Doing it purely out of love. Cause I am not going to do a
fitness class, I don’t give a f*ck about that. I love Thai boxing. I'm going to teach Thai boxing
and that’s it. I am Lewis Taylor and I'm a head coach
at Minotaur Gym. I got into Muay Thai, so my dad
was the original owner of the gym. So Minotaur Gym
is officially like established in 1994. My dad taught like eight years
prior to that, so the gym is almost 30 years old.
It's more like
almost 40. I grew up in the gym, like my
dad would take me to the gym when I was like 3 years old My mum would train as well
so I would sit in like my little pram, yeah yeah. And I will just be in the gym Be in Thailand, wearing my little
Thai boxing shorts being in the stadium going ay, ay like. That’s how I got into Thai boxing,
I was just always there I am just lucky enough where
I never fell out of love with it. That’s literally how I got into it.
Just sort of, always in it. It’s actually not that hard. It's not that hard. My favourite memory of Thai boxing,
so if we say all of Thai boxing, fights, training a lot, it was
I was 18 years old. So basically a Thai, a Thai came over here and fought one
of the top UK fighters and basically the trainer f*cked off and left him.
Getting drunk and just didn't
help him at all for the fight. The Thai still won. But my
mum used to like be the official for like the WMC, to come over to the UK. So anyway, we looked after this Thai for two
three days and he spoke good English. I ended up looking after him for a bit
while he was here. I kept in contact for a year.
I went to Bangkok when I was 18
and I was going to train at M&A gym. and I told him and he was like ah
come meet up with me. So I was like yeah, gone met up with him. Told him what I was going to do. He was like, I want you to live with me
cause I was there for a month. I want you to live with me for a month. I don't want you to pay anything. I want to take you up my gym. His gym is in the middle of nowhere,
like 3 hours outside Bangkok.
Literally in the middle of a farmer's field. Acres on acres, it was crazy. I didn't know this at this time. For whatever reason. I’ve only known this guy for like three days &
just speaking to him for like a year and I thought it just felt right and I went
yeah I'm going to do it. Didn’t go to M&A Gym Just lived with him for a month. and that changed my life like completely. That changed my life completely. I lived in like a Not even a concrete floor, it was like a cold tile floor, mattress on the floor. The door was held up by a stick. Like I could actually see through the shame. Literally imagine. Imagine a stick with a door nailed in. and you can look through the cracks, outside the
cracks is fields. I mean, this village was just like
no foreigners. I'm living with his uncle with like 30 dogs. You know like people been to Thailand. Like you see like little souvenirs
this factory I lived on, like made the souvenirs.
It was insane, we would eat on the floor. They would all cook outside and they treated me like I was family
because I helped look after him. It was insane. These guys didn't owe me anything. I tried giving them money. They didn’t want no money off me. It was just like it completely changed
my aspect of life. I think I just got my first job in London
as well or was just before. I think it was just before I was still
at uni at the time. But your at that age, your 18, 19 years old. You like designer
clothes, I was driving a nice car. and I'm in this gym. It was literally held up by a stick,
a metal tin hut. The boys, this size of this room.
This must be a 16 foot ring.
About 15/12 Thai boys lived in a shed. It was literally a shed. And they would walk out and there's the gym and I'm like, and these guys, like,
they didn't know me. I would go to the gym and they're like my Thai friend would
tell me he's going to train here. They didn't know me. They just basically just rag dolled me
around the clinch all day.
Didn’t speak for 2 to 3 days, but
they could see I was very dedicated and it's just they welcome me to the family. So his family welcomed me in and this gym
welcomed me in. They had one Lumpinee champion there. Who just beat Superlek at the time,
this is what, ten years ago. It was insane. And they just it was just like I'm looking at it and I'm like this is literally so raw.
So simple and these are the happiest
people I’ve ever met. And their work ethic is insane
because they have to It’s mad. And I'm like, wow. Like that's my most
favourite memory of Thai boxing because 1) I’ve learned loads from there. In the deep end, First foreigner ever to go to this gym They loved the fact that I was so passionate and keen. And I came back and was like sold my car sold all my nice clothes. From that moment onwards,
I'm going to keep it simple from that basis that moment
onwards I knew All I needed was something I enjoy which is Thai boxing
and just be surrounded by good people. As cheesy as it is,
that is the fact of it. That is my favourite memory of Thai boxing.
Changed your whole perspective. Changed my whole perspective of everything yeah. So that's my favourite memory. That's what Thai boxing taught me from 18-19. It must have been. That's like a age as well. You get easily influenced. Exactly. Cause you say
before you worked in London, so if you go there. That's the thing. So after that, I went into London. And I'm there and they are throwing money at me and
when I say throwing money at me, you know, work hard, work a bit late,
we will take you out for drinks.
Everyone was doing drugs. I am like nope,
I got the gym. I want to be at the gym. I want to go home to my girlfriend,
who I'm with now whos now my fiancé. Do you know what I mean,
I've been with her since I was 15 years old. Like these guys in London, they didn’t want to go home to their families, they are
cheating on their wives they are doing drugs, its horrendous. And I'm there like no, I know what I want to do, I know I want to be around with
good people, my good friends at the gym.
My now fiancé. I want to do something I enjoy Thai boxing and I just kept like that. That's why I still go to Thailand
and that's why I go to Thailand every year prior to COVID. It keeps giving me a reminder. I purposefully go there I purposefully take the smallest bag possible
with the most minimal amount of clothes. For that reason. Its a weird difference that you're here
you have like all your shoes and stuff. But all you need flip flops.
Flip flops and a vest and some shorts. It’s fantastic. Some hand wraps and some gloves. And your happy,
everyone's happy. When I was sparring in Thailand. Like they all play spar, their spar is so sharp, controlled. I am sparring in 10 ounce gloves,
sparring with no gum shield. Sparring with just like some basic shin pads. Can't do that over here cause Well over here in this gym, you can. But most gyms you can’t, they go too hard. But over there like, they are best fighters in the world. They are so playful and respectful but like. What I love about it is it’s the no ego. It's the no egos. It’s the no I don't need all these
nice things to define who I am. That's my best memory
of Thai boxing outside of all the title wins and all that sort of stuff in my fights init. Next question was literally going to be how
did Muay Thai change your life but you basically answered it.
That's how it changed my life. I’ve never been an egotistical person,
never been a materialistic person. It just really grounded me for like what I truly know what I need to what I need to achieve to be happy. What separates
the good fighters from the great fighters? It’s the most simplest answer. And it's the hardest to achieve. It's just drive and passion, consistency. That's literally it. you know like you say,
hard work beats talent That’s basically what it is. The hard work Stay motivated and Passion is what makes a difference because I look at it like this. a very like talented fighter is like a very fast car It’s a fast car with no petrol the average Joe,
the average car with a full tank petrol would always go futher than the fast car
with less petrol. Does that make sense? and that petrol represents
the passion, the drive that's all it is if you can just stay consistent.
I say to people all the time like say the best guys in my current gym
and you see a lot of the Brandon's, the Salah, the Dan’s. The only difference is
these guys never fell off the wagon. They stay consistent,
when they are having an off day. They still train. When they're feeling down,
they still train. They do. They powered through the good and the bad, like they powered through the bad days
and rode the good days. That’s it. Most people nowadays,
they want this quick fix. There is no quick fix. If you're naturaly talented
and you've got the passion, you will probably get there
a bit quicker than the average Joe. But the average Joe can still get there with
that same amount of passion.
It's just time over drive,
you know what I mean? That's literally it and
time will tell, that's it. I know some guys that hit their peaks
at 35, there's some guys that hit their peaks at 27. They both still hit their peaks. Do you know what I mean?
This is another great example like. Some fighters will lose three fights in a row and like ah, I don't think I can do this anymore. Some of the best fighters in the world
like Nong-o Nong-o is the best fighter in the world
right now People don’t talk about when he lost like a year
and a half straight, nine fights straight Lumpinee and Rajadamnern. No one talks about that because time always tells,
look where he is now. or say a UK fighter. The best probably examples I
can think of at the top of my head right now is Charlie Peters. He went through a losing streak. After that, he beat Liam Harrison. Who was UK No.1, he pursued his dream.
That’s passion and drive. Do you know what I mean? Time and passion is all you need basically. That's the defining difference
between great and good fighters. I think you answered this already. But what is the most important thing
you've learnt in Thai boxing that you apply in your everyday life? So many answers to that one. So what is the most probably similar to that one like with hard work and consistency. If I know I can do something and I can apply
the hard work I know I can achieve it. I don't know when, I just know I can. I always say this, if you can be successful fighter. you can do anything
because it's f*cking horrible. It’s hard work. The early morning run, your basically
doing a bunch of things you don't want to do,
but you know you have to do.
And having that mindset of doing
something, you know that’s right doesn't mean Doing something that’s right isn't the same as doing something you want to do. Do I make sense? So that discipline, you can take that anywhere. Running a business, successful
relationship, grinding through the bad days, you know what I mean,
life’s all about waves, up and down, up and down. If you can train for hard fights
and battle controversy, that you can take that anywhere you want. In training or like even in a fight. How important is emotional control? It's the biggest thing. It’s the biggest thing
because again, emotion is doing something you want to do But doing something you want to do is not always the right thing. Like sometimes when you
feel like you're losing you just want to grit your teeth and bang, that's what most people want to do.
But sometimes if you're losing you got to understand why you are losing, if someone's walking you down, sometimes standing
and trying to bang will actually make you increase your chance of
getting knocked out, right? Because you are emotional where if you listen to your trainer and they're saying listen like
he is walking forward, move off, score, move off, score. Stay strong, move off, score. That's what you should do. You got to be emotional. Don't be emotional in a bad way. Be emotional in a good way and identify
where you need to improve. Yeah. So it's probably the No.1 factor like, you know, like
you got to be able to adapt to the situation. The only way you can do
that is with your emotions. So yeah, it's so important. So important, probably yeah number one emotional control.
So someone's like,
I don't know, angry in the ring. Yeah, you can't get frustrated. You got to look at like
there is a job to do. What do I need to do,
to do the best job possible? Work smarter, not harder right? Think smarter. Not harder. Yeah. I think a great coach is being selfless. I say this all the time. You can't be a great coach
and a great fighter. People try argue with me, nah. You can’t. To be a fighter. You got to be selfish. To be a coach. You got to be selfless. It's not about me. It's about what I can give to them. They’re completely two contradicting roles and that's why I don’t fight anymore. I get the bug all the time. But I know I love coaching
more than I ever did fighting. I love how much I can give
to my guys. To be selfless. I can't think What would I do? It’s about what they should do.
What can they do? How can I make them better off with my experiences. What my knowledge, not make them better for what I would do. Basically without going into too much detail the less selfish the coach, the better the coach I think. And also you got to have knowledge
and experience stuff as well but if you ain’t got experience or knowledge,
you shouldn’t be coaching. If you got that experience and that knowledge. Be selfless. It's about them, not me. As a coach, my job is to help them achieve their goals. Better at Thai boxing, better at fighting,
even better at life. That's my job, do you know what I mean? The less selfish the coach,
the better the coach I think. Some coaches are like,
you can tell, some coaches are like, look at me,
look who I train or look at how much of a great pad man I am. Are you doing it for you
or doing it for the fighter? Are you doing this amazing
combination for your Instagram post or are you doing this
because that's what will help them win future fights and whatever.
Do what's good for them, not for me. What is your main piece of advice
for people that train and want to take that next step of competing? Chasing the better version of yourself. Be honest with yourself, be honest. Look at yourself in the mirror, close your eyes
whatever you need to do and go. What can I be doing better? Like use your common sense. We all know where we can improve. You just got to be honest to yourself
to identify what you need to. Do that, chase it. That's probably the best thing you can do. More sparring, more pad work. All obviously. When you get told a 100 kicks. Are you really doing 70
good kicks and 30 lazy ones or are you doing the runs outside the gym.
Are you eating well? All them little bits you know work on the glue that holds everything together. Not just the obvious things
like turning up. Just cause you come to train doesn’t
mean you get good. Turning up and wanting to get
good, will make you good. They say what they say
is they say Repetitiveness creates
good technique or what’s it. Repetition breeds good technique. No, no, no. Good repetition. breeds good habits. You can repeat stuff shit, right? My first PT with you like you was saying you can turn up,
keep turning up. But you have to turn up. And I want to do well. Just because I am in the gym,
I am going to get better. No. Good repetition creates good habits.
Bad repetition creates bad habits. Does that make sense? So, yeah. If you want to take that next level to compete. Do the extra work in, the work
you don't always want to do. But you know you should do. Outside the gym
because obviously you've got. It’s hard yeah. Look at me like I'm not
saying I'm perfect, I'm definitely not. But I worked in a,
I work for the biggest biggest fit out company in London, very demanding. I would have to get into work at 7. Start the work early and probably
get home at half 7-8. It’s almost 12 other days outside traveling. I would still get up at 4. I would do my running for
my own training and I’ve got to remember like and then I'll come home at 7,
half 7. Either run the classes or I would organise
personal one to ones for my fights. So by the time I even sat down and said hello to my
girlfriend at the time, well now my fiancé.
It'd be 9:00 like Do you see what I mean so Do you want to sacrifice to achieve
what you want or not? Just be honest yourself. If you can't be bothered to
do the extra bit. Fine, but don't compete. Just be honest yourself. You do. Put the work in. That’s it really..
