PREVIOUSLY IN AMATEUR I’m in northern Thailand. I came here to discover a culture
through its iconic sport, Thai boxing. I have 7 days to train before stepping up to the challenge
of fighting for the first time, on this ring. No… I’m not ready,
I’m going to get my face smashed in 5 days. ONE SPORT, ONE COUNTRY AMATEUR 5 DAYS BEFORE THE FIGHT I’m broken all over. I didn’t get much sleep because my back hurts,
my neck hurts, my abs hurt. I try to laugh it off
but my body’s never hurt so much. It proves I’m definitely not ready and if I don’t want to get my face smashed in,
I don’t have a choice. The training is getting more and more intense,
especially the hand-to-hand. He told me that in hand-to-hand combat,
if you’re near your opponent, then you have to stick as close to him as possible to avoid knee strikes. And to be able to do a knee
or elbow strike yourself, you have to have the upper hand. The one who has the upper hand is inevitably
the one who has both his hands behind the neck.
So my hands have to reach out and grasp each other
to always be behind the neck and control it. I understand that I haven’t even discovered
3 percent of this sport yet. I’m so scared that I need to be by myself. Giving up is out of the question. I didn’t come here
to become a Muay Thai professional. I came to live an adventure,
I try to put it all in perspective.
I’m not here to get a medal. I used to see him only as someone
who gave me a hard time, but now he’s letting me crack his shell
because Mister Bee has got a tough shell. It’s my first time in the ring. It's very symbolic. The trainings go by and the more they go by,
the more my muscles hurt, the more I hurt, the more I feel the pain,
but the more I resist. I’m hurting all over.
Fuck! I’m struggling to put on a brave face. They make me have another abs session. They hit again and again. Mister Bee is on my right, Tree is on my left. They shout and shout and shout. And at the end I grab Bee’s arm,
I grab Tree’s waist and they hit and hit again and I know I’m going to resist. Fuck I’m happy, I’m happy. I feel like I’m moving up the ladder. My cue is the shower, actually. Yesterday I broke down in the shower
and now I’m going to have one just to feel good. I’m happy. I’m happy. It sounds silly but I’m going to have a shower
and it makes me happy.
I’m starting to really understand
Mister Bee’s learning methods. They’re rough. When he explains that when he was little
his father would slap him and that he now slaps his kids
so that they can learn, well I realise that he has
this paternalistic side to him and I’m touched and I want to prove something to him. I’m going to the jungle tomorrow? With you? What’s the jungle? Where is it? 4 DAYS BEFORE THE FIGHT IN THE NEXT EPISODE We’re almost there. You can break a jaw, break a nose, break a forehead. I’m going to get smashed….
