The gameplan

"He will try to catch your left middle kick! Be careful with these and prepare him with feints, whenever you attempt to kick him!"

- "What about high kicks?" I ask Dylan, the MMA coach of Team Quest Chiang Mai.
"No problem. As long as it´s part of a combination or you trick him before."
- "Ok." I shake out my arms and try to relax my fingers – my hands are already wrapped and I can barely move my fingers. "Anything else?" I look at Dylan with a questioning look in my eyes. Ping, one of the Muay Thai trainers, joins the conversation: "No waiting tonight! Put pressure on him from the first minute! Since his condition isn’t good, rush at him.” I nod.

Being careful with the kicks – ok; this was my plan anyways since I hurt my foot in the last fight after I kicked right into the elbows of my opponent. Feints – ok. We have done that in training. If that is all, I am prepared for the fight.
"Oh!" Dylan adds, "And boxing of course. You should definitely throw some nice combinations. He may have problems with that." That is what I wanted to hear. Because of a knee injury I mainly focused on boxing during the preparation for this fight; so this fits my game plan quite well.

Again I get the pre-fight Thai-oil massage on the concrete floor of Loikroh Stadium and again Ping puts vaseline on my face. Again I wear the Mongkhon and again I dance my Wai Kru. But I feel great – my last fight was just six weeks ago, but it felt like ages. I really wanted to fight again. We face each other in the middle of the ring, bump our gloves and the fight starts.

I do what my corner told me: Put pressure on him. Even if I am not rushing forward, I am still going forward. After the first combination of punches I realize that boxing is definitely not his strength. He goes backwards, barely attempting to counterstrike my punches. We clinch and suddenly he stands right in the corner. There I go forward with a four punch combination and the uppercut hits him right on the jar – he collapses.

I walk back to the white corner, not sure if I really knocked him out or not. Only as the referee turns around do I realize that I did. He raises my hand. When I leave the ring I feel the impact of the punch on my right knuckle. That may have not been the most exciting fight or a fight I could gain a lot of experience from, but it is nice to earn my first real knockout – this felt a lot different than when I won my first fight.

My next fight is already scheduled for this Sunday. When I asked Kru Ni if he can work something out with the promoter so I get a stronger opponent, he grinned at me: "Ok, no problem! Up to you! But don´t cry if you lose!"

I won´t. I promise.

Here is a video of the fight - enjoy!