Saenchai’s Upcoming Fight

This Wednesday is going to be a big night of fights at Rajadamnern Stadium. With a new promotions team making thier debut on the night, they’ve served up a big card with Saenchai vs Nong-O as the main event. It will be a big fight for Saenchai as he hasn’t fought inb Thailand for quite some time. It’s even bigger for Nong-O to cement his name with a win over a fighter with such high status like Saenchai. I shot an email over to Rob Cox to get some insight into his thoughts of this upcoming fight and to tell us a bit about what he does here in Thailand. For those who don’t know who Rob Cox is, he is the top foreign Muay Thai journalist in Thailand.

Mike-What do you do here in Thailand and how long have you been here for?

Rob-I do some work for some magazines and websites providing news about the Thailand Muaythai scene

Mike-You have your own gym, can you tell us about it?

Rob-Originally the gym Kiatphontip was started about 15 years ago by my wifes father, we built a gym on the outskirts of Bangkok 2 years ago to develop some young Thai talent and also to provide a chance for foreign fighters to train in authentic Thai style camp

Mike-Any fighters to look out for coming from your gym?

Rob-We had Samsamut Kiatchongkao come to train with us and since being here he won the Ratchadamnern and Thailand Lightweight titles, he is away being a monk at the minute, we have some very good young fighters coming through, Pe-teng Kiatphontip has won 5 titles already, Petchlamsin Kiatphontip is another very strong prospect and we have a few more, they are still young though and will take another 2 or 3 years to get on the Lumpini and Ratchadamnern scene.

Mike-Your obviousley good friends with Saenchai, how did you get to know him?

Rob-I got to know Saenchai through taking photos at fight nights and doing interviews with him, now have taken him to England to fight twice and helped with some other fights abroad.

Mike-His only fights this year have been internationally, what did you think about his fights with Tetsuya Yamato and Yetkin Ozkul?

Rob-To be honest I have only seen the fight with Yetkin briefly, he looked totally in control though in that fight.

Mike-Can you tell us a bit about Nong-O, i heard he has been doing quite well in his fights lately.

Rob-Nong-O has looked very strong lately, winning by K.O twice against Petchboonchu, the last fighter to beat Saenchai. There is a lot riding on the fight for Nong-O too as he is a hot favorite for the sportswriters boxer of the year award and beating Saenchi could see him take that.

Mike-Saenchai’s upcoming fight on the 5th of May with NongO Sit O isnt the first time they have fought. How many times have they fought before and what were the outcomes?

Rob-They have fought three times, the first time Saenchai won points, the 2nd Saenchai won k.o rd3 and the last time Saenchai again won points.

Mike-What are your thoughts on the upcoming fight between Saenchai and NongO Sit O?

Rob-Should be a great fight, very similar styles Nong-O possibly even a little faster than Saenchai, but Saenchai has the 3 wins that will play on Nong-O’s mind. Saenchai also not been as active so interesting fight for sure.

Mike-Are there any other up and coming fighters to look out for from the 13 Coins gym?

Rob-I know they have wuite a few young fighters at the moment, but other than Saenchai and Pornsaneh I dont really know any to be honest.

I’d like to thank Rob Cox for taking the time to answer these questions for me and everyone reading. Hopefully on my next trip to Thailand I’ll take some time to visit his gym as I’ve heard nothing but good things. You can visit his gym;s website at www.kiatphontipgym.com and Rob Cox’s site www.Muaythaifocus.com

For those who missed out on Saenchai’s fight with Yetkin here it is.

I’ll be heading down and recording the whole fight at Raja on the 5th to post up later.

Born in Australia, training in martial arts since the age of 9. My first trip to Thailand was back in 2007. Since then i have made numerous visits back to the "land of smiles" to feed my addiction of Muay Thai. During the month of November in 2010 i had to decide between working a 9 to 5 job back home for the rest of my life, or sell all my worldly possessions and move to Thailand to live and train for the next few years. Thankfully i chose the latter. I now spend my time training Muay Thai, meeting new and interesting circles of people, sipping coconuts under palm trees on the beach and measuring the cost of everything on how much Pad Thai i could buy with that money.

Mike (Admin)

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