Can you describe your style of fighting, what is your major strength as a fighter?
I think my fight spirit shines through in whatever i do during the fight. I’m mostly a muay Thai fighter that loves to bang standing up.
So how and where did you train to get the grappling skills required in MMA. How long did it take?
I started training in muay Thai when i was 14 years old and ground [grappling] skills when I was 17. This is way back, before UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] and when BJJ [Brazilian Jiu Jitsu] was this magical thing that very few people knew anything about. My brother and I would order fight videos from Brazil, Russia and Japan, and watch them over and over again to learn from them. We would use our VHS recorder to copy all the best finishing moves we could find onto a new tape and then use this as our training instructions.
Considering you currently reside in Ubon Ratchathani, do you feel like this fight is on your home turf and will that be an advantage for you?
I hadn’t even thought of that. Honestly, it don’t really matter to me where the fight is. I do enjoy traveling the world and seeing new sights; but I also enjoy not having to go through the time differences and being able to be back home in a few hours after the fight.
Thailand has produced many good fighters, but MMA is still in its infancy here. What do you think is holding the sport back?
I think that it’s still a cultural thing. Muay Thai is very strong in Thailand and the old generation hasn’t traditionally been very interested in new things when it comes to fight sports. Nevertheless the more modern Thais seem to have a growing interest in MMA. International events such as DARE obviously do a great job of introducing the sport to more and more Thais. I believe that MMA will eventually become a big sport and attraction in Thailand.
You’ve had a lot of wins. But also some defeats. How do you stay mentally strong and get over lost fights?
Time. Sometimes a lot of time. Life is a struggle, inside and outside the ring, full of ups and downs. It’s up to us to not let it break us down but for it to build us up instead.
