Covering over 9,600 m2, with 12 Rings, 1000’s of square meters of mat space, full size MMA cage, indoor weigth-room, Yoga studio, 40+ trainers, Tiger Muay Thai now ranks as one of the best Muay Thai, MMA & Fitness camps in all of South East Asia! But how did it all start?
It all started with humble beginnings. wanting to help my head Muay Thai trainer, I bought a small one ring gym (that ring now sits in the advanced training area at Tiger Muay Thai and MMA) that we called Chalong Muay Thai. The website still exists. One ring and a few bags and I enjoyed coming from my job as Director of the English program at Darasamuth Catholic School near Central Mall and training in the afternoon. With just two trainers, some tires, a few bags, were far from the gym we are today, but you have to start somewhere.
Soon, people began to notice the the Muay Thai fighters and Thai flag we had painted on the building, and one day I show up and there are a couple people training. I didn’t mind, as my trainer would make some extra money and it as nice to have some others to work out with at the gym.
Few months later as high-season approached I found that each day there were regulars and more people showing up to train. We had added a trainer, and it was then I was approached by my future partners in an offer to open another gym in the area. Being that I had already trained at many gyms from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, Pattaya, and Phuket, I figured OK, lets do something bigger, but also better. It was then I also met our first trainer, now our gym manager, Phet Chaimanee.
Learning about partnerships: Lesson One. With three people as partners, often one partner is going to find himself outvoted in decisions about what or how to do something. In the end, one partner left seeing there would not be enough money for himself owning one-third of a gym and my other partner offered to sell his shares and pursue a business in boating and a Mexican restaurant, which I frequent visit to this day.
So I now find myself sole owner of Tiger Muay Thai and MMA training camp and he director of the English department at Phuket’s largest Catholic school. A choice had to be made. I had given nearly seven-years of my life to the school and church and was excited about creating something in Tiger Muay Thai and MMA Training Camp that would separate it from all the other gyms in Thailand: not just Muay thai training but MMA or Mixed Martial Arts which as a fight sport was becoming ever more popular.
It was tough times in the beginning as we went through several trainers until I finally met the man that would turn MMA Phuket’s training program around: Magical Ray Elbe.
So with hard work, determination, and a plan to be different in the way Muay Thai was being taught at the gyms I had trained, I decided that we would promote tradition, culture, respect, and sport for competitiveness. We would be a traditional camp that brought modern standards of training to the sport. Tiger Muay Thai would offer technique classes in a learn first and then practice plan. we would hire quality trainers from Bangkok and Northern Thailand, the heart of Muay Thai and teach Lumpinee style fighting; moving ahead, attacking your opponent and strong belief in conditioning.
Five-years later, Tiger Muay Thai has dozens of repeat guests that return every year, World Champion trainers from WMC, Lumpinee, Rajadamnoen, WBC, and Bangkok TV and a detailed, organized, and scheduled training plan that includes training programs for beginners, intermediate, and advanced Muay Thai and beginners and advanced MMA.
Covering over 9,600 m2, with 12 Rings, 1000’s of square meters of mat space, full size MMA cage, indoor weigth-room, Yoga studio, 40+ trainers, Tiger Muay Thai now ranks as one of the best Muay Thai, MMA & Fitness camps in all of South East Asia. The thanks needs to go to the staff and trainers of TMT that have worked hard to develop a one-of-a-kind Muay Thai and MMA training camp with an atmosphere that promotes attaining goals, and training hard.
