Photos by Lindsey Newhall

[Touted as the youngest major Muay Thai promoter in Thailand, 28-year-old Boat Yindee has been immersed in the world of Muay Thai since birth. His family's gym and promotion, Petchyindee, has been a famous component of Bangkok's Muay Thai world for the last 40 years.]

Fightland: Your family has owned Petchyindee Gym for 40 years. What was it like to grow up in a family so heavily involved in Muay Thai?

Boat Yindee: When I was two or three years old, I started playing at the gym. I'd play with the fighters, my father's team, when I was a little kid. So I'm used to being around fighters and Muay Thai. It's like a family group. [Now that I'm older] the fighters are my family, not like boss and employee. We're really close.

Did you ever want to be a fighter yourself?

I wanted to be a fighter when I was 10 or 12 but my father didn't allow me to fight, not even once. He said no because he was scared I would lose and bring shame on us. Now I'm 28 and I'm too old to start. You have to start at 12. Or five.

Tell me about your educational history.

I grew up in Bangkok, studied in Melbourne for 2 years when I was in high school, came back to Thailand when I was 17 and went to Assumption University. I was in communication arts, majored in advertising.

Has that helped you in your job here?

Yes, actually. I'm a promoter at Rajadamnern Stadium so I use the theory of communication arts I learned in university to promote. We do a lot of advertising in newspapers and on TV.

How does your gym acquire fighters?

We have a team of scouts that goes around looking for good fighters. They all live in the places where they scout. We have one in Khorat, two or three in Buriram and Surin [Isaan]. Not a lot in the north but we have a few in the south.

My scouts are local promoters. They put on shows, then tell me which fighters are good from the matches they put on. They give me a list of names every month and I go check and see which fighters I like.

It's like scouting for football players—if the scout finds good fighters who are getting famous in that area of Thailand, he'll call me and say, "Hey, this one is good," so I'll watch them fight in their hometowns or wherever they are. Or I'll bring the kid to fight for my promotion here in Bangkok, maybe put him in the first match or last match of the night.

If I like a fighter, I'll buy him from his old gym. The fighters are usually teenagers, like 14 or 15 years old. The youngest we'll take is 14 or so. Right now the youngest we have here [at our Bangkok gym] is 17. Our oldest fighter, Sam-A, is 32.

On average, how much does it cost to buy a fighter?

The price depends on how famous the fighter is—if he's really famous, then about 100,000 baht (US $2,820). The most I spent was 500,000 (US $14,090), and that was Petchmorakot, who is 21 now.

What's the cheapest you've ever paid for a fighter?

Free, when his parents want him to stay here. They say, "Please take our son!"

Where are your fighters from?

We don't have any Thai fighters from the north. People in the north don't like to fight now. We do have some from the south but most of the fighters here now are from Isaan.

Why do so many fighters come from Isaan?

I think because in Isaan it's really hard to do business. They're very poor and the economy isn't great, so Muay Thai is one of their choices to make a living.

How many fighters do you normally acquire per year?

I've bought three fighters over the last three months. We have a big room for the fighters, enough room, and now we have 50 fighters here. Thirty-five of those are Muay Thai fighters and 15 are boxers.

Boxers, as in Western-style boxing?

Yes. They compete on the national teams. We have a world champion here now. Some of them switched from Muay Thai to boxing.

Why do they make that switch?

Boxers actually make more money than Muay Thai fighters. They fight on TV. I have a contact with Channel 7 every month and the boxers fight. They fight everywhere, like if a business owner wants to promote a restaurant or a new hotel, they want to get their business on TV so they ask our team to produce a match in front of their hotel or restaurant, and they pay me for it.

How did you become a promoter?

My dad is a promoter and I helped him for five or six years before I became a promoter at Rajadamnern Stadium. I'm the youngest promoter in the history of Muay Thai. Usually for people in this [Muay Thai] society, if you want to be a promoter, you have to be like 40 or 50 years old, or you have to be rich, but I was born into this society so people always expected that one day I'd be a promoter too. I was 25 when I started.

You were born into it, but these other promoters, how come their children don't become promoters like you?

I think they don't like it. Sometimes parents protect their kids from this kind of life. We have gambling -- some people think Muay Thai society is a mafia society. It's not like that anymore. It used to be, like 10 or 20 years ago. They used to bomb stadiums, when I was a kid. But that generation all died already.

So you're a promoter at Rajadamnern now. Do you promote at Lumpinee too?

Yes, I help my dad with his promotion at Lumpinee. But primarily, I manage Petchviset out of Rajadamnern. When I was 24, the management team asked my dad to send me to start a new promotion at Rajadamnern. I'd been working with my dad a long time so they wanted to give me a chance to do my own promotion.

How do you like working at Rajadamnern?

It's good, nice people. The management team is basically the same age as me, mostly in their early 30s. I promote there once a month.

What exactly does your job entail?

First, you have to go around and find good fighters for your promotion. Then you have to match them to make a good fight. If you can make a good fight, a "dream fight," you'll get a big audience. Then you have to promote it through the newspaper or TV.

More specifically, the stadium management team divides the year into quarters, and I do three matches in that time, once a month. We plan if I'll do a big match or small match, but I'll usually have one big match per quarter, depending on the date the stadium gives me. For the big matches, I look for which date is most convenient, based on my fighters' condition. I get it arranged, tell the stadium the fight card. When they approve, I call the media outlets.

How do you get fighters in your promotion?

Scouts. They find fighters for my gym, and for my promotion too. [Promotions such as] Petchviset, Petchyindee, and a few more. We have six or seven promotions because we want to make a team that works together, have the same group of fighters, and that way we can help each other.

Gyms will also call me and ask if they can be in my promotion. Fighters can fight in different promotions but traditionally the fighters stick with one promotion and don't really change.

How do you make money?

I get paid from the ticket sales. And from that, I pay the purse to the fighters and pay for the stadium rent.

What do those costs—purses and rent—usually amount to?

It varies a lot. For purses, I'd say at least 20,000 baht (US $560) for each fighter. A high purse would be 200,000 (US $5,640). For rent, maybe 100,000 baht (US $2,820), but it's based on a percentage of the ticket sales. I have to pay for advertising as well.

It seems like a huge cost to do this job, when you take into account purses, rent, and advertising. Do you normally make enough from ticket sales to cover all those expenses?

I don't often make a lot from this. For my first match, though, I got a profit of a million baht (US $28,180). That was the first time I ever promoted, when I was 25.

What's the biggest challenge about your job?

Turning a profit. In Muay Thai, it's not easy to make a profit. The number of people in this society is lessening every day. If I can promote a good match and make a profit, then that's a good show. Audience numbers are decreasing because we are competing with other sports, like soccer or volleyball. The number of fighters is decreasing as well.

What kinds of people like to watch Muay Thai now?

Gamblers. And people from other countries who are visiting Thailand and want to see what it's like.

It's markedly more expensive for non-Thais to attend fights at Rajadamnern and Lumpinee. But do enough foreigners go that it helps the ticket sales significantly?

Yes. Foreigners are a big target market for us now. Their ticket price is like 2,000 baht (US $56), so it helps a lot, but for Thai people, you can only get 500 or 1,000 baht from them (US $14 to $28) for a big match.

Your other main market is gamblers. How do gamblers impact how you match fights?

Gamblers have a huge impact. You have to match a fight very closely so they'll be interested. We call it a "dream fight," matching this famous one against that famous one, and if you can bring them together then that's a great match. This is the first thing I try to do in my promotion, making "dream fights."

How do you know which fighters gamblers want to see matched up?

Feedback from the fans, mostly on Facebook.

You promote foreigners as well. What do you think of the influx of foreigners in Muay Thai?

Foreigners think Muay Thai is a cool sport, an art. I think it's different from MMA.

Different how?

For me, MMA is like a street fight. Okay, you have to learn, and you have to train. But for Muay Thai, we have rules and technique that are very different from other sports or martial arts. I think Muay Thai is the best martial art.

You promote mainly for Rajadamnern and Lumpinee, which are top venues for elite-level Muay Thai. What do you think of the fights in smaller places, like Bangla or Patong Stadium in Phuket?

It's okay, not bad. They're real fights, not shows. But sometimes in some places they'll have something more like a show for the tourists. Like maybe they'll match a Thai with a foreigner, and then the promoter tells the Thai, "Hey, you go down each round," and then he'll give the Thai extra money for that. But those places also have quality standards too.

What are your goals for the future of your promotion?

I want to make a big event, something like a Vegas event. I want Rajadamnern to be a mecca of Muay Thai, getting better light and sound in the stadium, broadcasting around the world.

Do you think Rajadamnern will suffer the same fate as Lumpinee, getting knocked down and then rebuilt?

No, I think they'll keep it up. Everyone says the old Lumpinee was better than the new one. I think they'll keep Rajadamnern the way it is. It's classic.

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