I was feeling pretty ill so skipped morning training. It was raining and pretty nice to stay in the bungalow and watch the Bas Rutten DVDs. When I was feeling better I went into Patong to do a little shopping. After that I went to the huge grocery store and ate lunch at a sushi place in the food court upstairs. Got back to the bungalow and watched "Tom Yum Goong", Tony Jaa's follow up to Ong Bak. I found it on the front page of IMDB and it is called "The Protector" in the states. I liked this film more than Ong Bak. The production level was higher with bigger chase sequences (i.e. a helicopter vs a speedboat), bigger stunts (Tony doing a flying double knee off a skycraper) and the fight scenes were unreal. The cinematography, acting and storyline are on a whole different level than western action movies.
Did Muay Thai in the afternoon. Mac, the head Thai instructor showed me some really good stuff from the clinch. Really applicable to MMA and in reality could be traditional jiujitsu or aikido moves. He's a head shorter and I probably outweigh him by 50 lbs but he was throwing me to the ground with ease when I clinched him. I will probably do some privates with him while I'm here.
After class everyone loaded up in a taxi and headed to the fights. I went on my bike b/c it was a nice night for riding and I didn't feel like waiting on the taxi afterwards. I went to Kata first and took the coastal rode north to Patong. The road is through the hills and has alot of turns and curves in it and is alot of fun on the hog. The ocean view was great and I was having fun weaving in and out of cars when suddenly I was passing three elephants and riders walking next to the road. It was pretty dark and luckily I was paying attention. They were enormous.
Gaz was pumped up for his first Muay Thai fight which he took on 3 days notice. This was the greatest night of fights I have seen since I've been here. All the fights were action packed and there were a couple grudge and rubber matches on the card. The place was packed and going crazy for a couple of the fights. Gaz's fight was the headliner and the guy he was fighting was an American who trains and fights Muay Thai at a different gym. He was a head taller and probably had 40 or 50 lbs on Gaz. This fight was the best fight of the night. Gaz clinched him a couple times early on and picked him up and put him on his back. Evidently in Muay Thai it is illegal to twist your hips on a throw, which eliminated Gaz's strength of wrestling throws. Gaz hit him with punches and elbows which you could hear from the crowd and bloodied up his face and the guy looked like he was gassing. After one punch in the mouth the American acted like he had gotten kicked in his charlie browns but it looked like he wanted a break and he was spitting up blood. Groin shots are legal here anyway. I was kind of worried about this because Gaz had borrowed my plastic cup for the fight because the Thai ones, although steel, were too small. In the 4th round he clinched Gaz and started throwing knees and the ref stopped it. It was a good fight and Gaz really came close to knocking him out with punches and elbows. I've never seen anyone eat that many elbows to the face. You could hear them from the crowd and see the sweat fly from the guy's head. Maddox thought he might've taken some painkillers or drugs before the fight.
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