“Sham is fighting the main event at Buriram iMobile Stadium,” Mr. Dit, owner and head trainer of Giatbundit Gym, announces with a laugh.
“Just like that, main event. Only one fight, main event…”
He continues rambling on, mostly to himself.
Giatbundit Gym began accepting foreigners just this past February and Mr. Dit is definitely still learning the ins and outs of it all. In Thailand there is a gradual progression into the big rings. All fighters must get their starts at either temple fairs or rice fields, and even with good connections, a spot at Lumpini or Rajadamnern must still be earned. For foreign fighters however, it is a lot different as promoters are beginning to cater more to a foreigner audience, and they do this by bringing in foreign fighters to fight regardless of their experience level.
For the most part, these changes were happening in Bangkok, and although we have connections there, it wasn’t something that Mr. Dit has been a part of. Now the mutation is starting to infiltrate Issan, leaving us at the gym scrambling to make sense of it all.
Buriram iMobile Stadium was opened mid-way through 2011 and is owned by business savvy politician Newin Chidchob. The football (soccer) pitch can seat over 30,000 and is supplied with lights for night games. It is highly modern and features an infrastructure for live television and radio broadcasting, as well as a fully equipped medical facility.
Since my return to Issan earlier this year, I have heard nothing but praise for how Newin has helped develop Buriram and put it on the map for something besides being one of the poorest provinces with some of the lowest education scores in the country. This stadium enlists huge amounts of pride from the locals and is evident in the crowds of people walking around in Buriram United t-shirts; it is the largest and most modern football stadium in all of Thailand. In addition, Newin’s daughter convinced him to invest in a Muay Thai gym that is located under the bleachers; the floor alone cost 1 million baht (31,000 USD) and just recently, an international racing circuit was built.
Mr. Dit’s old friend Namkabuan is the head trainer at Buriram Be Boxing and he is also the one who booked the fight for us. It would be the first ever fights held at iMobile Stadium.
A live TV broadcast of the three boxing world titles was to start at 2PM and featured top Thai fighters like Knockout CP Freshmart and Palangpol CP Freshmart. Muay Thai and boxing officials from all over the country were in attendance including Sia Now Petchyindee (prominent fight promoter at Lumpini and Rajadamnern) and his son Boat Petchyindee (youngest promoter to ever promote at Lumpini Stadium). These guys are the top tier of Muay Thai in Thailand and here they were chatting it up with us and Namkabuan in Buriram.
The Muay Thai fights began at 4PM after the live boxing broadcast and surprisingly featured many Chinese versus Thai match ups.
I had been gone playing with my daughter at the new playground. When I returned, Mr. Dit walked up to me and pointed to the fights.
“He is Chinese,” I said.
I knew what he was getting at. It didn’t look anything like any of the Muay Thai I have seen in Issan before. Issan isn’t just top fighters, it is where many get their start, so we see all sorts of fights, but this truly was something new. The Chinese was calm, composed and had the perfect physique for a fighter, but everything else was just different. Even though fighting out of a Thai gym, there was no mongkol placed on their head nor was there any attempt at a wai kru.
Kongsak Sit. Boonmee was also at the fights cornering his fighter, who was also Chinese. Sit. Boonmee is a top gym in Issan and possibly the best in Buriram, but it isn’t known for training foreigners. Physically it is difficult to access, and like most gyms in Issan, poses a huge language barrier. How this Chinese guy discovered the gym, I do not know but it definitely made Mr. Dit chuckle.
In total, there were ten scheduled Muay Thai fights and four of those featured Chinese fighters, as well as our fighter Sham who is from Ireland. It was about time for the massage when Mr. Dit finally realized there was no oil, Vaseline, tape, or gauze for sale at the venue. Oil and Vaseline are an absolute must, and on a big show like this, so is taping your fighters’ hands. Luckily, having been to fights in North America where these things are not available, I had brought all of the following but decided to let Mr. Dit sweat it out a little before telling him. In general Thailand is a very convenient country, so in terms preparation, it isn’t really needed. Fights in Issan sell everything from Tylenol to glucose shots but Buriram iMobile Stadium had become the exception to the rule.
About five feet from us was Namkabuan’s gym, his fighters, and the two Chinese fighters he was currently responsible for. In addition to that were the lovely ladies that can only be described as groupies. They were done up to the nines and were all sporting their Buriram Be Boxing t-shirts. This was a sight to see. They focused most of their attention taking selfies with the fighters so I wasn’t able to tell if they actually watched the fights. I recognized most of them from my visit earlier this year to the Buriram Be Boxing gym at iMobile Stadium where they trained solely for fitness and photo opts.
Mr. Dit looked over to me as if I had all the answers, as if this was a fight in Canada and I was the authority. It was the same look I give him, on an almost daily basis, as I navigate my way through the deep canals of Muay Thai in Issan.
Even though it was a large scale production, the Muay Thai fights were fairly lackluster; no top local fighters were brought in, which seemed to confuse Mr. Dit. It took a minute to sink in, maybe it was the walk around the ring where, in only CP Freshmart, food was being sold.
He finally realized this isn’t Muay Thai. This is business.
After the fights Namkabuan pulled me aside and asked me why I’m not sending foreigners to his gym, and by by foreigners, he meant white people. I respond with a smile. We engage in small talk and he assures me I will be on the next card, but a date hasn’t been set yet. Apparently there are plans for a permanent Muay Thai stadium to be constructed at iMobile Stadium, and if the plan goes through, it will be the first permanent stadium in Issan. With more than seventy percent of fighters that compete at big stadiums in Bangkok coming from Issan, this is a much needed change.
XXX
After receiving a muay thai scholarship to train at a prominent gym in Northern Thailand, Watthanaya packed her bags at 19 leaving home with a one way ticket. She ended up however at a Bangkok street gym affiliated with Sor. Thanikul and married one of the fighters. They took off for Khorat and Watthanaya fought her way through Issan. Now, with a degree in tote, a four year old daughter, and a passion to fight again, she is back. Connect with Frances Watthanaya on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook .
Hi Frances – another great post. I’m curious, do you have any idea if some of Namkabuan’s ideas for promotions, etc has anything to do with his visit to NYC? (When I was there training, they had different ideas of how to expand the original gym. ) I’ve noticed from the photos, etc. of Buriram Be Boxing on their social media – training has changed incredibly from their other gym – the Lookchaomaesaitong Sit Nakabuan days. It really reflects North American training modes.
On that note, is Lookchaomaesaitong Sit Nakabuan still functional?
Hi Laura,
they still use the old gym across the family house for morning training and when they have a special event at imobile. But there are no 2 seperated gyms. You can still train with the 2 actual muay thai fighters (jay and ob) and do their rutine for about 15,000 baht a month. Their training is still pretty much the same just has moved to the imobile stadium for the afternoon season and after the pro fighters finish training the girls start to train.
Edit: I think at songkran there were fights at imobile too.
Thank-you Geo!
There are in fact two separate gyms and I talked to Namkabuan in great detail about this and as well his ideas about running a gym after teaching in NYC with his brother in law. Lookchaomaesaitong is the name of his father in laws gym and he keeps that name in honour of him. Sit. Nakabuan is the name of his gym (this part is confusing).
They train at Lookchaomaesaitong Sit Nakabuan in the mornings and then come to Buriram Be Boxing at night. Buriram Be Boxing is owned by Nawin and Namkaubuan is paid to run the gym. From my experience most gyms do their hard training at night but from what I’ve seen at Buriram Be Boxing I think the fighters are doing the majority of their training in the mornings and in the afternoons are left to train themselves.
It was interested to hear what Namkabuam had to say about opening up a gym. He has a lot of ideas and isn’t closing any doors. He said h would like to open up a gym in the West, but also that he would like to open up a gym in Thailand that emulates Coban’s; so even though he is running Buriram Be Boxing I think their is a small part of him that would like to do this completely on his own. He admits that Buriram Be Boxing and the programs it offers are based on Western approaches to Muay Thai. Even the payments; you pay per month and can get discounts by bringing friends or family. However this is only offered to the Thais. I asked Namkabuan if foreigners could train like this and he said that they can do the fighter program which Geo mentioned is 15,000 per month. I feel however he is closing the doors then on a lot of expats who just want to work out and not fight. We will see if this changes however.
He also said that he wants to keep Lookchaomaesaitong Sit Nakabuan running and feels that he will be able to do both. I have some doubt here, I think it will be difficult to cater to young fighters and hi-so cliental but I do hope he can do it. Given the backing he has there is always the open to buy new fighters as opposed to raising them yourself.
There are lots of talks in Issan about this current generation and the problems that are affecting the locals. I won’t write much here because I would like to do a post on it but in general while technology has made it easier to match up fighters it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep fighters at the the gym and therefore develop new ones. It is for this reason that I feel Buriram Be Boxing will over shadow Lookchaomaesaitong Sit Nakabuan in the future. Furthermore running a proper gym in Issan is incredibly expensive (feeding the fighters is only a small percent) where as with Buriram Be Boxing, other than the initial investment there aren’t many costs involved.
By the way, Geo, you are right! There were fights held at iMobile during Songkran. However, the fights I wrote about were the first sanctioned fights held at iMobile Stadium. I should go back and make that clear.
Thanks for further clarification Frances – let’s see what the future holds…..interesting stuff. When I was in Thailand, once in Bangkok and again in Buriram, it was mentioned to me by hi-so Thais that I should teach muay thai in Thailand – at a fitness gym in Bangkok and later, if I remember correctly, start a program for children in Buriram – the reason being explained both times was that members of the upper class would be more comfortable being taught by me, a Western female, than by the men who traditionally become nak muays. So all of this is really interesting for me to witness from abroad – I didn’t think something like this would happen so soon in Buriram – that being said, I found that the people I met in Buriram, generally, had far less stigma attached to muay thai (this includes the mid and higher classes) than those in Bangkok. So many people perhaps had a member of their extended families fight at one time, or just a general love for the sport. From that perspective, it doesn’t surprise me it is happening in Buriram, it’s just the timing I suppose.
I attended this fight night too and I dont understand how the irish guy was the main event.
I thought the main fights where those who started with some good muay thai fights like the kid from sitboonmee (I think his name was sittisak or something and he was thai) and not the closing fights with all the chinese guys.
What most confused me was the decission of the boxing fight knockout cp against a fillipino with knockout getting his head smashed all bloody and taking the win at the end for a world title (was this fight bought?).
Geo,
The Irish vs Chinese was the main event for the Muay Thai portion of the card. We didn’t understand why it was the main event either. Did you see the two little girls fight? That was by far my favourite! Do you currently train with Namkabuan?
No I trained at Lookchaomaesaithong 1 year ago when Namkabuan was in America.
Back than they had like 5 kids training, now most of them are gone to other gyms nearby.
Only the 2 best and oldest fighters are still training there.
I also think the old gym was run by namkabuans wife and I would guess that she
is more of the driving force for the new gym with newins daugther and not so much namkabuan himself.
I trained in another gym nearby and had a look at the buriram be boxing gym too but never really trained there.
Geo,
Are you currently in Thailand? Come visit us at Giatbundit Gym! We are located near Phutthaisong. We go to Buriram often however, for fights and permits. You can find me on Facebook under my full name or search for Giatbundit.
Namkabuan is from very humble beginnings and isn’t a local to Buriram, where as his wife and her family have been involved in local politics for decades. Although he enjoys his position at Buriram Be Boxing, I think his wife enjoys it more.