Interviewing A Champ

Interviewing A Champ

(In this Photo: Fairtex Original Fight Team T-Shirt, BSK2101 "Eternal Flame")

Young athlete Dariya Kirlova is a rising star. Her parents are both fighters and she recently got a chance to interview Stamp.

“How old are you when you started Muay Thai,” Kirilova asked.

“I started Muay Thai when I was 5 or 6 years old,” Stamp said.

“How old were you when you had first fight?”

“I was around 6 years old.”

“What is your favorite Muay Thai technique?”

“I have a knee style. My dad had a knee style so my dad taught me a lot about knee style,” Stamp said.

The two athletes are training hard. Kirilova fought twice in the last year. Stamp is coming back from an injury. There are strong rumors she will fight in the first four months of 2025. We hope the same for Kirilova.

Holding Pads For Jo

(In this Photo: Fairtex KPLC5, Fairtex Muay Thai Jersey)

Smoking Jo was back at Fairtex. His next fight at ONE Championship is lined up. His last camp Nattawut stayed for 4 weeks at Fairtex. He ran everyday with the fighters. He worked regularly with Champ and his manager Jet.

This time his camp is shorter. He came in a week early. Flights were delayed. There was the snow in Atlanta and the fires in LA.

Everything was delayed. He sat on a plane for hours. But he made it.

Nattawut and his camp focused on strength and explosion for this bout. He’s sharper. He’s stronger. And he’s taking on French athlete Bampara Kouyate.

A New Name

Padejsuk left the gym. A young promising fighter he hit hard times. He was knocked out in 16 seconds at ONE Lumpinee. Rising star Johan Ghazali took him out.

Then he and his sister Gasjang went home. They stayed out of Fairtex for a year.

So when they came back Mr. Wong the founder of Fairtex gave Padejsuk and Gasjang new names.

“We are Thai so we want to change the name. The old name is bad luck,” Mr. Wong said.

“Boonkerd means reborn… so hopefully they come back and are reborn to be a new fighter, new spirit. And they can be successful.”

And Boonkerd was born again. He fought and won by KO in the first round. He landed a jaw dropping spinning back elbow on his opponent.

There was a lot of pressure on the 20 year old.

“I thought I would run out of gas,” he said. “That would be terrible.”

Because he’s just come back to the camp he’s under the scrutiny of Mr. Wong. So far he’s been successful. The future is still unwritten though.

Cut Under The Eye

In his last bout Yodnamchai broke his orbital. The eye socket often breaks in fights. Usually the underside of the socket is damaged. Nongamm, Nakrob, and now Yodnamchai have all broken their orbitals.

For Yodnamchai it required surgery.

“The doctor went in through the inside of my eye,” he said.

The break was directly below his eyeball. So the surgeon cut a sliver into his lower eyelid. They fixed the break. Now Yodnamchai is resting, recuperating.

Nongamm is scheduled to fight in February. Nakrob is rumored to fight in a few months. Yodnamchai will return to the ring in the middle of the year.

Making Content

(In this Photo: Fairtex BGV14 Black/White Painter, Fairtex SP5 Gloves, Fairtex HG6 Headgear)

Creating videos is serious business. Vivian Woong, a creator at Fairtex takes her position seriously. She looks at emerging trends. Then she figures out how exactly the video was shot. From there she scripts out the action. Next up is picking the actors. And then she does the filming. The final job is to edit.

The more preplanning done for content, the better it does…. Sometimes. Social media can be unpredictable. Creators can spend a lot of time on something and then nothing comes of it.

This picture features Ferrari and Douglas Malagon. They made a short humorous skit. It was titled “When Headgear Can’t Save You In Sparring.”

Ferrari kicks Malagon. His kick is so good he is able to pet Malagon’s face and then flip off the headgear. Finally, the kick goes through.

The video did well. It was seen over 320,000 times. The engagement rate was a respectable 5%.

More fun videos are coming to Fairtex but it takes a lot of work to make content.

How To Make A Game Plan

Boxing coach Rwin understands the game. He works with the boxers. He corners them.

And he studies the opponents. Ferrari battles Nabait on January 31st. The Russian athlete trains out of Phuket Fight Club. He moves. He throws combinations. He can be leg kicked.

So Rwin devises a plan to take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses.

And while athletes can plan, things can go sideways. Anything can happen when you get punched in the face.

Ferrari sings. Ferrari plays. Ferrari fights.