Champion

Judging from his highlight reel and titles it appears Rafi started his life off as a Kickboxer. If you do a quick search on youtube, He’s got a lot of fights online. I was watching his fight with Eh Phutong and Khun Somchai’s one complaint with Rafi is that his punches lack power, then again most anyone would look like they lacked power when stacked up against Phutong.

Season 2

nopstar — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:00:08 +0000

came across some pretty good news yesterday. I saw that our favorite show, The Contender Asia has been picked up for a second season.

From what I’ve read filming will commence early next year, and will be shot in Malaysia. According MuayThai Magazine they’ll have exclusive info on the upcoming season. They’ve already stated that the purse is going to be bigger.

I know there are a lot of hungry Thai fighters who would love to have a shot at the loot. I’m unclear at what weight the 2nd season fighters will be fighting at. From what I’ve seen they’ve been holding a lot of regional qualifying tournaments. This is what i’ve got so far: Feel free to add or correct me…

Alex Ricci From Canada, Alex is a student of Clifton Brown and Ajarn Suchart. It says he’s got a 29 -12 record.

Tengku Sharizal from Malaysia, is a member of the Royal Malaysian Police Force… not sure where he trains or much about his fight record

Marcus Oberg who one the European qualifier is a tested Nak Muay, he’s the Swedish champion with I believe 25+ wins.

I’m not sure how they run these qualifying events… I imagine it has to be extremely political. I’m sure your camp or trainer has to have had dealt wth Steffen Fox or the WMC at some point.

It should be an interesting season, if you guys know anything else, or know of anyone fighting in an upcoming qualifier, I’d love to hear about it.

I’ll leave you with some footage of Oberg and Dhzabar at the 2008 K-1 Scandinavia.

Making Inroads

nopstar — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 06:07:48 +0000

Making in roads-

Many thanks to Byron for passing this along. This isn’t anything new to the regulars on MyMuayThai.com but I think it’s a fairly momentous occasion. The Contender Asia is going to be aired on Versus in the United States.

Some of you may be thinking so what? I’ve seen it. I know Versus is still pretty far from mainstream media, in fact I don’t even think I got Versus in SF. Still you have to recognize this is an important moment for Muay Thai in the US.

For ages the only Muay Thai you could get was reruns of strike force events on ESPN2 and only then you would have to set your tivo to even find them. We’ve been stuck with things like the WCL. (no I’m not stalking her) Muay Thai has made lots of inroads in the US. A lot of MT’s success is due to the popularity of MMA.

As MMA grow’s so will Muuy Tie (said with a redneck drawl) I shutter to think that the only MT most will ever know is from watching MMA.

I think the show will bring a lot of positive awareness to our art and sport. I think most will initially be caught off guard by it, most of this shows target audience is used to the fighters getting drunk, pissing on someone’s clothes and trashing the house. A lot of people just won’t get it… and that’s fine by me. I don’t think Muay Thai is for everyone.

Besides Raffik’s mouth I’m not sure how this audience will deal with the concept of respect?

Be prepared… In some ways we’re going to become ambassadors to our sport. Be prepared for the questions about Muay Thai and your training. As I mentioned my buddies in Thailand who were never interested in Muay Thai were know wanted to come to the Gym.

We’re going to grow… You’ve been a member of a pretty exclusive club. With success people outside of your immediate circle will begin to know more about Muay Thai. Try not to be too judgmental… A female co-worker once told me ” My personal trainer is teaching me Muay Thai” when I dug a little deeper it turned out it was essentially a tae bo class. The appropriate response is, MT training is more like… you should come along and try it.

Malaysia Show

nopstar — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:16:01 +0000

Some of you may remember that during my interview with Zig Zach he mentioned his next fight was going to be in Malaysia. Those fights were last week and I haven’t been able to get my hands on any clips.

In addition to Zach, Zidov Akuma, and Sean Wright were also on the bill. This event was also used as a qualifier for season 2 of the Contender Asia. You can check out what went down on Galvin Tan’s Blog, he’s posted the results and some nice pics of the action.

I mentioned that one of the fights was going to be a qualifier for 2nd Contender Asia. The winner of the qualify was Bernard “Head Hunter” Radlin. He’s our first confirmed season 2 Contender. it appears I’ve had a bit of a brain fart. The winner of the qualifying tournament was Tengku Sharizal. He’s our first confirmed contestant in season 2 of The Contender Asia. Tomoi has done a nice write up on Tengku here. They even got some cam footage of Zidov, getting whooped on.

If anyone has some fight footage of Tengku, please pass it along. I would love to see him in action.

Interview with David Pacquette

nopstar — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:19:47 +0000

First things first, many thanks to Dave for taking time out of his training to speak with us. I contemplated whether or not to redo the interview. My camera doesn’t have an external mic so the sound is incredibly faint. I’m looking for new camera as you read this.

I should have known better then to try to do the interview in such a noisy place.I highly recommend that you listen to the interview with headphones, you should be able to work out what David is saying. He’s rather soft spoken and it’s difficult at times to hear what he’s saying. I was thinking about transcribing but as you’ll see the interview runs 20+ min. For those of you who can’t access veoh (gusnark) you can download the interview here.

If any of you are around this weekend, he’ll be fighting Cedric Muller this Sunday evening at York Hall in Bethnal Green.

Thanks guys for all your questions, hopefully next time around I’ll have a new camera (with external mic).

Paris Show

nopstar — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:12:17 +0000

This is a little late in getting up but it took a while to get some footage. This is from the july 12^th show in paris. I would have liked to have gone to this. On a whole I’m pretty impressed with French Nak Muay’s… I think their movement and technique is the truest outside of Thailand.

Naruepon Fairtex vs. Yassin Venhadj

On a side note, maybe someone can help explain this to me (Spyda) if my history is correct most of Arab sounding names in France are probably of Algerian decent. Is it me? Or are the only good nak muays coming out of France are of Algerian descent? (Farid Villaume, Murad Sari, Dida Diafat, Raffik Bakouri, Yassin Benhadj)

Anyway I think Behhadj looks good. I think it’s clear if you want to piss off Naruepon or get him fired up all you need to do is keep punching him in the face. I’ve never seen dude so fired up! I’m not sure why they stopped this… I don’t think he looked like he was in that bad of shape? I think Benhadj is about 34 … maybe he realized if he kept going he risked getting hurt from a KO?

Naruepon’s dropped a couple of long knees (Kao Trong) that were absolutely savage.

Questions for David Pacquette

nopstar — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:03:04 +0000

Oh yeah… I’m going to be doing an interview with Dave Pacquette this weekend. If you rely on me to come up with the questions it isn’t going to be that interesting.

So if you you’ve got any question add them in the comments.