After the hijinx of last night I needed a bit of extra sleep this morning, which thankfully worked out well because we did not have any real plans for the day. Thomas had arranged to go mountain biking for the day so Mrs. Columbus and I walked around the city a bit and then stopped at Ginny Cafe for some lunch (or late breakfast in my case). After lunch we walked back to the hotel for some time at the pool and a bit of catch up at work and so went the afternoon.
The night before we had agreed with Ian, Richard, and Landon to meet up and go to the Muay Thai boxing match this evening – there is a match every Saturday and usually at least one foreigner is featured in the final pairing. I am not a huge boxing fan, but I have never seen a live Muay Thai fight so this seems like a good time to go. Landon is training with a local gym and knows all the fighters so he is a great resource to ask questions to for those of us that seem like newbies. Mrs. Columbus is not at all interested in fights of any sort, and conveniently it is Saturday night so she has once again decided head off on her own and tackle the Saturday night market and let the boys head off to the boxing stadium.
A night of Thai Boxing consists of usually 7 or 8 matches, each match is up to 5 rounds, and each round is 3 minutes with a 2 minute break between rounds. Some fights can be quite quick if there is a knockout, and in theory if every fight ended in a 1st round knockout, the whole thing could be over in about a hour, but we see a variety of different levels of matches with some ending in knockouts in various rounds, and some going all five rounds and ending with a judges decision. Unlike American sports there is no TV contract to sell advertising for, so once a bout is complete the next one is already getting ready to go so the action is mostly non-stop.
There is a sort of ‘half-time’ show before the last two bouts where they get 4 boxers into the ring and blindfold them and then they go for 3 minutes of flailing around throwing punches at anything they come into contact with. Even the referee gets caught up in the melee a few times, but it is mostly for show so no-one is taking any serious hits.
The final match features a guy from England vs a Thai fighter and after a fairly even first round, the Thai fighter starts to get the upper hand and it looks like the fight may be over quickly, but in the 3rd round the Thai guy has run out of his burst, and now the English guy comes out from behind and towards the end of the 3rd round scores a victory with a knockout.
Most of the fighters train a lot, and they are in very good physical condition (much like myself of course so I can relate) and overall the fight is quite a bit more entertaining to watch than I initially expected it to be. I am really glad I went, and while I may not seek them out specifically, I am sure I will go to one again on a future visit.
The fight ends at around midnight and after a nightcap it is time to head home for the night. Well except for Thomas who I think maybe feels challenged by my late night last night, and in a bit of one-upsmanship stays out with Richard until almost dawn the next morning!!