What is theminimum rest period between fights?

[sityodtong]

I wanted to start a new thread on this topic because it is something that Jeab and I have discussed at length over the last month. I am really interested to hear people's view on this topic.

Since we starting promoting this year, we have seen instances of trainers double/ triple booking fighters in a month period. I am bamboozled by this as I always thought it was expected that you kept yourself free for one month before a confirmed fight. I don’t think people realise the grief it causes when a fighter pulls out and I just don’t see how it is necessary.

Now… I have asked a very worldly thai trainer (he-he, my husband) and he has confirmed that it is absolutely NOT common practice for thai fighters to fight every week. Whilst he acknowledged that it often happens in country area’s, it is only considered when one foresees a fight advantage.

Jeab has trained and fought with many professional Thai fighters (some with really big names such as Samat Piyakoroon, Worsai, KoSai Galxy, Jareontong, etc…) and he has confirmed that they would NEVER fight within a three week period when a fight was evenly matched. For example, if his fighter fought in Lumpinee (or another decent stadium) against a fighter of similar experience, there is no possibility that he would be fit to fight within 2-3 weeks. The strain / soreness gained in the fight would not allow him to face someone else within this time period.

Similarly, we would not let our boys fight when we had committed them to a show without discussing any match-ups within the one month with the promoter. I admit that there are times where you would say “lets see how he fares up!” but is it acceptable practice?

We like to book our fighters (particularly our main events), at least 6 weeks in advance. I always assumed it was common respect that you then “saved your fighter” and honoured your commitment. Mainly, this is out of respect for the trainers, fighters (and little promoters who may loose air flights/ ticket sales) as a result of late pull-outs.

What is the forums view?

[ChrisQ]

All fair points Karen...

Personally if I wasn't injured, and I had plenty of well matched fights lined up, then I would love to be fighting every 2-3 weeks (at this stage as a novice). But this is just my opinion (regardless of being practical or not), I'm sure you'll get many others...

[dekparwandsak]

And what about fighters being ko'd then fighting again without a proper break due to prior committments.

[sandym]

yeah those cambodians are an exception, they are freaks. mabe cos theyre so small too. i cant imagine heavyweights fighting everyday of the week!!

[sityodtong]

This was a hot topic in our gym last night - Jeab doesn't often offer a violent opinion response often so I am posting this on his behalf. Surprisingly, he actually feels very strongly about this.

His solution??? - put simply, it is NOT the THAI way and no reputable thai fighter can perform 6 full muay thai bouts in a week. We found a few occassions where boys DID fight within a week but it was agreed that you do not fight at your optimum. Anyone can turn up to fight, but do they do the show/ opponent justice when they are nursing injuries?

A live example he gave was Chey (one of Im's Cambodian fighters) who fought over the weekend. he has had a pretty full fight schedule (one every 2 weeks???) and had a huge bruise / injury on his leg at The Ultimate show on the weekend. To accomodate this, he had to fight with a shinguard and apparently didn't kick for the whole fight. Sure he fought (and probably fought well) but this isn't the thai way nor should it be expected.

Last Jeab issue...... A fighter can sometimes take fights for money/ experience/ commitments but a true thai fighter would never book themselves at 1 week intervals because they couldn't offer the maximum performance. Hence, he takes pride in his fighters and only wants them to do well. As an ex-fighter (he had about 100 fights in his time), he said, "I fight like this - I dead now!!!"

[GeoffDavis]

I believe with some of the Cambodian fighters that members of the crowd actually hand them cash after an entertaining fight ... (I have to say I have seen it myself just twice this year in melbourne and the size of the cash seemed fairly healthy)

If those amounts are substantial in comparison to the fight fee then it relieves the promoter some financial burden by rewarding the entertaining fighter out of the crowd's pocket. If the fighter is earning a lot of extra cash from the crowd in this then it also encourages him (or her) to fight more often.

I understand some fighters in Melbourne are training and fighting almost full time and don't have other "jobs". I would guess they are probably struggling for cash. There are several who will come to a gym for a fee and give the locals more than their money's worth in training. Perhaps there are others who fight a lot more than most in the hope of gaining that extra "crowd" cash.

I have seen a few Cambodian fighters this year put on senstational fights in front of crowds that included many Cambodians. The atmosphere was sensational, the crowd and the fights were fantastic and afterwards (twice that I noticed) the fighters wandered amongst the crowd and I saw them pick up some extra cash from the happy audience. Good luck to them, they earnt it.

A week or so ago I saw Chey fight Tim Hatley. He put up a fantastic fight, it was non muay thai bot and Chey seemed stifled without all his extra weapons. Tim seemed right at home under those rules and won a UPD in a brutal bout. I admired the both of them, Tim deserved his win but I sympathised with Chey not being able to exploit his grapple and knees and elbows.

As he walked out of the ring and past us it occurred to me that there were very few Cambodians in the crowd and it was unlikely that your typical (tight fisted) aussie like me would put their hand in their pocket and give him some extra dollars.

I hope the fighters who fight a lot and frequently are doing it for the right reasons.

It is pretty easy to see how this could be exploited.

[imported_n/a]

Fighters couldn't fight with 1 weeks rest every time but occasionally they would be able to pull up and take a fight 1 or 2 weeks after another.
Will be up to promoters/trainers & fighter to communicate.
There are laws which govern fights in Vic so someone should check if the board has any regulations regarding this.

[Imsta]

Hi All,

Just to explain things, with Chey Kosal. We took that fight to help a friend because his boy sold a lot of tickets. At the end of the day we did what was needed to be done and to get paid. Yeah sure we would love to have the win, but Tim was too good. Win or lose it’s no big deal it is a part of the sport!

My Cambodian boys fight for money! But my Aussie boys fight for pride! For those that don’t know anything about Cambodian fighters if you see the way they live and train they are doing it very hard.

In Cambodia some of them fight their whole life and at the end of their careers they still have nothing because the money they get is absolutely crap! I can tell you a story about Meas Chantha that will make you laugh or cry. We all know he has been here 4 times, at this moment he is probably one of the most wealthy Cambodian fighter in Cambodia. Since then he has managed to buy 2 cows and an old motor bike that gets him A to B. The truths is our Cambodian fighters are only earning $15 - $30 a fight. If they are lucky to fight an international fighter in Cambodia, they can earn $70 - $100.

People can go on about the Muay Thai way, I say blah blah what a load of crap. I wonder how many of those boys rigged their fights in Thailand so they get a better pay day? Haven’t some of them been shot and kill because they threw a fight? It’s all the same thing to me, there are those whom doing it hard and would like to get paid as much as they can in order to feed their family. So if they can fight a lot and why not? If they get injure than they don't fight. Here in Australia we all know our Aussie boys fight for pride so good on them.

Here is a clip from the Human Weapon that will give everybody a proper insight why our Khmer boys fight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEIuU-TD-fQ

[gvmartialarts]

Didn't take too long to regress into a Khmer vs Thai thread.

I would never commit myself to a fight less than 4 weeks, especially being a higher weight, the damage is always more severe. I was lucky to fight three times at the start of the year in 5 weeks, but was able to do so because of lack of damage to my legs, that seems to be a big factor.

I reckon as long as you are ok to fight straight away, why not, but you should definitely not book yourself less that 2-3 weeks between fights, it is too risky, and can put you at the warth of promotors and fans, not to mention the MT/KB community.

[Imsta]

quote: Didn't take too long to regress into a Khmer vs Thai thread.

Matt it is only in your imagination. ;) Plus your on holiday, shouldn't you be having a ball in Thailand now? ;)