Khem Fairtex
April 1, 2009 by nopstar
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.
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Nop
I may be wrong but its my understanding that Khem has just won the Central region Qualifier and he isnt actually definately in season 2 yet.I tried to find out a bit about this becuase my friend Singsiri Por Sirichai from Koh Samui won the sountern area qualifier.So I asked what was goping on on K1 fans. Rob Cox (I think it was Rob Cox anyway) said theres to be several more area qualifiers in Thailand then the winner of each area qualifier will fight in an overall 4 or 8 man tournament to see who goes through to season 2.
I thought about thism, imagine how good that tournament will be.The best fighter from each area of Thailand battling for a place in the show would actually be a lot better than season2 itself!!
I may be wrong about this because i find it hard to get much accurate info about season 2 no one seems to know, if anyones knows more let us know!!!!
I agree with Nop that the Contender Asia should be about up-and-rising talents and not fighters who are already at the top. It would not be fair to the other fighters as well. Like how most people already expected the winner of season 1 to be Yod, if not JWP or Naruepol.
Although I fully understand why a top fighter would want to be a part of this show.
In Western boxing, a top fighter like Manny Pacquiao can easily earn a few million bucks for each match he fights. What he earns is so much more than what The Contender can ever offer.
But in Muay Thai, the winnings from a Lumpini fight is really really small. If I were Khem Fairtex, I would feel like shit thinking that a Contender Asia fighter, with much lower calibre than me, earns more than me, doing something that I spent most of my life perfecting. Since I already have the recognition for my Lumpini belts, it’s about time I got some monetary recognition.
The devil of it all is that the top fighters are all under-rewarded.
It’s not that i dislike the clinch, but Kaew didn’t do anything else there….boring to watch.
I also hope they bring some young guns to season 2, but with this qualifier system is bound to happen, I mean, it’s a fair system but vetarans have the same probability to enter than the youngers.
I think the best would be a qualifier system in wich past champions aren’t eligible.
Even the western fighters in it are arguably not “contenders” though. A lot of them are already top of the food chain domestically and internationally, (maybe excluding Thailand).In many ways I agree that it should be real up and coming fighters if your going to call a programme like this “Contender”. Maybe it should be the same format but be renamed?
On a side note though.The contender season 1 has done practically more than anything else ever to raise the profile of MT in the world,.I think it also did quite a lot to raise the profile of it in Thailand where it has been well documented that there has been a general lessening of interest in the sport in recent times.So I think its good that good quality fighters are in such a programme, hopefully demonstarting well rounded quality MT technique.As this makes the sport look much more impressive to an uninitiated public.
We’ve all see what real begginners (myself firmly included in this) look like when they try to fight and its often pretty ugly.The only people who get much enjoyment from such fights are friends, family and gym mates, to everyone else it just looks violent and unruly.
So if a programme like this using not excatly “real contenders” raises the profile of what real MT is then it can only be a good thing?MT definately needs to become higher profile globally if its going to go anywhere else and especially if the purses (as alluded to by horc00) are ever going to improve.Most really good pro Thai boxers here in the UK work full time doing something else, Id love to see that change!
With regard to the contestants for Season 2, if you look up the sight http://contender.asia there is a post on the contestants already confirmed. The last I checked they had decided on 12 of the 16 but the Thailand contestant was undecided. I am interested in who gets picked to represent Thailand because a former champ with whom I train in the US has expressed the possibility that he may be a contestant also. I agree with both arguments that up and coming fighters should have a chance for their big break, but also that the Thai Nak Muay are grossly underpaid and should have a chance for their payday and recognition. This argument is a little like MMA with the show The Ultimate Fighter. I was told by my trainer that the producers would like a Thai fighter with good English, unlike Yodsaenklai or Nareupol.
As long as they don’t pick two people from the same camp Ill be happy. I am not exactly saying Naruepol threw his fight with Yod but I think we’ll get better fights if there aren’t any lingering camp loyalties to contend with.
khem is actually pretty good aside from these fights. He fought sanchai on a tsunami event and actually gave him a pretty good fight until sanchai dropped him on his head and he never got back up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8GOnPwX_X4
It has to better this time around. We cannot get more Crohn’s disease inflicted, 5′4″ guys from Canada and 3 Aussies. It’s hard enough to take mark burnett’s latest offering seriously but when he along with Stephen Fox go out of their way to make a very biased show with some highly suspect participants mixed in with some very high quality Nak Muay you seriously have to question the entire premise.
I am wondering why Kaew Fairtex isn’t being considered for season 2; this kid is definitely on the way up and is one of Fairtex’s brightest young fighters; he’s actually ranked right under Saenchai at the moment at Lumpini
Kaew is a lot smaller than these guys, HighRevinMT
What is the Season 2 Weight Class?
Doesn’t Khem fight @ 135? Kaew is just a weight class under at 130. I see your point if it’s 70kg+
Yeah I feel Khem will be one of the smallest there.
Season 2 weight class is the same as before, according to the producers. I thought the shooting for season 2 is already on the way, so i don’t think there is much more qualifiers?
Supposedly, the final qualifier event is the CA2 Malaysian Qualifier – Super Eight on April 24, 2009; However the dates has been revised so often that noone can say for sure anymore…cheers!