Muay Thai Stuff’s Blog

A little bit more about The Contender Asia Season 2

The Contender in Malaysia
It finally came out that The Contender Asia will take place in Malaysia. The country was selected among many other of countries that join the bidding. Among the hot economic climate in Asia, but the producer of the Contender Asia season 2 claimed that it will be even bigger tournament than the first season. Now the list of qualifiers started to came out also. We will getting to know them one by one. There are new faces from the season 1 but however, they are really great fighter. Let’s take a look who are they.

Name list of Qualifiers (by http://contender.asia)

Paulo Balicho (Switzerland)
Bernard Radin (Malaysia)
Rafi Zouhier (Spain)
Pak-Wing Heung (Hong Kong)
Jordan Watson (U.K.)
Eli Madigan (Australia)
Bakhulule Baai (Africa)
Marcus Oberg (Sweden)
Levin Artem (Russia)
Marco Piqué (Netherlands / Suriname)
Saro Presti (Italy)

To be confirmed
Khem Fairtex (Central Thailand)
Jesse Miles (Canada)
Singsiri Por Sirichai (South Thailand)

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Started Muay Thai at the age of only 11 years old. Even though at that time he began with other martial art, not Muay Thai (he started with Tekwando), he started to learn martial atr when the age even younger than many of Thai Muay Thai champions. At the age of 32 years old and from Queensland, Australia.

During his first start learning martial arts during his teenage, he started to practice in his home town in Queensland with one of the top promoters Blair Moore. Then at the age of 20 years old, Parr made very significant achievements. He got an Australian Title and a South Pacific Title

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Hi all

Last week, Sean has visited our office. So, we took the chance to do some interview for your guys. here goes (I skip the greetings to the key questions).

MTS: Why Muay Thai? You did some other martial arts before. What or who inspired you?
Sean: I think Muay Thai appealed to me over other martial arts because of the realism involved. A lot of martial arts are a lot of theory and no actual application. As far as I’m concerned if you can’t make your art work against an opponent who’s trying his hardest to stop you succeeding, then you’re doing something seriously wrong. Muay Thai is an art that has proven itself time and time again as one of the finest stand up fighting systems around. This reputation is well deserved and has come about from the fact that Muay Thai is an art that is tested by actual combat. Participants train by actually striking things. By working to fatigue and through it. And through actual combat where the aim is to win a fight not score points. These are just some of the reasons I chose Muay Thai.

MTS: How did you train in the early years?
Sean: I started Muay Thai at 14. Myself and one of my friends found a gym in Glasgow, Scotland (where I was living at the time) and joined up. 13 years later I’m still going!

My training in the early years was pretty basic compared to what it is now. Nowadays I work exceptionally hard and have a good grasp of how to train all the attributes I’m going to need when I fight. Padwork, bagwork, sparring, clinching, circuit training, sprints and plyometrics all feature heavily in my workouts.

MTS: From Amateur to Pro, what is your turning point?
Sean: Actually I never competed at an amateur level, that is, padded up with headgear etc… but I suppose you could say the major turning point would be a couple of years ago when I moved to Thailand full time. I gave up everything back home in the UK (including university and my girlfriend) and Muay Thai became my sole source of income.

MTS: Now you train in Thailand, what are the differences?
Sean: Training in Thailand is definitely different from training in the west for a number of reasons. First you’ve got the climate. Thailand is HOT. And humid. In any given training session I can sweat out between three to four kilos which can really drain you. Also, the training schedule is different. In the west the average fighter will also have a job, either full or part time and will not have the same amount of time to devote to training. In Thailand, as fighting is now my sole source of income as well as my hobby, I have the luxury of being able to train twice a day at a professional camp, with excellent tuition and nothing to do in between sessions but concentrate on recovery.

MTS: In your opinion, what is a different between Thai and Farang fighters?
Sean: I think there are a lot of myths going around with regard to the differences between Thai and farang fighters. My favourite is that “Thais can’t box”. This is ridiculous. Thailand puts out some tremendous western boxers. You only need to look at the Olympics, or soe of the lower weight categories in the world rankings to see more than a few Thai names mentioned. Anther one is that “farang can’t clinch”. I can’t speak for everyone but I know that when I’m training my clinch a lot in training I’ve never been out clinched in a fight, by either a Thai or a farang, and as a point of note, some of the best clinchers I’ve fought have been farang.
I think if anything can be said for the difference between Thai and farang fighters, it’s that the Thais have the experience and top training centres. Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand and the Thais have every right to be proud of that as they still consistently produce the worlds best fighters, especially in the lower weight divisions. It’s not unusual for a Thai in his early twenties to have 2 or 3 hundred fights under his belt. Westerners can’t quite keep up with that yet!

MTS: About the Contender Asia, what do you think about the show?
It’s strange watching the show, knowing what each scene took to make, and knowing what was going on behind the cameras. It’s also interesting getting to see what the other team was talking about when we weren’t there!

MTS: In your opinion, who was the strongest in the house
Sean: Yod was the strongest. Hands down. But I tanked him at table football so it’s okay.

MTS: If you can pick one, who would you like to fight against
Sean: I would like a rematch against Soren. I felt I gave a pretty poor account of myself in our last match and would like a chance to set things straight.

MTS: In your career, who was the toughest fighter you have ever fought?
Sean: Ha ha I would say Yod, but to be honest that wasn’t actually that hard a fight as I ended up getting TKO’d in the second round so I didn’t get the chance to get tired! Yod’s defintely the best fighter I’ve fought, but the hardest fight I’ve had would probably be one of my early ones back in the UK. I had some wars back then. Not the most technical outings, just toe to toe for the whole fight. This was before I learned about head movement!

MTS: What is your fight strategy?
Sean: My strategy depends on the opponent. I try to adapt to whatever they do. Play to my strengths and their weaknesses. That’s the plan anyway!

MTS: What is your strongest weapon: punch, knee, kick, elbow?
Sean: When I’m fighting at my best I’m using all my weapons. My boxing, my kicks, my knees and my elbows. I keep busy, keep my workrate high whilst looking for the counter and keep on stringing combinations together.

MTS: What is your future in Muay Thai?
Sean: I just want what I’ve always wanted. To be the best I can be. To train hard. To keep on improving, and to keep on fighting better opponents.
I want to be able to sit back when I’m fifty, look back at things and think “Man! I did pretty damn good!”

MTS: What is your suggestion to anyone who want to success in this career?
Sean: Anyone considering a career in Muay Thai, I would say this: Whatever you put in is what you’ll get back. If you want to perform at your best you need to be training hard. Very hard. You also need to be taking care of yourself outside of training. That means plenty of rest, eating right, getting enough sleep. Little or no drinking.

People know these things. But it’s one thing knowing it and another thing putting it into practise. If you want to make a serious go of it then some things need to be sacrificed to help make that happen. Not everyone is willing to make that committment and that’s okay, because a career in Muay Thai isn’t for everyone, but that’s what it takes.

Lastly I would say make sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Money is not a good reason to choose Muay Thai as a career. There are easier ways to make money out there without having to put your body through that kind of punishment. Do it for the love of the sport. And for the love of the competition. And if you get to the stage when you don’t love the sport anymore, then thats the time to quit.

MTS: Ok, Kob Khun Mak krub. Good luck with your upcoming fight !
Sean: Thanks

Sean home page: http://www.seanwrightpro.com
Sean page at the official Contender Asia: http://contenderasia.com/index.php/content/view/18/75/lang,english/

Round 1
I could not see the difference between two of them at this round. They seems have equal ability and skills to fight, I even encourage John was a little bit better than Yod Saen Klai, in terms of defensive techniques such as grab legs and kick blocks. But when things happens, John got down by a very hard punch, which the announcer mentioned that it was a luck for Yod Saen Klai, but I would see different when John is losing control of his defense when tried to grab Yod Saen Klai’s leg, and Yod Saen Klai obviously saw the opportunity.

Round 2
This round is like a clock-wise situation, I don’t know why Youd Saen Klai lost his control as he seem to be able to keep the situation under control. But when he got a big “set” of punch from John, Yod Saen Klai is no longer advantage. Based on my own analysis, Yod Saen Klai seemed to under estimate John’s ability to recover and skills. This may be due to he believe that he will easily overcome John from the punch that took John down in the first round. And when John had realised the situation that he could bring back the advantage, then many sets of punch keep following. The last minute of round 2 is very important for John, he was shot down again with the obvious that he is losing his power, Yod Saen Klai’s opportunity rise again.

Round 3
Round 3 looks better for John, but also to Yod Saen Klai. Seems both of them were a little bit more careful on what is going to take as they know that one of them could be knocked at any time. While John was using this round to relax and he hope to recover and give his full power to the last two round, Yod Saen Klai seemed tried to finish the fight as soon as possible. The situation like this demonstrated that apart from power, good fighters always work on “strategy” throughout the fight.

Round 4
Round 4 was not exciting as expected. I was supposed to see more aggressive and advanced techniques from both of them but it looks they are completely losing power to fight. Especially for Yod Saen Klai. Once he know that he did very good job for the first two round, then it is unnecessary to hurry or put himself too aggressive, which may be giving John opportunity to strike back. While John was also lack of power, but still looked for a chance to make miracle.

Round 5
John had nothing to lose at this round and he actually did very well and impressive. But it seems not good enough to become a winner. Using clinching and short punch were very good strategies for at the end of the match while the fighter know that he is almost lost the power, but Yod Saen Klai was too good. Tried not to join the clinch and keeping away to find opportunity to attack, this strategy had made Yod Saen klai is the top winner of the Contender Asia. The result of the fight proves that perfect fighter still exist, even though is tournament was just a TV show in any perspective, but the fight is the fight and Muay thai fighters are not for the TV shows they are all fighters who want to fight, no matter what’s it that for.

Picture from www.contenderasia.com

Please do not be surprise if the title of each episodes are not familiar and unlike what they have in the official contender website because it is my own title that pick up from my own feeling after watching the video. After Raifk left, every one in the red team were very happy and also they happy for good performance of team’s captain, John. But the tragedy still haunting around that members of the red team think that this was not a very good fight for John, or even for John himself he feels that Rafik was too good to overcome and also he gonna lose to Rafik at the end of the fight. John think that this is not what he expect and the fight was something that not really represent him and he should have done a lot better than that. I personally agree with this because I can notice that they both were losing original patterns of Muay Thai, and they seemed fight only with angry! Due to the conflict between Jaba and Rafik that was made before the fight.
John got serious injuries on both his face and bruises on his feet. I don’t know hoe these happened but it seems not so good for John. So that’s why I named this part of episode like this, when loser become winner and winner becomes a loser. However, the rest have to continue the competition and no matter they are the loser or winner, the more important thing than the result of the competition is the spirit of these guy for being honest and accept all the criticism as well as maintaining the good spirit of Muay Thai.

I have just had a look at the video of episode 3 of the contender Asia. At the beginning, what I can see all of the participants were very focused on training to win the competition, in the mean time, I can see some conflicts of both teams which eventually led to the “informal” fight between fighters of both teams. At this point, I am not really sure, to be honest, this was set up by the movie plotting team who want to make the story become more exciting and interesting in order to expect more audience or it’s just the real thing that originally cam from the misunderstood of both fighters.

If it happened by later case, I would say that they may be only the fighters not Muay Thai fighters. So many times I spoke to people or mentioned on my own website is that Muay Thai not only teach the art of fight, but also the art of being gentlemen. No matter how bad of the conflict it is, “krus” will never teach fighters to end the problem with fight, and the situation will become worst if we do so. However, this may not something important to you as you as there will always be the conflict when there is competition, I will also totally agree with this unless they are just the guy who can fight not the persons who had Muay Thai training and call themselves as Muay Thai fighters. There will be more interesting parts of the episode 3 that I would like to add. Please feel free to discuss on what you think about this issue.

Here is the VDO from recently fight of Yodsanklai vs Andy Souwer in Holland Slamm 2008. Thanks to MyMuayThai.com for VDO

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Hi everyone, I had a chance to interview Zach regarding his career and the Contender Asia. Here is some bit from the inside.

Oak: How are you doing, bro?
Zach: Am doing great. Been very busy since The Contender Asia.

Oak: How long have you been doing Muay Thai?
Zach: I started when I was 17 and did it for fun and needed to lose weight!! Was abit of a chubby kid…90kg over!! All thanks to moms cooking!!

Oak: What fighters did you look up to as you were growing up?
Zach: I remember reading about Diesel Noi and how he had amazing knee strikes. How he was undefeated for so long. I only ever saw one of his fights on the internet and I was impressed at how he used his height to is advantage with his knees!!

Oak: What brought you into the show?
Zach: Well I’ve been fighting regularly for WMC and Stephan Fox said to me that he would like to give me a chance to go on the show. I was reluctant at first,because I knew some of the guys in there had alot more experience than me!! I talked to alot of friends and family and they supported me and said that I would be stupid to not take the offer. Im glad they all believed in me.

Oak: How do you feel about the show?
Zach: Well filming it and watching it is 2 totally different things! We never imagined what it could be like….and we were really sooo amazed by it when we saw the first episode. And the episodes just keep getting better and better. I think the show will do wonders for the sport. Muay Thai is so much more than just fighting.

Oak: Can you tell me about the house and your team mates?
Zach: The Loft was very cool. We didn’t know what to expect at first but I think when we saw it for the first time we were all pretty impressed!!! The Tiger Kings are all a bunch of really down to earth gentlemen. We all just got along very well. And even now after the show alot of us still keep in close contact.

Oak: How is about the other team?
Zach: Well blue team were loud and yeah they were also pretty cocky sometimes. But we took it in our stride and laughed it off. Don’t think it wouldn have made very interesting TV if all of us were just all so nice and sat around reading. hahah Yukay and Sean were my favourite to hang out with in the blue team.

Oak: Can you tell me about the accident in Episode 1?
Zach: Well the whole challenge on Episode 1 was just a disaster. When they told us what it was someone said,”If one falls,both falls coz we’re tied to each other an then we’re screwed.”…And guess who fell!!??…To make it worse it had rained all day,the lanes were narrow and I think it just wasn’t my day. We werent pleased about it. but we still had to do it. Me and Soren did a test run and it was ok. I remember running and Soren was behind me and I said “Keep Up” and next thing I know,I was on the floor Soren landed hard on my right shoulder and I just heard a loud riping sound on my shoulder and I knew I dislocated it. It really just was a bad way to start things off in the comp. The Blue team and Red team were very angry at the challenge and the producers apologized to us after saying that the challenges to come will be less dangerous as they don’t wanna risk anymore injuries from challenges.

Oak: What if you were picked you in Episode 1?
Zach: Well nothing you can do…Just gotta fight and do your best!!

Oak: What do you think about Yodseanklai?
Zach: Yodsaenklai is a MACHINE…..his kicks are just amazing. I mean the way he balances and Im amazed at how hard it is for people to read when he’s going to kick coz he’s so natural at it. Apart from fighting he is also a very funny guy. He really did put an effort to learn english while he was there. Ohh and one more thing…Yodsaenklai can EAT!!!!!!!!

Oak: What do you think about JWP as the team leader?
Zach: JWP is an awesome team leader. He knew what to say and when to say things to motivate us. He was just a really nice guy in general. Im very happy that he picked me into his team. Was a real honour to have been part of the Tiger Kings wth JWP as my leader.

Oak: Who are the toughest guys in this show?
Zach: I’d say JWP,Yodsaenklai,Jabba,Bruce. Are prolly the toughest in the house!!!!

Oak: Ok, that’s all. Thank you for your time, Zach. Good luck in the future!!
Zach: Thanks bro!!!

If you guys have any question for him, feel free to post below.

More about Zach, visit his blog: Zig Zach blog

The strongest one

During the week, I think there was nothing special after Rafik gone. A fighter is a fighter. After the fight, anger feeling was gone. The loser accepted the referee decision, the winner respected the loser. Like Dzhabar said, “Respect the fight. but not the mouth”.

Turning to the elimination fight, Yodsaenklai was fighting against Bruce. In my opinion, Bruce is a good fighter. He has good skills and strength. However, when facing Yodsaenklai, it was a different story. It is not that Bruce was not good, but it is Yodsaenklai that is very strong. His weapons were super fast, accurate and strong. I think he was not 100% because I see only his kicks and punches. He didn’t use his knees and elbows much.

So far, I think Yodsaenklai will go to the final.

Here is their fight:

In addition to The Contender Asia: Episode 3, I collected some past fights of JWP for your records.

JWP Highlights

JWP vs Buakaw part I

JWP vs Buakaw part II

JWP vs Yodsaenglai

JWP The Gunslinger

that’s him, JWP the regend.