IFMA ( International Federation of MuayThai Amateur ) is once again hosting the bi-annual Amateur World Championships. The World Championships is held in honour of His Excellency, the Crown Prince's 50th birthday. For this reason, 50 countries have been selected from all 5 continents to participate in the biggest MuayThai event to be held in the world.

This year, for the first time, there will also officially be a Women' s Championships. This is expected to be closely contested and every bit as exciting as their male counterparts. Women from over 30 countries will participate.

Further some of the best Junior Fighters in the world have been invited - today's demonstration athletes are the Olympics athletes of the future. Special Children's matches will be held during the opening and closing ceremonies which will be televised live on Thailand and on a delayed telecast around the world.

Over 400 boxers will battle it out over a gruelling week of daily fights - from the 19th to 25th July at The Exhibition Centre, the Mall, Ngam Wong Won, Bangkok. Many will travel 1000s of miles only to lose on the first day but taking part and meeting other fighters, is as important as that Gold medal.

Countries will be divided in to A and B in order to ensure a safe and fair competition. Also, to give countries where MuayThai is only developing a chance to catch up.

We were sent off at the airport by many of our Hilltop Camp members on July 17^th evening; they were invaluable in their support. This is only the 2^nd time we have sent fighters to the IFMA world cup in the 6 years that it was formed, & the team from the East Coast Gym are going with us to Thailand as well. Compared to other countries we were still in the infancy stage of developing Muay Thai. Thus it is silly to give any pressure to ourselves to win anything; we were going there with the mindset of simply gaining some fight experience and as our Master said, winning and losing at this stage is not important.

The short flight from Singapore to Bangkok took only 2 hours. After that we had problems finding our way to the hotel, called SC Park, located somewhere in Ramkhampaeng beside a highway. The taxi driver didn't even know of such a hotel. It was remote & far from the city central, to say the least. I heard that the Council used the Grand Central hotel the last time, & it was obviously a much better choice.

The next day was the weigh in, so we had to eat quite little to maintain our weight. I weighed in at less than 62kg, which was 2kg less than what I normally weigh, so they put me in the 63.5kg category. But I was educated that I should be fighting 60kg because experienced fighters normally reduce 4-8kg before weigh-ins, through using the saunas or intense running with full track suits. That was incredible to learn, as I did not believed that a healthy person could actually lose so much weight in such a short time. We were surprised to see the famous star fighter & now trainer Samart Payakaroon there as well, perhaps he has students taking part as well. It was a pity we did not take pictures with him. After the weigh-ins finished we went for some sight-seeing, & in the evening we went for Thai massage to help us relax our bodies better.

On the 19^th was the opening ceremony, all the teams & officials went in a grand procession from the SC Park hotel to The Mall, a large shopping center in Ngam Wong Won. It was interesting to see the expressions on the locals' faces as they see hundereds of people from all around the world climb the escalators up to the Exhibition Center on the top floor like long snakes & ladders. We were elated to see the guys from our home camp Sordarunee (they are famous in Bangkok) demonstrating the Wai Kru, Muay Thai & Krabi Krabong techniques before the VIPs. A small number of the 50 countries invited did not turn up, but it was still a grand event. There was also a record number of lady fighters taking part this time, which is great for the sport. There were 2 rings to divide the bouts, but the organization was pretty poor; many people didn't know what was happening or what they weere supposed to do. Our team did not had any bouts on the opening day, so we just watched the show all the way. For Amateur Muaythai, bouts lasted 4 rounds of 2 mins with 1 min rest in between. On the Asian side, the fighters from Philippines, Hong Kong & Macau were all quite impressive; especially the Hong Kong fighters, who did the Chinese proud by eventually winning silver in the 63.5kg & gold in the 67kg categories. As for the Thais, some were very good but others were only so-so. Actually I was scheduled to fight, but I was informed last minute that my Belgium opponent had backed out, so it was quite a relief as I was not mentally prepared at that time. When it ended our master decided to visit the home camp with Ajahn Sanee of Sordarunee, shifted some time ago, but still a long 3 hours drive from Bangkok. For us fighters we thought that it was wiser to go back to the hotel for a good rest.

On the 20^th we finally had to fight. In the morning we did an hour plus of warm-ups & drills before making our way to the Exhibition Center with the rest. However our bouts were scheduled as the last few of the day, so we had to wait several hours before our turns came. Korea had a tough looking fighter with a beautiful model-like girlfriend (I assume) which was the attention stealer of the entire event. However the Korean guy fought using Sanda instead of Muaythai, so I suppose that contributed to his defeat. Japan had also had 2 Kickboxers fighting that day, but I was surprised to see that they lost too.

China also sent 2 Sanda fighters, one who looked like Nashun the "Mongolian King" to take part. I tried talking with them but they seemed quite shy. I was quite surprised again to see China send someone as they are holding their Sanda World Cup in Shanghai consecutively with this IFMA World Cup. He fought in the 60kg category but lost from the general Sanda weakness of relying too much on throws & being weak in kickboxing. The other guy however won the gold medal for the 81kg category, which no doubt is a great booster for Sanda development. It was ironic that Sanda could particpate in Muaythai & not vice versa. Finally came my turn. It was my first ring experience. And what better place than the World Cup? Though I was a bit nervous, dancing the Wai Kru helped me relax a lot. My opponent was from Tajikistan, one of the CIS states. Those fighters from the CIS like Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan were all very good boxers & some were tough grapplers as well. From the start I sensed that my opponent was more experienced than me, but I still tried to kick him as hard as I can, which was the only thing I believe had any impact on him. When most of my straight punches missed him & got countered with solid hooks, I knew he I could not beat this much better boxer. I was even more dismayed to realize that a lack of grappling practice resulted in me being easily controlled & knee by my opponent. It was all I could do to not get KOed until the 3^rd round when the referee finally stops the contest.

It was no better for my friend Chong, who fought the last bout of the day. But his Ukraine opponent was really a superb fighter. At 75kg, he had the agility & speed of a light weight. His boxing & footwork was the bane of Chong, who tried hard but could not get his punches or even kicks to connect with the opponent. This guy only used his lead leg to kick, which was fast & good for scoring, but it could not do much damage of course. Besides his powerful hooks, he also threw some neat reverse backfists & elbows, which luckily was evaded by Chong, which whould otherwise surely result in a KO. Later we found out that he actually belonged to Class A, but was somehow misplaced in our Class B, so surely it was a consolation for us to know that Chong fought with someone so experienced.

At this point it is necessary for me to say that the martial arts training at Hilltop is considered to be one of the toughest in Singapore. Why do we still lose quickly to our opponents, you may ask. Well, to stand any chance of doing well for this kind of international amatuer Muay Thai tournaments, one needs to train regularly for at least 2-3 years, plus half a year of intense preparation training. In Singapore, where everyone has busy work, study or family commitments, that kind of dedication to Muay Thai training is quite difficult to find. We don't even have to talk about fighting at the professional level - it is just not possible in our enviroment. If we train, it is just as a hobby, to keep fit and learn effective self-defence skills. For our opponents, though they are still called amateurs, obviously devote much more time & effort to their training. They are already at the semi-professional level. It doesn't help that they are also much more experienced fighting in the Ring then most of us in Singapore. For us we don't even have a Ring to spar in. So if more time & effort in training = higher chances of victory, then it is only natural for us to lose. This is not the fault of our training, but the fault of society requirements here in Singapore. However, if Muay Thai gains entry into major games (Asian, Olympics etc) in the future, and sponsorship in full time training for young fighters with good pontential is readily available, then I dare say we definitely stand a good chance of winning medals in this fighting sport.

The other relief for us was that we were fortunate enough not to suffer any injuries from the bouts (must be our conditioning working, or maybe the gods are watching over us ^_^), so after a good rest, the following day we proceeded to enjoy ourselves at Pattaya in the day & back to explore some of Bangkok nightspots late in the night. My original plan was to stay until the closing day so as to videotape all the finals for everybody out there who could not watch it on TV (they broadcasted the contest live in Thailand). However, as we had to pay for the air-tickets, hotel & catered meals all by ourselves this year, our budget went too low & thus could not afford to stay till the end. We are all from modest economical backgrounds; we don't even have a gym, so this is a real problem for us. In the past years, they make us pay for the air-tickets only, which made it much easier for everyone to participate in the Cup. I don't understand why the Council couldn't sponsor our lodging as well this time. It was a great disapponitment for us all, but we tried to keep our spirits high as we took a flight back to Singapore on 22^nd afternoon. It was a short uneventful trip, but I have to admit that without a doubt we gained from the fighting experience this time. Personally I feel my pen is mightier than my sword; I'd probably need to retire as a fighter in a few years time. Next year we look forward to having a bigger team & better results in the IFMA World Cup!!

 To view the complete results of IFMA World Cup 2002, please click here.

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