I am not a violent person. However, I will soon have to fight, in a ring, in the biggest stadium in southern Thailand. 3 outcomes are possible. Stand 5 rounds. Knock out or be knocked out. I have never done boxing. I only have a month to prepare. And… I'm scared Ah okay! Well… where do we start? My name is Ulysse Lubin, I'm an explorer, and I'm taking on 100 challenges around the world to overcome my mental barriers. And in two and a half years, almost three years of adventure, I took up 45 challenges in around twenty countries. Whether it's surviving in the jungle, going snorkeling 35 meters,
deciphering an ancient Mayan stele, or coming to fight professionally in muay thai in Thailand. I'm Yvan. I met Ulysse in engineering school. We immediately became great friends. And since it's been almost 9/10 years since we've
been friends, we've remained friends. And at a party where we were together, Ulysses told me about this challenge.
I am passionate about sports. I say
but that's crazy! You know what ? Can I do it with you? And he said yes. And we are here! So the three of us ended up in Bangkok, with Yvann and Armand who is doing the documentary. So it's great we visited a bit and then we decided
to take a night train to go to the south of Thailand. We thought it was funnier than taking a plane, and spending 15 hours on a night train where it's a mess, it creates links right away. – It's up to you to start.
– No one is looking at the camera screen please.
Ah yes… We play a kind of African tarot, without a tarot card, with the rules of belote but
without really the rules of belote. I'm so impatient, I would like
to do a training this afternoon. Dodo… Uh… you! I'm too hot I slept 7 hours. I'll go into the room and watch people. For Koh… for Koh Phangan? The boat for Koh Phangan leaves at 8:30 am. Then we arrived at Koh Phangan. So there we saw Jojo arriving
on his big motorbike… etc. we were there in tourist mode… The very first time I saw you you were
at the port walking with your shirts on. And I said to myself, ooh there… Oh them, it's going to be complicated.
I think we had no idea
what awaited us. As if it was going to be easy, I
had chained a lot of challenges, I had succeeded in them all.
I said to myself: "but that's just one more!" No way ! I was far from imagining that I was embarking
on the most difficult adventure both physically and mentally
of all my life, by far, far.
To prepare for this challenge,
we went to Koh Phangan, a small island that looks like Jurassic Park. in southern Thailand. She is known for the Full Moon Party. Every full moon, tens of thousands of
tourists gather at Haad Rin Beach. The rest of the time, the island is practically deserted. I didn't come here to party. All my energy is focused on the upcoming duel. Unlike other islands,
Koh Phangan has remained wild. More than half of the area
is protected by a national park. In building zones, buildings cannot exceed palm trees, so that this view is never spoiled. And it is in the middle of this jungle
that is M19 Muay Thai, the camp where we will live
and train for 30 days. – Do we take off the shoes here?
– Hey yeah! – Ah, it's nice to be here!
– OK ! That's Phet. He's going to be your trainer with me. – Hey Phet!
– How are you ? – It's good and you ?
– Yes. – Ulysses
– Ulich? Ilich? – Ulysse
– Oulich – Yvann
– Yvann And there we arrive at the gym, and I finally realize
why we are there.
I used to be in travel mode with my friends, and then we arrive at the gym and I'm like "ah"… There we are. – How old does that make you? How old are you ?
– 28 Ah, you're 28, ok, you're young. Yvann he is 30, and Armand is 22, young talented filmmaker.
How old are you? I am 36. I came to Thailand,
I started boxing I was 26 years old. and at the time I was watching videos
on YouTube of Buakaw and I fell quite a fan of the idea
of coming to Thailand and doing a fight to see what
it was going to be like. I took a plane I came there
with my best friend. I didn't dare to do my first fight,
I returned to France and resumed more regular training. And then my best friend said to me,
"Jo, you're going to box in France, go there, go to this country". And I say to him: "ah but me, going there alone
and everything is complicated". So I did Australia
with my best friend. Then he helped me come here.
And this time I really started
doing fights and then we got a taste for it. We continued
and the years passed. Because in Thailand you have to know that
in the Thai circuit we fight every month, not like in Europe where we have a fight every 4/5 months. – Do you fight too?
– Yeah yeah I do the fight. – How many kilos are you?
– I lost 2 kg. – 78.
– I knew that I had lost 2/3 kg. – What do I need to lose 3 kg?
– Yeah, it's nothing, that's easy. It's easy ! I usually lose 6-7kg. I lost 3 kg, I was too proud, saying to myself: "you're much too heavy". OK ! So we settled there, on the spot we slept 5 meters
from the ring in a small bungalow. It's like being in Dragon Ball Z. It was really… yeah…
total immersion! – Didn't I snore too much? – A little bit, at startup.
– Yeah, I dreamed that I was snoring. In 30 minutes, we have the first practice. We slept pretty well, okay. And there we have no idea what
sauce we are going to be eaten. I don't know how intense it is or not. Yesterday we saw them training, it looked tough. It will be ok. I'm not a runner at all… 10 km when you wake up is very hard. No bread, no muay thai. OK? Understand? Olala, the meal of champions! We are going to live in Thai for 1 month too.
We'll eat there every lunchtime, every evening, after training. How do you say "bon appetit" in Thai? *bon appétit in Thai* *attempt to bon appétit in Thai* We do the first little training session on Saturday. It's okay, it was cool, but it
already puts you in good shape. And where I really realized what
I got myself into was Monday. We realized that the fun clearly, we could cross it. he woke me up at 7 a.m. sharp to go for a run. There I have pain everywhere. Fast fast fast fast, head in. 1 – 2 – hook I kicked Phet just now
without doing it on purpose. He wasn't happy… I made a joke,
he wasn't happy either. I think it's serious actually. 10 seconds! I'm learning to look strong. When I'm physically in the red, Jojo keeps telling me, "Get your guard up, straighten up, look strong!" Breathe breathe don't breathe in apnea breathe! Even when I'm burnt out,
I have to stand up straight with my shoulders squared.
I must not wince. I don't have to complain. OK BREAK! You go so far in the red, you have more power, you have nothing. It makes you sour! And in the end fouuu,
there is everything that falls. But I guess don't talk to me
for 15 minutes after… after practice. I go back to the shower. So at the first training, I
tore the skin off my feet, I opened my hand here, it took two weeks to close, and then I was like, "Wow, if it
's going to be like this every times…" "it's going to be complicated!" And that's where I realized. It'll be a month. So in fact the challenge
is not even the fight. We don't even think about that.
The challenge is to survive. They spent a week with us at the camp. There's a big routine that's
been created already that's a long time.
All the things, I think,
that used to look cool to them, now it's cooler. It becomes like a bit of a job,
like a big job. Welcome to M19 Muay Thai in Koh Phangan. This is where we took up residence
a week ago. It's like home now! And this is what one of our days looks like. We wake up around 6:45 in the morning, we put on our socks then our sneakers and we go running in the jungle
around the camp It's very nice we meet
horses and cows and we already have our fan club
who honks at us every morning and who tells us "Rĕw Rĕw!".
It means "Faster!" Then we go back to camp, and off we go for 15 minutes of skipping.
Then we put the bandages
around our hands, and it's time for stretching. Good and in addition in the morning we took
the small photos to send to the promoter
to be able to plan the fight. After the stretching, Phet our
Thai trainer explains some techniques to us. And then we stand in front of the mirror and we repeat the movements. Here we are doing a few rounds of shadowboxing.
So we imagine an opponent in front
of us, and we box. Then it's time to turn
for ten rounds of 3 minutes between the bag and the paos. Between each round we have 1 minute
to do either 10 push-ups or 10 abs, and drink water. And from time to time, between two rounds,
our coaches, Jojo and Phet, have fun torturing our abs. It doesn't feel good… And to end the session we go
to the other side of the room, where there is the bodybuilding corner with fairly specific exercises
on certain parts of the body such as dips we work on the lower back. We even go so far as to work
the neck, the jaw, etc… And then from time to time we
also have a little surprise like today with a frozen water bath. Well, that's a gift from Jojo. But honestly, it feels good, I
like it. Oh yes ! – Oh yes how?
– Come on. Damn I hate that! Ah ouiiiiii….
It vaaa. If we come together. Come come. You can put ice cubes, it's not cold. – Isn't it cold?
– No. It's ok… Ouh I'm not a fan of falling ice cubes. Oh well of course behind my back! That's it! Ah, we are talking about something! There it invigorates! It reminds me of
more or less nice memories, when I was in the middle of January in
the Pyrenees at an altitude of 2000 meters, which was -10° and we were swimming in the water. When we're done and we're dead, we take a little shower, and then it's time
for Bam's good meal.
So every day she cooks us
extraordinary Thai dishes, either based on rice,
noodles, chicken, fish and vegetables. And after the meal I usually
write for a couple of hours until I get tired and then it's time
to go take a nap. And I sleep at least one to two hours, sometimes even three. Come on, hop, sleep, because this afternoon,
we start again! Aaaah good night. And here we go again! I'm in great pain. But no rest for the warriors,
you have to go running. End of the second training of the day it's about the same program we go running, jump rope, shadowboxing, pao techniques, bag, except that there we added sparring.
I sent myself 8 rounds with Jojo Muay thai is a
very complete sport: fist, foot, elbow, knee, hand-to-hand combat, projection. That's what makes it beautiful. And there we can't wait for the shower, and Bam's good meal. And tomorrow again! Because we do it "every single day", except Sundays. It's dead, I would never do that. What ? How do you ever do that? Coming to Thailand, you said you
once tried training with us. Alright, so just once then. – Aaaah, that's what we like!
– Yeah… I thought I couldn't really succeed. I even thought about
giving up after a while, but in fact, no since we adapt to us. I was totally unprepared
physically, and I knew it, and yet I managed to go all the way.
And what is certain is that on the other hand, making
a second one would be impossible for me. What do you guys want… I would have injured myself after two days. In the second week, we are really into muay thai.
There we go, we are more in the cardio, we learn the blows,
we take the blows. I think that after the disillusionment
we returned to the pain. That is to say that we were injured almost
every training session. And since we don't have the right to stop because it's a month, so it has to go quickly. The more the week passes the more we were broken everywhere. Well when it was a little sore
it was not very serious, on the other hand when it is a little more disabling, that it prevented us from training properly, there my morale took a big hit.
Don't freak out because in fact you'll get used to it, but I'm not lying to you, from time to time, you're going to
be [ __ ] up in your mind. It's mental in fact, it's mental. I was quite surprised to see
that they were holding up and with morale. For many people, morale begins to drop from the second week. And Ulysse and Yvann, they trained well I think. Also the advantage that they are two and good friends from childhood, it helped them a lot I think to pass the tests.
And what was nice was that when one was mentally down, the other was usually there to support him. Me when Yvann was not well I said to him: "Come on man, you are doing the
most important thing of your life". When I didn't feel like running in the morning, he would pick me up: "Come on man, put on your sneakers, we'll run slowly at first, I promise".
What a mess! He was going full throttle! They do the job, they do what they have to do because they know it's their health
that I'm not talking about mine. I couldn't help them on the day of the fight. So I think they got it right. Now, we are going to start
getting into sparring, so there, putting on gloves and assaults. See if they manage to manage their stress. So this second week? Uh… painful. And the third: hopeless. How are you? It's fine, I'm fine. The fight will take place on November 23. It's November 9, which means we have two weeks left, including a full week, the most difficult, the most intense, the most angry,
we hurt everywhere. And then, you will have to recover a little to get to
the fight without getting hurt.
When we got into the third
week the theme was… doubt. you should know that everything that is said
about the weeks before cannot be cured. That is to say that on a Sunday
of rest, you have to be realistic, you don't recover. So, that means that all the
pain of the second week, all the mental fatigue
of the first week, arrives on the third week. And
the third week is a new level. POWER POWER POWER POWER POWER We gave everything in each training,
we ended up exhausted, and when you have a sparring that goes well,
you are super confident, and when you get rusty, then you say:
"What the hell am I crazy here?" "Isn't that too much?" We did 5-6 rounds of sparring today. We've been training for two and a half weeks, we did some great things but we
still took a beating, we both hurt each other,
my leg is in a mess. Ulysses, we can see it there, he took a
high kick in the ribs, it hurts a lot and suddenly, yeah, it…
Is scary, it makes you realize
that the fight is close and that it's going to be hard, very difficult. Every day
I hurt myself. Every day. That's no excuse
not to go the next day. – And tonight is?
– Tonight, we're going to have fights. It's really scary.
It's scary. We decided with Phet to
show them a fight before, so that they start
to take the atmosphere that they see a little
violence of the blows on the ring, when they are close to the ring to
give them a small order of idea what it's going to be like for them
when they go there.
What was really great
is that we were with Jojo who commented on everything. We
actually understood what was going on because muay thai
is a very complicated sport. Even in our moments of rest
we learned muay thai. All the time we were really rocked
by muay thai, we slept muay thai,
we dreamed muay thai, we went out muay thai,
in this case. I also wanted to show them something, explain to them that they were doing something else.
It was going to be pretty high stuff compared
to what we saw on Koh Phangan.
Because I wanted them to be
ready to be shocked if they saw
their pictures in the city. To see that in fact, all that had taken on a little importance, even a lot, for someone
who had never fought in his life. So it was very interesting, very impressive. We saw very fast knockouts. When you say to yourself "in two weeks I'll be there" and you see a guy who gets
knocked out in 10 seconds, I can tell you that we are already scared but then there, it goes up a notch.
It was interesting and and a bit scary. Me it excited me. Yvann a little less. In fact, the fights that had
interest scared me a lot.
I feel that we have a big lack of technique compared to others and it hits hard. Do you regret choosing to go to Phetch Buncha? No, I have no regrets, but I'm scared. To conquer without danger, one triumphs without glory. That's it, we have our opponent by the way. We will fight a thai each with Yvann. I believe that on the evening there are 6 fights. Yvann passes third. – So when it's hot.
– Yeah. And I go last. I am the front big fight
in fact. The fourth fight, in general, is the big fight
so I'm heating up the room. Ok, you can get your nose busted but… but what you earn in life behind…
– Yeah. It's incredible ! Go do muay thai in Thailand. Is it worth it.
– Yeah, phew. Our coach is called Geoffrey Lazzaro but everyone calls him Jojo. Muay Thai saved this man. One evening he told me his story. Jojo grew up in an environment
steeped in violence.
His mother was beaten
by his stepfather, she died when he was 7 years old. he then joined his father,
and he lived with his grandmother. Jojo quickly had to learn to fend for himself. A hard worker, he even practiced
karate at a high level. But at the age of 15, he fell into drugs. It was the beginning of his descent into hell. Cocaine and alcohol, he will lose his taste for life. He weighed 35 kg, he was in debt, depressed. Then one day he discovered a video of Buakaw a Thai boxer. For the first time in his life,
he began to dream. And if it was him ? So he had what very few would have dared. At 26, without money, without even speaking English, he took a one-way ticket to Thailand and joined a camp where he was
one of the only foreigners. He trained hard with one goal, to become a muay thai champion. It was 10 years ago.
He never left. Today, Jojo is respected
in the community for his fighting spirit. In 2019, he also fought for
the Global Max belt. He didn't win but he is only
one step away from his dream. So yes, muay thai is a violent sport. Yet it is this boxing
that gave Jojo a healthy lifestyle and balance. It is also this dream that led him
to meet Bam, his associated company with whom he founded his own camp:
M19 Muay Thai. This is where Jojo teaches me to get up, this is where he tells me tirelessly
never to give up. I am truly grateful to have such an
inspiring coach. I also have a lot of gratitude towards Bam. If this woman wasn't by my side, I probably would have snapped. She comes from the northeast of Thailand, after university she joined
her aunt's family business in Koh Samui. This is where she met Jojo 5 years ago. He chained
training camps and fights. He had no money and it was she who took care of it. Today, Bam takes care of the logistics of the camp. It is thanks to her
that we can train hard but with a minimum mental load.
Every day, she bends over
backwards for us. She prepares Thai dishes for us,
morning and evening, and above all, she always wears a big smile. Bam, it's our ray of sunshine. Our second coach is Phet. He accumulates more than 300 fights. he started at age 8 to bring
money to his family. Here in Thailand, it's common to step
into the ring so young. Muay Thai is seen as
a potential escape from poverty. The reality… is that very few succeed. Phet has the makings of a champion. He won titles in several cities. But now, 9 years ago, he was
bought by the Phetch Buncha, the largest stadium in southern Thailand, changing his identity for 15 years.
That day he became Phet,
from the Phetch Buncha. Since then, he has been blocked by his contract. He has 6 years left to be Phet. Many Thai fighters are in his situation. Because if Muay Thai is rhyme with pain… "No pain, no Muay Thai" … it also rhymes with money. Phet is a bit like our executioner. With Yvann we loved to hate him. Between two rounds, he sends us kicks or
punches in the abs. "Wow, what an assassin!" And if we grimace, he calls us [ __ ]. "Come on, [ __ ]!" "Oh, [ __ ]!" Otherwise, Phet loves to sing, look me
in the eye for 30 seconds for no reason, hold out his hand three times
a day to greet me, play cards, football, and go fishing on his boat.
The big challenge this week
is not getting hurt, and keeping a stable weight. Me, I'm not very far from the advertised weight. I have to be at 72 kg, there I am at 73. There it is good because physically
I feel ready, I could get into the ring tomorrow. – But there's a high-intensity week left, so…
– Yeah. We get hurt in every training
so the objective is going to be to limit the breakage in the fight what. For the fourth week now, we are mainly on weight loss, the descent. We try not to get hurt.
There is a lot of technical work. We always accumulate eh, I repeat, but we always accumulate the flaws of
the weeks before, and in addition, there the fight is approaching. We tell ourselves that we have made good progress of course, we are proud of ourselves,
we trained like crazy. But in a week we fight each other, and we've been
doing muay thai for three weeks.
And we saw a fight, we know it's
a very violent sport and so, yeah, fourth week
even harder because to the fatigue we add that we can't sleep because we
're panicked by the fight that is coming. Here I am in my most beautiful pageantry. So… Yesterday I couldn't take it anymore. I collapsed to the ground. We did exercises where he made me spin etc… and afterwards, pa pa pa pa… And like, at some point
I turn, I fall. Impossible to get up. I was at the end of the end of the end of the end. I have tears rising etc. and I
hold back, I hold back, I hold back… The training is over.
Today was the hardest day I think. I had no energy, I didn't eat
last night because I felt bad. I was completely dead. Coach Phet got angry
this morning, he overcharged me. Frankly it was hard. I died there. There I stop the training,
I go in the shower and I come back… like an animal. My feet hurt, I was going
to run 10 terminals. I had bruises all over my tibia I sent 200 kicks in the paos. "No bread, no muay thai" "Once in a while you're gonna get sour,
you're gonna get [ __ ] up in the mind." In boxing a lot of people
think it's going fast, and it's actually not a sprint,
it's a long distance race.
It is very long
and it takes a lot of time. The real spirit of the fighter is to continue and to be there all the time. You can have all the technique in the world, if you're too scared
and you can't manage your fear, you won't be able to do anything on the day of the fight. I was quite surprised by
Ulysse's performance in sparring. I put a lot of hard sparring on him. This is where I said to myself it's good, he can fight, Yvann can't fight. In the team we were all serene. We all said the same thing.
If they are not afraid in the ring, they can win. I couldn't have done more in training. I suius went after myself and suddenly I had no regrets. I said to myself that, by entering
the ring anyway, I had given the maximum of myself so now the
continuation belonged to fate.
We finish training on Saturday. We are not at the end of our troubles
because in fact we trained very hard and even so
we had to lose weight. Also I hurt my left foot, so during the last sparring
5 days before the fight, I couldn't run anymore. I'm starting to have weight pressure because if I wasn't up to the weight I had to put on a jacket
and go for a run in the sun except that if you can't,
because of your foot, it makes things much more complicated. I have to fight at 76 kg, I am at 78 kg. Ulysses the same, he is one
or two kilos overweight. We no longer have the right to sugar. We start eating like I've never eaten anything, rice, chicken, broccoli, no sauce, not even too much salt because salt
causes water retention.
We weighed ourselves between 4 and 6 times a day. I wake up, I weigh myself, it has become, an obsession in fact the weight. Because if we are above the weight
announced by the promoter, we will not be able to fight. And it is with this pressure
that the day of departure arrived. Head to the Phetch Buncha Stadium on the neighboring island of Koh Samui. We take the boat to Samui. Eéjà first achievement,
we get on the boat, we say to ourselves: "I'm not going on vacation".
When I get on this boat it's not a holiday boat, it's
a boat for my fight. The closer we get,
the fact that we're Samui, that we took the boat and everything,
you see that… the stress happens a bit like
"Ah, we're there!" "It's getting real!" I can't wait for this crap to end so I can eat smoothies
and cookies.
Oh, I'm full of it! We were maybe too into muay
thai at that time. We are really training all the time,
all the time. We are lucky when we arrive in Samui, we come across our great friends
from engineering school who have come to see us. And so to see
our friends, to change the location, it broke that bubble. Of course we are going to bet big! You can, the system works like this: if someone says: "I put so much on red", there must be an opponent who says: "I take" you see – And it's 1 for 1 ? – Yes, it's 1 to 1. – It's not odds betting. – Like aren't you guys 10 to 1? – Oh no, we are not 10 against 1 no! It was incredible, moreover, to be so well surrounded
at such an important moment.
It warmed our hearts. It's good, there are our friends, our weight is starting to be good, so the smile is back… It's not the same thing, it's
not the same ring as last time. I'm not being smart here. Damn that's huge. – Yvann, Ulysses. Well a little surprise. We came the day before to be able to
weigh ourselves with the official scales. I thought I was fighting
at 72 kg and in fact they put me at 157 pounds. Which is 71.2 kg in fact. And so there I have a pound and a half too much. Today I have to lose a kilo what. So it's okay, it's playable, but it adds pressure.
I thought I was fine at the weight, I was at 71.8 kg it was perfect.
And actually no. And the day before the fight, I was calm. I was serene because
I had given everything. Well, after the stress it
obviously started to rise because the fight and then
I found all my friends and I still had a lot at stake
on this fight. In addition to training,
I had to tell that. Every day I wrote
posts, I had two or three hours to sit down, get out my
computer, tell what was happening to me…
When every day, you receive messages,
from people who say: "yeah go -y for the fight it will do it and everything, yeah strength to
you!". It created a lot of expectations, plus anxiety with my family. My mom was terrified, so yeah, a lot of pressure to bear… but at the same time
I felt like I could. Tomorrow I will step into the ring. I'm going to fight in front of
hundreds of people, and I'm scared. I'm afraid of disappointing, I'm afraid of hurting myself, I'm afraid of not being up to it. It's a good sign ! That means I'm in the right place! It's because I've
rarely freaked out so much that tomorrow will be one of the
most important days of my life, win or lose. This moment, I deserved it. I will not escape it. Courage is not
braving danger without fear. Courage is being
afraid and going anyway. In truth, I'm very happy, because
I think that, Ulysses like me, we slept very well.
However, great stress. You wake up, you know you have the weigh-in, It's been 4 days that you really haven't eaten much to really be on weight and so you wake up with
a lump in your stomach in mode… I have to do the right weight. I scared the cat. – Slept well ? – Yeah yeah it's fine. I'm not going to accompany you,
I'm going to go back to sleep huh. – This morning I was answering the messages. I received hundreds of messages
on social networks. I never saw that. But really some… I just spent half an hour there and I didn't answer everyone. Lots of people I didn't know. People I haven't spoken to in 10 years. And lots of messages of encouragement, it's… it's phew we have France behind us there! Head to the weigh-in. We have an appointment at 7am. I'm just so
happy to tell myself that as soon as I weigh in I have my candy. I'm at that stage
of childishness you see.
I do my weighing, I go straight to the sugar. Eat normal but eat
what, eat a lot. The heavier the better. But you must not be without the evil you see. I'm wide below! – Shouldn't be too broad, but you're fine. I prefer that you are on top. – Yeah. I'm relieved, I'm at what weight. 156.3 for 157. So uh, we're good. First victory of the day, in fact. It doesn't seem like much, but
it's… we jump everywhere, we're super happy to make the weight.
It's our first victory of the day. And it's important to start there. I see my opponent and… and honestly, I'm not
impressed. On the other hand, we are next to complete the documents. And I didn't know him, I did
n't know his experience or anything. And when we fill out the documents,
we must indicate the number of fights we have had.
I say that it is my first, moreover which makes the person of the administration laugh enormously. And my adversary next door, who announces: ''
I have fought 50 fights, including 40 victories'' And I hear that next door,
finally I see the numbers written. Wow! What will happen to me?
He's a guy he… In 2 hours we have an appointment at the Phetch Buncha but there we are going to eat. It's the 3rd meal of the day, you have to take it back en masse, so that the kicks hurt more. – I'm a little stressed. [Laughs] – And look, he said ''
time to chill'' Valentin.
– Time to chill bro. – Well tell that to my body because he is ready! Here we are ! There, we have a small van in which
we will be embarked, in not long. And we're going to march through the city to bring people to the stadium. So there it is… 7 p.m. The evening begins at 9 p.m. And me, I should fight
around 10:30 p.m. I think. Yvann, a little before, 10 p.m. Well, the pressure is on! Ah, I can't wait, it's actually the worst moment.
It's the moment when you wait and… Although no, the worst moment will be when you're in
the stadium, you see the fights, and you wait. – Your first name is Ulysses, right? – Yes – From France? – Yes – This is your first fight in muay thai? – First time yes.
– How long have you been training? – Uh… 1 month. – Just 1 month? – Yes. – When did you train? – M19, Koh Phangan. – What is the name of your channel? You are a Youtuber, right? – Yes. – What is the name of your channel? – It's the same as my… It's Ulysse Lubin. So YouTube, Ulysse Lubin. – I hope luck
will be with you, and… – Thank you. – Good luck for this fight. – Are you from Canada? – Yeah. – French-speaking Canada or? – Uh, I lived in Quebec, but now I live in Alberta. Hello Mom I'm on TV! Hi ! – Coming soon to Netflix. – Maybe. – I'm number three. – Fight #3? – Yes. – But me too… – No, they've changed. – Ah OK . – But then… what? – So here, here. – This is the updated version. – Ok so I am fight n°6! – And you, Ulysses #7. They changed the order, so Yvann will fight in 6 and I in 7. More pressure? I had already prepared to fight last
so it's more for Yvann where things change. I arrive at the arena in the evening… terrified… stressed… I couldn't take my pre-fight nap. And there, we have the parade, and in fact
the parade saved me.
It's a great time! People were super smiling, the fighters here are little stars, so
everyone smiled at us, everyone said hello to us. And me, it did me a lot of good. It made me forget the fight a bit
. I had a great time! And it took the stress off me. It's a great moment the parade I found, a
unique moment, that I will remember all my life I think! When we arrive at the Stadium uh… for my part, I always get the shivers
of entering a stadium, I always like the effect, I love, I love this feeling.
Fear mixed with excitement. I think they got it just as strongly. For my part, I was confident, we were all confident, because we did a job. They deserved to… they deserved to get in the ring that day. – Are they all getting ready already? – We, since we're the last ones,
we prepare much later, you see. There we leave room for
others, we will prepare for the end. The event that is beginning is very special
because in fact it's been… the emotions, of course they are… at their peak in fact, we are really in states…
j actually made yo-yo states! I used to manage my breathing, get my heart rate down
, and I was doing pretty well. there were times when it went up and then I calmed down right away. there is the moment i was terrified
i see the fights, i see people losing when i thought they were going to win.
I see them go out in states, I say to myself but "What am I doing here what?" And actually what's very weird is that I was terrified the whole time when…
Actually I was away from my fight, and when I come prepared, so there's a whole phase of preparation where… we are put on the bandages, we put on the gloves,
we get ready, we put on the traditional outfit. And when I get to my chair, waiting for my fight, that's when I'm supposed to be the most
terrified, because right now I'm literally waiting…for my fight, and I don't know when. that he will start,
because it depends on the rounds of the previous fight.
And in fact I am surprisingly zen. In fact I'm resigned, let's say, it's not being zen, it's being resigned. It's a mode: Well now, you
can't run away anymore, you see. Now you go, you no longer have the right to be
afraid in fact, it's useless you see. And it's amazing, the moment
when I was calmer in the evening. The fight begins it's… I prepared myself, but it's very impressive. We're
in the middle of a ring, with someone I don't know. First round I'm very stressed, normal eh, first time
I find myself in a ring. I make a lot of mistakes. I was a little scared so
I wasn't decisive in my kicks. So instead of making them
go either too high or too low, I was putting them in the middle,
so I was hitting my opponent… in the middle zone shall we say. And so the fight progresses, we arrive at
round 2, I still make some mistakes. While Yvann was fighting, I
was confined to the toilets. So I was watching the fight from afar.
It was special, because
I saw my friend in the ring. And me at the same time, I had to
concentrate on my fight. I saw the friends
next door, yelling, etc. And there are times, when I couldn't
help myself, I would get up: "Come on, go!" It was… it was too strong for me. And there, there is round 3, click. I see that my opponent is mine, I feel it, he is tired, not me. Me, I've been prepared for a month.
If there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that I have the cardio, I'm prepared for that, and
I see in my opponent's eyes that he's tired.
And there, it clicked for me, I changed
my whole fighting style, I felt comfortable. I have more faults, my kicks go better. I'm more comfortable in my game, in the
fist. My opponent I feel cornered. And suddenly from round 3,
there is a small renewal. The fight actually starts, a
bit late, but the fight does. The thing is that I can type,
I can type, because… each round that passes, I take the ascendancy. Still I feel it, and I'm proud of myself for that,
but I can't knock him out, he's solid! And I know that in points, I'm not in advantage because I made
a lot of mistakes at the start.
I have to knock him out! Round 3, round 4, round 5. I
accelerate, I tire, but I accelerate. I couldn't knock him out. We are coming to the end of the 5th
round, I am super proud of myself! when it got to the end, I thought WOW! He lasted 5 rounds.
Yvann often says that he is afraid. And I can tell you that getting in this ring, against a Thai, in the biggest
stadium in southern Thailand, where there are a lot of legends who have fought here.
You have to have a hell of a pair! My biggest fear was not getting hurt. It
sounds crazy to say, but it wasn't to hurt me. It was to take a KO in round 1. I didn't do
a month of training to fall after 10 seconds. For me and for the others too, because mine,
it's silly to say, but we are filmed, there are our friends, we want to put on a show! We want to prove that we have
trained. We actually want to show. – And seeing Yvann do that, and hold on to the end… it inspired me. It gave me strength.
I said to myself
: "Okay he did it, I can do it too". There is the decision of the jury, which will determine who will be the winner. I lose, but I lose with dignity. I am very proud of my fight. I gave everything I had. I think I gave credit to my training,
and for me that was what was important. I went through hell during this
month, and I had to show it. I'm showing everything I've learned in the ring
, and I'm proud of my loss actually. Frankly, it's a joy
as I have rarely experienced I think! I jump everywhere, I'm super happy! On the other hand, very quickly I realize
that I am super happy, but I have my great friend Ulysse
who will fight right after me.
– And I didn't have much time to… process all this information,
because they called me directly. So I had to get into the thing, and
suddenly refocus on my fight. Well, there are the little rituals. Say hello, walk around, etc. And I heard all my
friends, who shouted: "Allez Ulysse!" etc I saw them, I heard them but I…
I was in my bubble,
I was in my world. I did skydiving. And I remember the first
time I parachuted. I had done half a day of
training. They explained to me a lot of signs, what did that mean in the air, because
you can't communicate when you're going at 300 km/h. And I remember the first
time I jumped out of a plane, the instructor was waving at me, and I was like "blblblbl".
I forgot everything, the brain disconnects it. Why did you jump out of a
plane at 4000 meters altitude? There is nothing going. It was a bit the same there. I hear Phet, I heard the coaches, I
remembered all the sparrings, all the combos that I knew, and then in fact when
you're there, the guy he had a guard… I don't know, she seemed perfect to me. I couldn't see, I didn't know what to do. I did not do my prettiest boxing what clearly. I know that I was messy etc, and I… I forgot the fact of doing the
gestures well, of turning the hips etc., of fully engaging, and what
remained was the instinct of survival…
And the desire to give the maximum. I took a little air conditioning
anyway from the start, because round 1 I took
a huge kick in the ribs, I really felt it passed,
it hurt me, and then I said to myself wow,
the fight started 15 seconds ago and
I can hardly breathe. It's going to be long, it's going to be complicated and I have to be careful,
I have to refocus. I had been warned that my
opponent was going into clinching and elbowing hard and so the first time
it happened I managed to dodge
at the last moment which saved me and I think
the points of suture. But I still felt it pass
and I said to myself: "Ah yes!" If I take myself a second time,
right in the head it's over I fall KO.
There was a style where he backtracked a lot. I was
advancing, he was sending me front kicks so that I could not
put my combos etc. He was calm in fact, I was the challenger,
it was up to me to go get him. In my head in fact, I just visualize his fight,
I'm not trying to put myself in his place. I just say to myself: "he gives everything, it's beautiful" and I admire his show
in fact, really I do not analyze anything in fact.
Just in mode: I encourage I encourage.
His opponent is tough. Round 2, round 3, round 4,
I feel like he's getting tired. I start to run into him,
he backs off, he backs off… and when I go too far "pam", I kick myself
in the ribs or in the back. Ah, it calms down! You think twice before going there. And then I said to myself ok, you have to…
You have no choice anyway if you go to the end, to the point, there is a better chance
that they will give it as a winner, so you have to that you try your luck
whatever you have to go, even if it means… taking a big
nudge and knocking yourself out. I went to the heart. I knew he was stronger than me. I was still moving forward. In the team, we were all calm, we all got the same thing: if they are
not afraid in the ring they can win. "No bread, no Mauy Thai" "Come on, Odysseus!" "Come on, you can do it!" It's crazy emotions in fact,
we shared all that together and there I see him concretize as he must have seen it before, you see, but I see him concretize his efforts
and I am extremely moved.
"Well done, Odysseus!" I lost and at the same time
I've never been so proud of myself. It was amazing! I had a feeling of fullness. I'm a very bad loser, I hate that, and at that moment when the jury
announced the victory of my opponent I don't know why
but I instantly accepted it. After the fight, Phet he gave me his
first compliment. He told me that when I arrived I was weak that I was scared and that today I had earned his
respect because I had fought with my heart. "No bread, no muay thai!" "No boom boom no baby" We lost but… Without losing our honor. For me the most important thing was
that they don't give up on the first try or fold.
Really they show what they had
in the heart and we did round by round. For me it was two magnificent fights. We didn't win and it doesn't matter,
the win was 0, it really didn't matter to me
whether they won or lost. It was more, that they hold, that they make
this test until the end. Lots of people said we were
reckless, that we were too crazy. And we proved them wrong.
We almost won. It's not gone far and I think I've
still passed a milestone of self-confidence. And it makes me want to go on
even crazier adventures. I arrived in this challenge
with all the fears in the world.
And in fact this challenge allowed me
to unlock so many things for me. That's an experience that I would tell
until my death in fact. I think if we're honest, it's the craziest thing
I've done in my life I think. We, with Phet and Bam, are
super proud of their work, both at Ulysse and Yvann. It was a great performance, he
showed us that they had heart and that's the most important thing
in muay thai. The result doesn't matter too much, it's
whether you have the heart or not because it's a sport,
it's basically an art, and it's something very important
in Thailand for the Thais. We don't want to waste
our time with people. Time is important for everyone. And there they did not
make him lose in this case. I am… I have the chills, you see when I tell you about it what it really is,
it was a great thing, it's an unforgettable experience.
That's
why people do boxing, for the memory,
for the memory, for the heart, for all that it
generates, to bring people back here. Their friends came as
before for me it could have been in the past
several times of the family came all that and… all that, you can't buy it. It has to be done. So you have to sweat first
to after reap the honor. I think there is nothing more beautiful than that. – Thank you anyway. – Bah, yeah, bah thank you guys
you were a great team! Everyone was pro and we all
gave everything we had to the maximum in us so that was the basis
of this experience I think, surpassing oneself
and I would like to thank Ulysse and Yvann and you for everything, everything we've shared, everything we've
been through, all the little moments outside muay thai and muay thai, all the little things we've been
able to give each other, everything that we were able to bring to each other
during this experience.
That's it guys thank you. Kop khun khrap.
(thank you in Thai).
