By Mathew Scott
Bangkok’s famed Lumpinee Boxing Stadium can be an intimidating place at the best of times, given it’s the spiritual home of the ancient martial art of Muay Thai.
Situated on the outskirts of the Thai capital, it draws tens of thousands of the sport’s frenzied followers each week, to cheer on their heroes, to gamble, and to drink the night away. It’s the place where Muay Thai legends are made, across the rounds, and under the heat and sweat, the blood and toil.
People gather and watch in awe at the fights, and the courage shown, and then go back to their normal lives knowing, often, that they’ve come close to greatness.
But that wasn’t enough for Limassol-born Savvas Michael.
When he first caught a glimpse of Muay Thai, and he heard about Lumpinee, he wanted to get in there and get amongst it, as soon as he could.
“When I was about six years old at school there was a group who spoke English and I was over with the Greek side and we were the weaker of the two groups, and I didn’t like that,” Michael recalls.
“I was never really into football. I just didn’t like it. My dad had been into karate back in Canada so I tried a class but it wasn’t full contact so I didn’t like that either. One day we were at home watching kick boxing on TV and some Muay Thai came on. That’s the moment I knew. I saw it and I knew what I wanted to do.”
It’s worth remembering here, that Michael was just six years old at the time.
Michael is 21 now and has firmly established himself as one of the modern stars of Muay Thai, with multiple junior world titles, tournament victories inside Lumpinee and other mainstays of the sport, and a contract to fight with the Singapore ONE Championship, which bills itself as Asia’s largest combat sport promotion.
But one of the more remarkable aspects of Michael’s rise in the sport is that he always seemed to know exactly where he was going.
After learning the sport at the Lumpinee Gym in Limassol, Michael’s first trip to Thailand was for the 2012 WMF Junior World Championship back in 2012. He walked away with a gold medal and with proof, he thought, that his life was on the right track. When he got back home to Cyrpus he found his family was right behind him.
“When I was 13 my mum said if this is what you want to do with your life you have to do it fully,” says Michael. “You can’t be good at school and good at sports. You’re going to have to choose one and do it 100 per cent. So I chose Muay Thai.”
So for the next few years Michael’s daily routine would be an early run and training, school and enough work to ensure he could achieve a passing grade, and then back into the gym when the school day was done.
“Growing up in Limassol, I was obsessed, and I still am,” he says. “So I have always had a two close friends that understand that and they have always stuck beside me no matter what. They understand the sacrifice.
“I love fighting sports in general but to me Muay Thai is just the most beautiful of sports. It rings the ‘real’ out of you. Many people can act cool in public but when you put gloves on and get in the ring they are completely different people. It’s just real. You know a gorilla when they get angry about something, they fight. It’s just something we have been doing forever.”
Michael moved to Bangkok at 18, as soon as school was finished, looking to build on the seven World Muay Thai Federation titles he’d collected. He’d turned professional at 14 and is now training out of the famed Petchyindee Academy, already having claimed the 2019 WBC Muay Thai World Lightweight Championship, while establishing himself among the top-10 ranked fighters in that division, and becoming known as the ‘Baby Face Killer.’
The ONE organisation has in the past two years signed some of Muay Thai’s all-time greats, among them the strawweight Sam-A Gaiyanghadao, with an all-time record of 369-47-9. Michael’s overall record sits at 42 wins and four defeats and he is heading back home to Cyprus this week to catch up with family and with friends. But, as always, it seems, he knows exactly where his life is headed.
“The first time I fought at Lumpinee it just felt so natural,” he says. “I just knew that was where I wanted to be. It’s kinda crazy but I actually sniffed the ground. I looked around the stadium and took in all the sights I saw when I was young, dreaming of being in there. It was almost like I had been there before.
“It’s been tough, with ONE, and I am 1-2. It’s a completely different world. But I am only 21. I am just taking it day to day. Of course, my goals are big – always. I believe I can compete against these great names in the sport but I need to change some things. But I do feel I can mix it up with the best there is.”
