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Things We Covered In our Podcast

Emma is still looking for a gym and that’s awarded her the opportunity to try out a few different places, most recently the Yokkao gym in Bangkok. She really enjoyed her pads with Manop, the padman of Saenchai for a million years, but the price tag of the gym is limiting and rules out any kind of regular training for her there. But she talks a bit about what was good for her about the gym and the training. With some of her free time she’s been able to visit some attractions that, coincidentally, are near my neck of the woods. She talks shit about a water park (hilarious) and we both talk a bit about a strange “Hell” theme park that depicts the various punishments for sins in the Buddhist version of Hell. She has photos on her Under the Ropes page and will write a blog post; they’re pretty creepy.

I’m happy to report that I’ve gotten myself into a sponsorship for my gym, not in the traditional sense of being a sponsored fighter but it pays for my training and that makes me happy. Pi Nu’s uncle owns a residence and I’m helping with the website for Royal Thai Residence and also for Petchrungruang Gym; in lieu of monetary compensation for that work, Pi Nu’s uncle is sponsoring my training. I love it. Also, I’m preparing for a big fight in Bangkok on the Queen’s Birthday, which is “Mother’s Day” in Thailand, August 12th. My opponent is Loma Lookboonmee, who is the best in the world at my weight and she’s just… incredible.

We talk a bit about preparing for that fight, as well as Loma’s recent fight against Kim Townsend in Australia and a bit of a profile of why I love Loma’s style… and what makes her so goddamn hard to fight. Her ring IQ is amazing. And we talk about all the fights that are going on leading up to the Queen’s Birthday, which is the biggest day of the year for female Muay Thai. On the 30th was a huge fight card, all-female, which was partially televised and pretty much all the fighters we know are fighting either on the 30th or later on the 12th.

The downloadable podcast is above, here is the full podcast in YouTube video:

That fight card on the 30th had an all-star line up, including Loma’s girlfriend Chommanee (who fought Farida Okiko); Lommanee vs. Fani; Phetjee Jaa fighting an opponent I’m not familiar with for a 100 lbs WMC title (she won, of course); Phetdapee defended her WMC title against Miriam Sabot; Marcela Soto, who we’ve talked about in previous episodes, faced a former opponent of mine Rungnapa… lots of exciting fights, which Emma got to see live and I’m hoping will go up on Youtube and I’ll add them here as I can.

I present some anecdotal evidence of what a nightmare match-ups in Thailand can be, even though this is the best place in the world for fighting. Women in the west are very familiar with a shortage of opponents and having matched fights be cancelled by someone pulling out last-minute – it happens here, too! As a result of this story we end up talking about the taboo of menstruation in Thailand (as well as my own experience with that being raised in a mostly-male family in the US), which is a pretty huge deal here and is the reason why women can’t fight in all the same stadia as men.

Our “theme” for this podcast is about why it’s so difficult to fight Thai female fighters, in what ways it’s difficult. Ultimately we agree that there are just so many ways to lose without you catching on to it in time to do anything about it, lots of strategy and skill go into a 5 round fight. It’s only recently that I’ve learned how to fight a 5th round for Thai scoring, as well as how to know when I’m behind. Emma has a bit more experience than I do with 3 round fights and she shares how those are a little different in terms of strategy and how Thai women will fight you.

We round up, as we’ve been doing, with what non-Muay Thai related things we’ve been into. Emma is still really digging the My Favorite Murder podcast (it’s awesome, I’m bummed because I’m all caught up and have to wait for episodes now) and various True Crime media. And I just listened to an audiobook called “Relentless,” which I both liked and disliked. I got a lot out of it, but the author is a little dickish, which is okay; Emma knew exactly what I meant and added that she had to stop listening to a previous favorite podcast for this reason. So, hoping we’re not to dicky!

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