NAM NAK NAKMUAY THAI (WEIGHT THAI BOXERS)
NAM NAK NAKMUAY THAI (WEIGHT THAI BOXERS)
by Serge TRÉFEU (2018)
Weight (Nam nak), the sworn enemy of the boxer who obsesses his thoughts throughout his career. Before the boxer even meets his opponent, he has to win a first battle, that of coming to weight on the day of the fight.
EVERY THAI BOXING CAMP HAS HIS TRADITIONAL BALANCE, THE ESSENTIAL INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING THE BOXERS WEIGHT SPECIFICALLY
YOUNG BOXER OF CAMP SOR SITAWEE ON BALANCE
LOOKPRABAT CAMP COACH CHECKS THE WEIGHT OF THE CHAMPION KOMPHETLEK LOOKPRABAT (RADJA CHAMPION, WBC WORLD CHAMPION)
YOUNG BOXERS OF PINSINCHAÏ CAMP OF BANGKOK
Weight loss is a real test for some boxers, a difficult exercise that requires discipline and a great mental effort. Keeping his fighting weight is very complicated for a fighter.
In Thailand, the professional boxers are used to managing the loss of weight before an important term. They are prepared well in this testing exercise. Generally, they know well in advance in which date is going to take place their fight, against whom and in which weight exactly. They are scheduled to fight, approximately every month, in the stadiums of Lumpinee, Radja, Omnoï or TV7.
Most weigh well over their natural weight, they are often four, five, to see even sometimes eight kilos to be lost before a fight. Because after every fight, the boxers unwind completely, they eat more, rested and they are a little party what causes a fast increase of the weight.
A lot of Thai boxers work like this, they start their draconian regime about three weeks before D-Day.
After a week of rest further to a fight, the boxer goes back slowly the training. His trainer will give him a special drink to remove the waste of body. He’s going to drink practically a whole bottle of “Yaa Nam Radompon”, a kind of laxative to the bitter taste which is going to cleanse the body of toxin accumulated inside the body. After this drink, he begins to lose approximately one-two kilos by paying attention to what he eats.
YAA NAM RADOMPON BEVERAGE IS A POWERFUL LAXATIVE
The next few days, the boxer will perform long recovery footings, 10 Km in the morning, 5-6 Km in the afternoon, to eliminate calories and stored toxins. It’s going to lose a few more kilos.
Two weeks before his fight his training is going to become intensified. The lessons in paos, sessions of clinch and in punch bag, will be daily, from Monday to Saturday. In the morning, he will always make his 10 km jogging. Then, he’s going to add 15 at 20 minutes of skipping. The boxer can again eat consistently with three meals a day. His intensive training allowed to burn fats in the body.
(See the article on feeding boxers)
https://www.siamfightmag.com/wordpress/en/the-food-of-the-champions/
DURING THEIR SPARTIATE TRAINING, BOXERS DRINK A LOT OF WATER, BETWEEN FOUR AND FIVE LITRES OF WATER A DAY. IN THAÏLANDE, THE TEMPERATURE CAN RISE UP TO 40 DEGREES
PETCHBOONCHU FA GROUP (LUMPINEE CHAMPION, RADJA CHAMPION, THAILAND CHAMPION)
F16 RACHANONT (LUMPINEE CHAMPION)
NONG O KAYANGHADDAO (LUMPINEE CHAMPION, RADJA CHAMPION, THAILAND CHAMPION)
KONGSAK SITBONMEE (LUMPINEE CHAMPION, THAILAND CHAMPION)
SAMSAMUT KIATCHONKHAO (RADJA CHAMPION, THAILAND CHAMPION)
PHETMORAKOT TEDEED99 (LUMPINEE CHAMPION, TV7 CHAMPION, THAILAND CHAMPION)
Three to four days before the fight, the boxer switches from two meals a day to one plate a day. During his footings, he will wear a “Chutsaonaa” (Sweat sauna suit) that will allow him to lose his last pounds in excess.
SWEAT SAUNA SUIT, OFTEN MADE OF PLASTIC MATERIAL, IS USED TO SWEAT HEAVILY
BOXER OF CAMP PINSINCHAI WITH SWEAT SAUNA SUIT
THIS YOUNG BOXER OF THE PINSINCHAI CAMP COVERING HIS BODY WITH HEATED OIL (NAMMAN MUAY) BEFORE RUNNING WITH HIS SWEAT SAUNA SUIT
LEKKLA TANASURANAKORN (LUMPINEE CHAMPION, THAILAND CHAMPION) TRAINS WITH A SWEAT JACKET
WHEN THEY FINISHED THEIR FOOTING, BOXERS ARE MASSED. MUSCLE MASSAGE PROVIDES MUSCLE ELASTICITY AND RECOVERY
THIS BOXER OF THE CAMP GALAXY GYM OF BANGKOK, AFTER JOGGING IN SWEAT SAUNA SUIT, HE HAS IMMEDIATELY DONE 20 MINUTES OF SKIPPING
Two days before the fight, the boxer does not eat almost any more but still drinks some water and run in the sun with his sweat sauna suit. The day before the weighing (Chang Nam Nak), he eats only a soup and drinks a little water.
The day of his fight, the boxer weighs at 6:30 am of the morning. If he has some grams too, he’s going to have to run still with his sweat sauna suit to arrive at the weight exact.
MONGKONCHAI KIETPETCH (LUMPINEE CHAMPION, TV7 CHAMPION) WITH HIS SWEAT SAUNA SUIT. THE MORNING OF HIS FIGHT AT LUMPINEE STADIUM (OLD STADIUM), HE HAD TO RUN NEAR THE LUMPINEE STADIUM TO LOSE MORE WEIGHT. MONGKONCHAI LOST HIS FIGHT AGAINST WANCHALONG WICH WAS GOOD WEIGHT
EKCHANACHAI KAEWSAMRIT (RADJA CHAMPION), THE MORNING OF HIS FIGHT, WITH HIS SWEAT SAUNA SUIT, RUNS THROUGH THE EMPTY STADIUM OF RADJA TO LOSE HIS LAST GRAMS
WEIGHING BOXERS IN LUMPINEE STADIUM (OLD STADIUM)
WEIGHING BOXERS IN RADJA STADIUM
The calvary of a drastic diet of the boxer finally ends after the validation of his official weight on a board.
THE UNIT OF WEIGHT IN THAILAND IS THE POUND (1 POUND = 0.450 GRAMS). THIS IS A BOARD OF KILOGRAMS IN POUNDS
ON THE LUMPINEE STADIUM BOARD (OLD STADIUM), OFFICIALS REGISTER THE NAMES AND WEIGHTS OF THE EVENT’S FIGHTERS
RADJA STADIUM OFFICIAL BOARD
On the morning of the fight, the fighter doesn’t eat too much. But he drinks a lot to get his body well rehydrated.
Dehydration to remove maximum water and lose weight has been so brutal that boxers often make infusions in their rooms. An intravenous infusion of a hypertonic glucose solution. That way, the fighter recovers more quickly.
This practice is condemned by many doctors because it can cause great damage to the athlete’s body. Furthermore, most of the time these tinkered infusions are made by a boxer’s corner man and not by a competent nurse or doctor. This increases the risk of an accident for the boxer’s health. But in Thailand, in the professional boxing community, unfortunately these practices are common.
Then, in the morning, the boxer takes a nap of about three hours. For lunch, he goes to eat and drink a lot.
Before his fight which will take place in the evening, in the afternoon, the boxer has again a nap. Then, he’s again going to eat and to drink. In this last day, at the end of a few hours, the boxer can set until three in four kilos. When he’s going to fight on the boxing ring, he’s good over his initial weight of shape…
The great French champion Rafi Singpatong (Lumpinee champion, world champion WBC, WMC) who is the current holder of the belt of the stadium of Lumpinee, a prestigious title which he conquered five times, lives for several years in Thailand. Being a boxer professional as the Thai fighters, he made us a detail of his fight against the weight before his final fight.
« My weight, when I’m trained, is between 68 Kg 500 and 69 Kg 500 (Rafi fight between 142 lbs = 64 Kg 600 and 147 lbs = 66 Kg 900).
After a fight, over a non-sport period, for more than ten days, and by eating a little more European food, my weight can go up to 71 Kg. But that’s rarely the case. Every time, I try to quickly recover a rhythm of sport (3 or 4 days after a fight).
My weight, being careful, a week before a fight, is between 67 Kg and 68 Kg 5oo. I know how much more I really have to lose by making footings with my sweat sauna suit.
Five days before weighing, I start paying attention to weight. I no longer drink sugary drinks and I eat a lot less starchy foods.
Three days before the fight, I get massaged in the morning and in the afternoon I do light sweat sauna suit training. For the last two days, I’m doing a sweat sauna suit twice a day.
I have had occasion to do an infusion after weighing to get better. An infusion containing a saline solution (0.9% sterile sodium chloride solution).
I drink “Yaa Nam Radompon” two or three days after the fight to clear the blood.
At the Lumpinee or Radja Stadium, on the morning weigh day, I must be between 140 pounds (63 kg 500) and 142 pounds (64 kg 400) (When Rafi was fighting at 140 lbs, he’s now fighting between 142 lbs and 147 lbs).
I try the night before to run until my weight drops 1 lb (0.450 g) or more below the weight of the official weigh-in, then I can eat (I eat up to 2 lbs (0.900 g) above my official weight).
If I made everything correctly, in the morning, he does not stay in me any more than 1 pound (0,450 g) to lose. It’s not a lot but at 6:30 am of the morning (The time of the weighing), the sun thus becomes scarce it’s necessary to run all the same 15 in 20 minutes to lose these few grams. If I fell the previous evening, to drink a lot, I should then the morning lose too much weight and too much run.
In these cases, the fight is often almost lost in advance (Legs are cut for the last two rounds). And now the mind is working all day trying to make a last-minute strategy, and usually it doesn’t pay….
The weighing was ended, I have the smile up to ears, finally almost because I’m very thirsty but I have to eat at first a maximum before pleasing me on the fruit juice. Then, it’s a bucket of ice cubes in the water for a tonic massage. I eat new, then a nap, and I eat still light some sweet things. Then, I make a massage for the oil of boxing, a shower and heading for the stadium. The fight stuck in my head… »
RAFI SINGPATONG IS THE CURRENT LUMPINEE CHAMPION IN 147 LBS
RAFI SINGPATONG AND KONGSAK SITBOONMEE (LUMPINEE CHAMPION, THAILAND CHAMPION) AFTER WEIGHING AT LUMPINEE STADIUM (RAFI BEAT KONGSAK BY KO)
RAFI SINGPATONG IN SWEAT SAUNA SUIT AND NAVEE EAGLE MUAYTHAI (RADJA CHAMPION) AFTER WEIGHING AT OMNOI STADIUM (RAFI BEAT NAVEE BY KO)
WEIGHING COMPLETED RAFI SINGPATONG CHAMPION TAKES BACK STROKE FORCES WITH A GOOD MEAL
Sometimes, the loss of weight of a Thai fighter is so violent as she can engender a defeat on the boxing ring. And can be, later, a devastating impact on the body. The French professional boxer David ” Singpatong ” Hergault (Champion of the South of the Thailand in 1998, 15 fights in the stadium of Lumpinee, 3 fights in the stadium TV7), which fought during numerous years in Thailand, tells us a misadventure before one of his fights.
« The worst of my memories was against a renowned boxer named Balat. My promoter had contacted my coach and had advanced the fight for a week, so he had told us five days before.
So I had to lose 7 kg in three days. Not eating it was still supportable. But the worst thing was not to drink, nothing at all for three days, it was horrible.
The Thais locked me in a car after have made me skipping, a real traveling sauna. At night, I knocked my head against the walls, unable to sleep.
On the day of weighing, no worries, I was at weight, and even below 59 Kg 500. The fight was at 61 Kg 500. However, the fight took place at 12H45. I had very little time to recharge. The only thing I wanted was to drink, drink and drink. But I couldn’t swallow anything.
During the fight, in the first round, I had no more strength, no more juices. I was counted twice. The second time, I received at least 15 punches in the jaw before falling. I got up. But I could not go anymore to the fight. An advice, there are fights which you should not forcing accept to please the promoter. Even if there, it was a competition of circumstance… »
DAVID HERGAULT FOUGHT FOR THE SINGPATONG CAMP IN PHUKET FOR SEVERAL YEARS
THE CHAMPION DAVID HERGAULT AFTER A DRASTIC DIET DURING WHICH HE DID NOT EAT SWEET FOOD FOR A MONTH
