Promoting the Old Culture of Muay Thai - Kwan from S.suksom Stadium in Thong Sala

Error message

Notice: Undefined offset: 0 in eval() (line 52 of /srv/www/dev.phanganist.com/public_html/modules/php/php.module(80) : eval()'d code).

We went along to meet promoter of S.suksom Muay Thai Stadium Kwan and his beautiful wife Nikki at Tharatip Resort to learn more about this traditional Thai sport and what they hope to bring to the island.

Kwan’s family are all original Phanganists although Kwan himself was born in Bangkok and he moved to the island officially seven years ago, this is where he met Nikki.

So Kwan, how did you get involved with Muay Thai?
My father had a muay thai business in Bangkok so I grew up around it. He wanted a gym also but has got too old for it but this is why I have organised something here.

What do you enjoy about it?
The power, muay thai is the old culture and everyone around the world likes it and I want to show people the real muay thai, real fights.

It is a great discipline for children, they can earn money from it which benefits the family with things like paying for school.

We have real fighters in our muay thai, it’s a good thing to do so that younger people are not led astray, not to go to the street or turn bad.

So what is special about S.suksom Stadium?
Before we opened we went around the island to look at other muay thai places and we saw what looked more like a show not real muay thai.

We make up for it with real muay thai and you can see as even the thai community come to our fights.

We don’t want to lie to our customers, everyone says it is very good.

Where do the fighters come from?
We have some local and some not, fighters come from Samui and Surat Thani.

We had the champion of muay thai come from Isan, Kem known as ‘The Terminator’. They come about two days before and stay here at Tharatip to relax before the fight.

We also have western fighters.

What do you have to organise Kwan, before a fight?
I talk to and check the fighters, they will say they want to fight so I book them but I check everything. How many fights they have had, kilos, body is ok, has something happened to them before? If they cannot do it then I find another.

I take care of all of them and First Great Western Hospital also take care of the fighters free of charge.

And what do you enjoy about Phangan in your free time?
I like everything! I mostly relax here at Tharatip though if I don’t have to work.

S.suksom Stadium has Muay Thai fights two days before full moon and you can experience great skills from some renowned fighters of this traditional thai sport.