my travel blog: Thailand - Karl's first time

Karl ready for his first time

I first met Karl-Hanz in India and then later caught up with him in Thailand. He has been training Muay Thai for a couple of years in Canada but never faught a real fight. His parents named him Karl-Hanz as he should have become a famous soccer player (as per Karl-Heinz Rummenigge) but he switched over to Muay Thai Boxing - so we might have to change his name.

It is a tough sport with limited rules, basically everything is allowed except biting and kicks in the groin. As soon as somebody touches the ground with his hands, the ref interrupts the fight until both fighters are back up on their legs. The fight is over as soon as one of them is knocked out or the ref declares the fight for too dangerous for one them. If both are still on their feet after 5 rounds the refs use a point system to determine the winner. Funnily not even the fighters could explain me the scoring methods, they seem to be different to where ever you are. Bottom line is kicks are higher value than punshes.

Karl trained hard for a month in Thailand and wanted to join an amateur fight - that's when they use head protection. Well, the audience wants to see blood and hence there are literally no amateur fights around so Karl ended up in a professional fight with no protection except the little box for your best parts.

The Stadium in Phuket

Protect your knuckles...

...lub up your body...

...and more lub...

...and even more...

Get the last instructions

Ready - almost...

...one important bit is missing, the box
for your better pieces.

Before getting into the ring, he got his body lubed up to protect from skin scratches, got his hands bandaged to protect his knuckles and was warmed up by the coach. Then he has to wait as the fights before could be over in one round or go until the 5th round. He was hiding his nervousness well - I would have shit my pans seeing other guys knocked down in the ring in front of your eyes. There was a considerable full house even though tickets were starting at 1300 Baht (ca. $45) which is a lot of money in Thailand where salaries start at around 6-12.000 Bath/months. Then fight 7 of 8: Edward (Karl's last name) - Canada (0 fights) vs. Sinchainoi - Thailand (70 fights). Both weigh in 154 pounds but my stakes are on Karl as the Thai guy looks a little bit less muscled up than Karl. That was my opinion but the bookies thought differently - they were putting money against Karl, not a good start. Well, lucky he didn't know.

Waiting

Waiting for the stage

The fight starts with a usual ritual where each fighter 'dances' around in circles and touches each corner and the floor. The announcement were done: "Welcome Edward giving his professional fighting debut - wow, the stakes are high. Then we are ready to rock: Go Karl! I've no real idea of what is good and bad but Karl kept up very well. He landed a couple of good hits straight on the face of his opponent but he didn't show too much impact. One thing in muay thai is to not show your opponent your pain - just keep smiling. Karl danced around him and the fight was quite equal in the beginning. Some good elbow hits and some knee kicks from Karl gave hope. Well hope lasted until round 4 [?] when the other guy landed a nice and hard kick (sorry Karl, it was a good hit) straight on the upper side of his leg above his knee. Even I could feel the pain in my/his leg and it was quite clear that Karl was in pain - his faces couldn't hide it and his weight moved from the left to the right leg - clearly visible. I guess the other guy could have landed another blow on the same spot straight away and the fight would be over but he didn't - maybe he didn't realize? The round 5 and Karl came back. Well, we could see that he started to be tired, 5 rounds on your legs on full alert can be draining. But Karl scored some good blows again. Unfortunately not good enough to knock the other guy out so that at the end blue gloves were lifted into the air instead my favorite red ones. Anyway after he had to be carried out of the venue some strong painkillers and a numerous amount of drinks combined with some caring Thai ladies made him dance all night into the morning - that's a real fighter's happy ending. Well done Karl!

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