This is how you kick asses- Muay Thai style

Thanks to Nuffnang who has been so nice to me,
I get to watch my first live Muay Thai competition

The media way!!

We get to stand so close to the ring to get pics,
at one point I can feel their sweat + water splash on my face.
It was a combination of "eww..." and "awesome!!!!"

The Elite Boxing Thailand VS Asia, Malaysia edition.
In each round,
there was a Thai (per se) against boxers from Malaysia, China, Brazil and Iran.

The matches always start with what I call "the warm-up dance"

It's actually a ceremonial ritualistic dance.

The adrenaline rush was intense once the match starts.

The first round is usually just to check your opponent,
and the second round is the real fight.

Each round is 3mins long.

In the pic above, the man in the blue glove is Jom Kitty.
He gained a lot of "wows" when we saw his fight record.
He won 500 matches (+1 for yesterday) and only lost 27.
His opponent, Leo Monteiro
won 47 matches and lost 20.

Statistics.


Ok, now back to the scene.

The tension of each fight was immense.

Each punch had to be hard enough to knock some LED out of your opponent,
each kick should be hard enough to make their six packs squirm.

But well despite all that,
you see a lot of

BROMANCE.

And we have here,
our own Malaysian team leader for Muay Thai.
His name,
is one which should be feared by boxers.

I mean,
he is Mohammad Ali (Yakub).

He may not have flown like a butterfly,

but I could imagine that a punch from him

is like being stung by 1000 bees.

And he did us proud by winning his match.

A tough match,

5 full rounds,

but it was obvious his opponent was no match for him.

The beautiful boxer in real life. 

She really is beautiful.

And very tall. 

If you don't know who she is,

check out this movie.

#True story before Barney Stinson was cool.

After a few fights,
the organisers decided to slow down the pace,
and bring out some fashion.

It was a 6 dress showcase for a local designer.
Which was quite out of place IMO. =/

After some wolf whistling by a bunch of not really civilized people,
the fashion show ended
and the punches resumed.

We have a lot of kicking, punching,
and then we have smackdown

and falling...

Whoops.

I was anticipating the final round.

After Ali's win,

I had hopes for the next Malaysian to win.

We have Faizal Ramli

who is famous for using his elbows.

After an awful performance

by some singers (and dancers [dancers weren't awful)

The match finally started.

At first it looked good.

Then it was.... meh....

And suddenly... 

BAM!! 

And that, ladies and gentlemen
is why the trainers keep repeating:
"you must always keep your hands up".

I'm sorry that Faizal lost,
but he put up a good 5 round fight too.

Congratulations to all the winners of the night.
And the second-placers,
well
at least you're second place. =D

It was my first time going to an event
as "media" with a real camera.

I used to blog with pics taken with my phone because I didn't have a camera.

And last July, I got my Gf2 for my own birthday,
and I was glad it took such great pics.
It was fun running around with a camera and media tag around my neck,
cramping with other dudes with big cameras
just to get good shots.

It was fun to watch the matches,
cheer for the fighters
and hang out with the bloggers.

Thanks a lot, Nuffnang, for being so nice to me.

That's what J_Fish has to say~ Au Revoir~

p.s. This is mean, but when I saw this pic....

What is love? Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.