Anyway, today's Muay Thai entry is something I owe one of my mates for months. Zekk participated in a fight some time back at a community club/ hall called Empire Club situated inside Selatar Camp. Damn far la, bunch of us drove down but still ended up lost.
Well it was going to be my 1st time watching an actual Muay Thai match, and overall the night didn't disappoint (although we were hoping to be on the guest list . . . hahah!). When we got there, I was wondering when Zekk was going to fight, then after a while, we realised that his was the MAIN fight of the night, the LAST fight of the fights in the tournament. We stood through about 15 or so matches involving amateurs fighters from Singapore before the main 3 fights came up.
It was basically the Singapore Team VS the Internaional Team, so if can recall correctly it's our Singapore girl fighting the Thai girl boxer, one other guy vs the Australian one and finally Zekk VS the Canadian representative.
Singapore Team (L-R Zekk, our Singapore girl, our other SG guy)
International Team (L-R Canadian, Thai, Australian)
So apparantly, before each match, there is this traditional ritual called the Wai Khru which basically means paying respects to your teacher, the King or the Chairman of the tournament. I hope I am not wrong in this! Kinda like a way to realize the goodness of one's master who gave them the skills and knowledge and also to strengthen the mind before the fight.
So as expected, the Thai girl literally had a very traditional 10 min Wai Khru. She was kinda short but her dance was graceful to say the least. Our Singapore rep's ritual was kinda almost 'wayang' and almost non existant, come to think of it. It is said that those who can see well can determine who will win the match before the fight even starts. Well, in this case I must agree because the Thai girl gave our SG girl some punches I wouldnt want to receive myself. Anyway, we lost this round.
The 2nd match started ... this one resulted in a draw result!
Finally, Zekk took to the stage in a hall full of cheers and applause . . . and did the ritual thing as well (which he thinks the following shot is a brilliantly taken photo!)
The Canadian fighter doing this rounds too (at this point I was literally standing ring side witnessing the whole procession)
The match started.
At first, Zekk came out real strong, landing a couple of punches to the face and kneeing the guy quite a bit, and then sometime into the 2nd round (I think), the Canadian guy gave Zekk a hard punch which gave him a sharp cut above the left eye. Blood was literally all over the floor - man! this was like in the movies!
Zekk didnt seem affected too much (although after the match he told me he was disoriented for quite a while), but the Canadian took that to his advantage and gave Zekk some serious hits for the next round or so.
Many blocks and ducks later, Zekk came into the 4th round with a knee to his chest and then from then on, the match really tilted in his favour.
Somewhere in the last round, he spotted that the Canadian has let his guard loose for half a second and literally gave him a spinning kick which KNOCKED HIM OUT.
The judges declared that match was over - Zekk's our winner!
That's Zekk wearing the title belt
Zekk's going to be training in Thailand for a couple of months later this year, all the best dude and meanwhile, I'll help him spread the message: SUPPORT LOCAL MUAY THAI!
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