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Growing Up With Muay Thai
by Scott Mallon, www.ThaiBoxingGear.com
For more information on Scott Mallon and ThaiBoxingGear.com
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A mere thirty years ago, when I was a young lad of only 12 years old, Muay Thai was just another martial art practiced in a far-away land. I say a “mere” thirty years ago for while in the context of human life thirty years is a relatively long time, in the life cycle of a martial art, it’s a blink of an eye. It is doubtful that anyone could have foreseen what the future would bring for the art and sport of Muay Thai. After lying in the shadow of many other arts like for far too many years, the national sport of Thailand and perhaps the most devastating stand-up art ever has finally arrived.
 Let me start by putting it into perspective. I’m now no longer a young lad and am nearly 42 years old. I grew up watching Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, Howard Davis, Benny Urquidez, “Bad” Brad Hefton Anthony “Amp” Elmore and the old 8 kick per round PKA fights. Remember those old guys? Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Kung-Fu were the mystical and dangerous arts from the Far East. If you took Karate, you were viewed as an oddity and people had better watch out because you certainly were a bad-ass. Bruce Lee, recently deceased, was still fresh on people’s minds with his now legendary movie Enter the Dragon. Black Belt and Kung-Fu theatres were on TV every Saturday afternoon. Disco was the sick craze and everybody was Kung-Fu fighting. It was around this time (1974) that some Kung-fu fighters from Hong Kong were humiliated by some Muay Thai fighters in Bangkok, clearly emphasizing the fighting superiority of Muay Thai.
Back then I was an avid reader of Black Belt magazine. There used to be small advertisements in the back of the magazine for Muay Thai videos. These advertisements were my very first contacts with Muay Thai and of course they pumped up the brutality of Muay Thai. There were statements like “fighters use deadly elbows and knee’s in some of the most bloody and vicious battles ever seen.” At the time though I couldn’t afford these tapes as they were $39.95 for a 60 minute tape and that was way beyond my budget.
 It wasn’t long though before I found a little Thai market hidden away near my house. Lo and behold they had a section with VHS tapes you could rent for a buck. I started renting Muay Thai tapes five and ten at a time and I loved them. I’d sit for hours and watch this strange, new form of fighting. I felt I had something that very few people knew about and I kept it all to myself, or at least so I thought. Now I had taken karate as a kid and young adult but as someone who always had a good punch, the no-contact and semi-contact, tournament style martial arts really weren’t for me. I was always hitting guys a little too hard and getting disqualified for excessive contact. Looking back I still don’t understand the point of the “excessive contact” principle and it still seems ridiculous to me. After all, if I hit someone and knocked them out, shouldn’t I be the winner?
My quest to learn Muay Thai was limited because my only forms of transportation were my two feet and the bus. One day though a man came to my apartment in Pomona, California, trying to sell my girlfriend and I something or other. We somehow began talking about martial arts and when I spoke of Muay Thai, he lit up immediately. He went on to tell me how there was “this little bad-ass Thai guy” teaching not far away. He said he trained there for a while but had stopped because he no longer had the time.
 After getting directions I took the bus over to where this place was supposed to be. Where it was, turned out to be an filthy, old trailer park. A single, steel pole jutted out of a concrete slab in the middle of the park and it had a heavy bag attached to it. I rang the buzzer at the front gate but no one seemed to be around, certainly not a bunch of guys training in Muay Thai. Finally though, a large, scruffy looking man named Pete approached and asked me what I wanted. I told him “I came here to learn Muay Thai.” “Well” he said, “the guy you want isn’t here anymore but I can show you some of the basics.” Now he was a big dude and I was just a young kid really but I knew that I didn’t want to learn from him. I wanted a Thai to teach me. He threw some round kicks and knees on the heavy bag and while he was a lot better than I was, I knew this wasn’t the Muay Thai I was looking for. I left disappointed but still determined. Little did I know that had I came there a few months earlier I would have trained under Ajarn Surichai Sirisute. At the time he was totally unknown and I had no idea that 15 years later he would become somewhat of a Muay Thai guru.
When I asked my Karate instructor about Muay Thai and kickboxing, he laughed. He said “it’s much different from Karate. Karate is meant for defending yourself in real situations, kickboxing and Muay Thai are not. I don’t think you’ll like it.” How wrong he was. I left his school soon after and found a kickboxing gym to satisfy my thirst for full-contact. I kept my eye open for authentic Muay Thai gyms but couldn’t find any which is why I settled on what was basically a poorly run, mediocre kickboxing gym. No one there ever really worked with you but there were speed bags, double end bags and heavy bags and this was ok with me.
I was building up some experience in Karate and boxing and getting better slowly but surely. Hector Pena was still fighting amateur fights and one night I stumbled upon him fighting in a smoker. I didn’t know who he was and had never even heard of him. I spoke with him for a few minutes and he told me that the guy he was fighting wasn’t anywhere near the same class of fighter as he was. I immediately thought he was full of it. He didn’t look like much to me and I didn’t think the guy could stand up to my punches. After watching him though, I knew he was a lot better than I thought. I never did fight him although for a brief period I thought I might get too. It turned out he would fight many, many times and become a pretty good fighter, far better than I ever would become. I never did like him much though for some reason and I was thrilled when Ramon Dekker beat him up in Japan without really breaking a sweat and then Coban schooled him before laying him out. It’s funny but when Danny Steele first started fighting I ran into him and he said exactly what Pena said, that he was in a different league than his opponent. Both were actually speaking the truth but I at the time I just thought they were full of themselves.
 I kept on in with my kickboxing training, fighting a few times here and there and sparring and training with a few somewhat well-known boxers. I eventually learned of the Muay Thai Institute on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, California which is now truly a Muay Thai institution. This is when Saeksan Janjira, Kru Suripuk and Nanfah Seeharajdecho were all there helping spread the Muay Thai word. I was fortunate, as I was often, to find them when I did. Unfortunately it became more and more difficult to go back and forth to the Institute as it amounted to a four hour roundtrip journey daily and this got to be a drain, even for someone who was as hungry for Muay Thai as I was.
This was also around the time when Sakad Petchyindee fought Peter Cunningham at the Celebrity Theatre and the Thais went nuts when the fight was called a draw. The only reason I throw this in is that once again I was lucky for on that night I was able to watch quite a few good fighters display their wares. Kathy Long was also an unknown when she drew with Pixie Elmore that night and she turned out to be a very successful fighter. Actually there are two reasons I comment about these fights. One, this was the beginning of an era in which more and more
Thais would begin fighting in the US, two I wasn’t able to get a ticket for the show and I paid $200 to the doorman to let my date and I into the place. This was a particularly memorable night not only because of the quality fighters but also because of the riot that broke out.
While training in the kickboxing gym I met Vut Kamnark. He told me while I was pretty good, he could make me a lot better. He was Thai and I believed him. Again, this was many years ago and Vut was not promoting fights as he is now and only had a handful of students. One student, Walter Michalowski, went on to become quite a good fighter and now has his own gym in Pasdena. Vut was teaching out of a garage and for a few months, we were a close knit bunch who trained together, ate together and partied together. Vut ended up opening a gym at the old Los Angeles county jail which was about two hours away from where I lived so I was no better off. Seemed I just wasn’t able to find a Muay Thai anywhere nearby. Things have changed.
I became a gym whore. I moved around to Huntington Beach, West Covina, Redlands and then finally Palm Springs. I was always trying to find some sort of gym. It was also around this time (maybe 12-13 years ago) that I got a lead on where Ramon Dekker trained. I called up Mr. Cor Hemmers in Holland, told him I wanted to train in Muay Thai and he sent me a fax with all the info I needed. A few months later I was in Holland training in the Maeng Ho Breda. I ended up going there for a few weeks every year around Thanksgiving for the next 4-5 years. At first I trained hard and took it seriously but after a few visits I would train and go out with the Dutch partying which severely limited the effectiveness of my training. One thing I still remember to this day is Cor saying something to the effect of “years from now, you can say you trained with the great Ramon Dekker.” He was right and here I am today, years later, saying it. Now he’s a legend and I feel privileged to simply have trained in his gym and been able to watch him fight a few times.
As I grew older it became less and less a priority to train and fight. I was honest with myself when it came to assessing my abilities and I knew I was not good enough to be a great fighter and nor would I ever be. Right before moving to Thailand and not having a kickboxing or Muay Thai gym in the area, I started training in a boxing gym where fringe contender Steve “The Mongoose” Quinonez trained. There were quite a few good fighters who were then fighting out of the Coachella Valley area and all of them made the rounds to the gym. I was considered a durable guy who wouldn’t complain if I took a pounding so I was lucky to be able to spar and train with some of them. Joel Diaz and his brother Antonio fought for World titles so one more time I was lucky to be in the presence of high caliber fighters.
Although I doubt he knows it, I credit Cor Hemmers for much of the life I have today for it was he who sparked my interest in coming to Thailand. I had become stressed out and disinterested in a business I had and one day after a few trips to Thailand, the light bulb went off. I sold my business and moved to Thailand. I decided to live in Thailand for a year, training all the while and “get to know myself.” After a year I decided to stay and now eight years later, here I am, still here. Yet again I was fortunate in training under some excellent Thai fighters and also meeting some as well.
 Time has led me to value my good fortune over the years. Muay Thai has not only been good to me but also to many people around the world. It is the hottest sport of the new millennium in my opinion and even Thais running their gym ponder the question of just why the sport has exploded around the world. Perhaps it’s the generous demeanor of the Thai people which has helped the growth of Muay Thai. Perhaps globalization, the internet, the K-1 organization and the MMA movement have helped. Whatever the reasons, Muay Thai has become widely practiced and more popular than ever. If you have the desire to train in Muay Thai and you live in a good sized city, you probably can find a gym or school to train in. Gyms in Thailand are now accepting far more farang (foreigner) than they turn away which couldn’t be said thirty years ago. Who knows what lies ahead? While I’ve now grown middle aged, Muay Thai is still in its adolescence. While Muay Thai has yet to become truly mainstream, with a little luck, proper marketing and an expanding pool of superstars, the sky is the limit. Only time will tell.
* Article by Scott Mallon, www.ThaiBoxingGear.com.
* Back to This Issue's Frontpage
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