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The Development of Women’s Muay Thai Promotion in Thailand Part 2: Stadium Fights

Read the first part of this post, ‘The Development of Women’s Muay Thai Promotion in Thailand Part 1: Beauty Focus‘. There was a time when women weren’t legally allowed to fight at all in Thailand, and it’s more recent than you might have thought. A ban was lifted only in 1995, which Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu wrote about in her about culture and sexism in Muay Thai. There she describes how women are forbidden from fighting Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

The Development of Women’s Muay Thai Promotion in Thailand Part 1: Beauty Focus

In October 2014, the ‘Angel Fight Extreme‘ event took place. It was the second show by World Muay Thai Angels, an all-female fight promotion and the first of its kind in Thailand. Their first event was an international 16-woman tournament at 57kg earlier that year, which ended with Chomannee Sor. Tehirun being awarded the 1 million baht cash prize and a brand new Toyota Vios. This was the biggest prize ever awarded to a female Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

Training in Pattaya with Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu and Phetjee Jaa

Last week, I went to Pattaya for a couple of days to train with Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu. She came to my gym for a sparring and clinching session in order to help me get ready for my last fight, which was really generous of her. I wanted to make the trip to her gym not only for the purpose of returning the favour, but because I’d gotten so much out of our previous session together Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

Three Years of Living and Training Muay Thai in Bangkok

The above photo was taken during my first ever training session at my current gym in December 2011. Today marks three years since I moved in here to start training full-time. In this post, I want to talk about how I got here, why I’ve stayed here and some things that have changed between then and now. What Led Me Here After graduating from university in 2010, I almost immediately left the UK to go Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

The Awakening Female Muay Thai Awards 2014

Once again, Awakening are holding their Female Muay Thai Awards. This is the second year for the awards and you can read my post on last year’s here. The wonderful thing about these awards is that they are community nominated and voted, which means that previously ‘unknown’ fighters can be brought forward. So, when you vote, you can not only give credit to your favourite figures in female Muay Thai, but also discover new ones. Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

vs. Hongyok Lek Liangprasert in Pichit on the King’s Birthday, 5th December 2014

Update: As of March 2016, Hongyok Lek is ranked #1 challenger for the Light-Flyweight WMC title (which is currently vacant). A few weeks ago, Kru Singh asked me to fight in Pichit on a show for the King’s Birthday, which falls on December 5th. Originally, Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu was due to fight, as Kru Singh and I had been trying to help arrange some fights for her (something she mentioned in this post of hers). In Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

The Clinch Soirée 2014 – Thanks to Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

In preparation for my last fight, my training was pushed up a notch further than it ever had been before. This involved doing a lot more clinching than usual. Clinching is probably my favourite part of training and something I really, really enjoy. I feel as though I learn something new every time I do it. Kru Singh had me doing around 30 minutes of clinching with him every day, which I loved. When I Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

An Interview with Ronnie Green

This month, Ronnie Green has been visiting Master Toddy’s gym in Bangkok, 37 years after they began training together in England. Since I first started training with Master Toddy, I’ve heard story after story about Ronnie Green and what a fantastic fighter he was. After spending so long hearing so many great things about him and watching all the fight footage of his that I could find, I was excited to meet him and to Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

vs. Kangwan Sor. Praithong at Aom Mahuaray City, 3rd October 2014

This fight came at short notice, just one day prior to the event. When I came down to the gym for morning training on Thursday 2nd, the first thing Kru Singh said to me was “do you want to fight tomorrow?” Of course, my answer was “yes”. Originally, they were going to ask Sarah, another girl from my gym, to fight. However, she’d been sick for that entire week, so had to pull out. Sarah’s Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago

Letting Go but Staying in Control: How Mental Training Enhanced my Confidence

It’s taken me much longer than I’d planned to write this post. I promised to get this one up after a fight I had in June, since that particular fight highlighted some problems for me. Here’s what I wrote about it at the time: “I didn’t seem myself for the entirety of this fight. Things just weren’t coming to me as they usually would, as if I had some kind of mental block that was Read more

By Under the Ropes, ago