By Sonia Xavier, Third Year, Economics
In their most ambitious showcase yet, the Muay Thai fight team delivered thrilling entertainment at their Fight Night on the 13th of March. Held in the Anson Rooms, the event contained 15 matchups, including exhibition and non-decision fights. The bouts consisted of three rounds, each lasting two minutes. For the decision fights, the winners were determined by knockout, technical knockout, or judges’ decision.
In the lead-up to Fight Night, the fighters participated in ‘Fight Camp’, which is what they call the four-to-six week training period leading up to the event. I spoke to a few of the fighters during the training period, discussing their different preparation techniques. Fight Camp involves a busy training plan, with most fighters training 4-7 times a week. The fighters work with coaches to curate their schedules, creating personalised training plans that sharpen and build their skills before the big event. The training programme usually includes a mixture of sparring, strength training, and cardio.
First-time fighter, Joss Griffith, describes the training process as ‘a lot of exercising and healthy eating’. In preparation for her Fight Night debut, Joss took some advice from her Muay Thai teammates:
‘It’s my first time doing this, so I’m learning from everyone around me. Everyone’s route into Muay Thai is so different. It’s all a very big learning experience’.
Joss started university having never fought before, and has progressed to the competitive level. This is a common experience within the Muay Thai society where many students join to learn the basics and end up graduating with competitive fight experience.
On top of regular training sessions in the Carpenter Rooms, the Fight Team members also attend additional training with UOB’s Muay Thai coach, Joe Phillips, at his gym. Joe describes how the training ramps up once Fight Camp begins: ‘We run training sessions for the fight team every single day. Some fighters are doing two sessions a day with me’. The gym provides open training sessions where fighters can practise sparring, conditioning, and also get private training.
While technique and conditioning are a big part of training, Fight Team Captain, Igor Janica, details another challenge of Fight Camp: meeting your fight weight. To ensure a fair matchup, opponents are paired up based on physique and previous experience. Thus, it’s important for them to hit their desired, pre-established fight weight so the opponents are equally matched. Fighters have weigh-ins the day before the event, with the risk of their fight being cancelled if they don’t meet the target. The fighters go to great lengths to cut some weight before the weigh-in, including extreme diets that consist of lots of protein and absolutely no carbs.
After a demanding Fight Camp, the fighters got to see their hard work pay off during the event, with a very dominant overall performance from the UOB Fight Team. My highlight fight of the night comes from first-time fighter Hafis Lau, who dominated from the start against UCL’s Jonathan Ho, resulting in a unanimous decision win. There was no lull in the crowds’ energy throughout the four-hour event. The last four fights had the audience particularly amped up, with Athena Hou getting a roar of support as she made her entrance to ‘Gimme More’ by Britney Spears. The night culminated with three consecutive wins for the Bristol team as Ross Rayner, Luka Markovic, and Igor Janica put on fantastic performances in the ring, providing high-tension fights that had the audience unable to stay in their seats.
The successful event marks not only a growing interest in Muay Thai but also increased representation. In an interview after Fight Night, the President of the Muay Thai society, Athena Hou, reflected on the society’s growth during her year in charge:
‘We’ve made a lot of progress in Muay Thai, especially in terms of inclusivity and participation. We have three times more female members this year, and that’s allowed us to have more women’s fights than ever before. We also have much more engagement, so there’s a lot more people fighting either in our interclubs or during Fight Night’.
The growing scale of Fight Night shows a promising future for Muay Thai, with there being more opportunities for new fighters to rise through the ranks and for the experienced members to get consistent fight opportunities.
Would you step into the ring?
Featured image: Instagram @howie.photos
