Challenge No. 52 – Wax On Wax Off

Location – Thailand

Both of us will take intensive Thai boxing lessons. Once we’ve mastered this martial art it will be brother against brother. An official Thai boxing fight with all the traditional customs will follow and will last for a minimum of three rounds (each round is two minutes long.)

Blog

February 23rd 2008
Rising early for a full day ahead of us, we arrived at the Mai Thai Institute in Bangkok for our Wax On, Wax Off Challenge. This was the place in which we would perfect the noble art of Thai Kickboxing. Luckily we had lots of time to master the various attack and defensive manoeuvres. A whole 1.5 hours. With this amount of time we could have fitted in lunch too.

We met our two trainers who were to teach us all that would be necessary to get in the ring and fight each other in a battle to the death. Well not quite, but 3 rounds at 2 minutes each felt like a fight to the death, especially to Lee who thought a good kicking was about to befall his weakling body.

Both of us were wary of fighting each other. Lindsay thinking how bad he would look if Lee got a lucky punch or kick in. Lee because he thought his pretty little girly featured head would be deformed by a punch from a big brute of a man who’s training had gone to his head.

With training over and Lee feeling slightly more confident due to Mr Thai Boxer (1953-68) showing him devastating moves of attack, we entered the ring. Lindsay started prancing about practicing his attacking and defensive maneuvers much to the anguish of Lee who realised one important factor that was missing from his training. No defensive training had been taught and although he could attack he had no idea of how to stop his pretty little face from being hit.

The bell rang and it was fight time. We both made a gentleman’s agreement before even getting to the gym that there was to be no elbows or punches to the face, neither of us knowing if the other one would stick to it. Within four seconds of round one, Lee, conveniently, forgot the above and smacked Lindsay square in the face with a right hook. "Is that so" Lindsay thought and after a rather polite "Good Punch Bro" congratulating comment warped from his mouth. Within the next four seconds and for the remainder of the fight all hell broke loose in the ring and a brawl commenced - much to the disappointment of all the staff who looked after us that day - we had turned this ancient and elegant art into a street fight - pulling hair, biting and scratching.

Every tactic and training method we had learned earlier that day went out of the window. 3 rounds of mayhem ensued and the result remain a secret but let’s just say it was an amazing fight. The adrenalin was pumping so much that we did not feel punches or kicks in pain but by how loud they sounded and how much our bodies crumpled. There could be only one winner. That winner was announced and he rejoiced until the loser pointed out the consequence of victory.