Thailand’s national sport of Muay Thai boxing is the latest sports craze to sweep the island, with the help of champion fighter and trainer Chris Nicolaou from Paphos. Thai boxing for 15 years, Nicolaou has his own training camp.
His aim is to produce a winning Cyprus team of professional fighters and raise the profile of the sport on the island. With over 50 members, he has honed the skills of 12 men of various nationalities who represent Cyprus at European and international levels.
“I started Thai boxing after watching it on TV and I felt passionately that it was something I wanted to do. The sport hadn’t reached Cyprus then, so I moved to New York in 1997 and trained in Minaos gym with a Moroccan trainer”.
The Paphos fighter then moved to Greece to continue his training, before visiting the sport’s home in Thailand. “I have now been to Thailand 11 times and I train in Pattaya in Sit Yodthong Thai boxing camp. This is a famous camp and has produced the most champions in Thailand over many years”. His dream though was to set up his own gym, and Paphos Thai Boxing Camp was established in 2001.
Nicolaou has won many competitions, and of his 59 professional fights has lost only about 11. “I think I’m quite good,” he laughed. Nicolaou is a charismatic man and although he has the spirit of a fighter, he has a calm and focused approach to life. “This is as important as training itself,” he said.
Muay Thai is known to be a ‘hard’ martial art and bears many similarities to Indochinese types of kickboxing. The term ‘muay Thai’ has its origins in Sanskrit and as it involves the use of punches, kicks, elbows and knees, using eight points of contact it is often called the art of eight limbs. Muay Thai evolved from a traditional form of boxing – muay boran – and many believe this originated as unarmed combat among Siamese soldiers after they had lost their weapons during battles.
Among Nicolaou’s titles are the WKN title, the European title at 82kg, the Mediterranean title at 81kg and the European federation kickboxing title at 85kg. “My next fight is in Greece at the beginning of April and it’s for a world championship title”.
Prior to that, his team of fighters will be competing in Limassol next weekend in a professional competition. Participants in the Cyprus Cup will also come from Lebanon, the UK and elsewhere.
One of Nicolaou’s star fighters, 21-year-old Artur from Georgia, will be fighting a world champion opponent from Poland at the upcoming Limassol event. The talented young fighter won his last event a month ago with a knock out. “If he trains well, he can do a lot of things and will go far,” Nicolaou said.
Artur has been living in Cyprus since he was 14 and has been fighting for the past three. “My dream is to be the best. So far, I have had 12 fights and won 10.” For this level of accomplishment he trains every day.
“My aim now is for the guys who are fighting for my team to win all the fights. I don’t like to lose but it is part of the game,” Nicolaou said.
And his enthusiasm for the sport seems to have caught on. “There is no other sport like Muay Thai. I have been into sports all of my life and used to do weight training and body building,” one team member said. The 30-year-old was working as a barman in Paphos when he saw the venue’s diminutive doorman, also a muay thai boxer, deal with three trouble makers twice his size with no problem.
“I’ve never seen anything like it before, all three guys ended up on the floor,” he said. “I thought I was quite fit and tough, but you don’t understand what tough is until you try to train as we do. It’s gruelling and you push your body and mind to the limits. It’s a very intense sport, and it’s not about aggression but about respect and focus.”
There are fundamental and obvious differences between regular boxing and Thai boxing. In boxing only the hands are used, while in Thai boxing knees, elbows, kicks, and punches, are all employed. “As you can imagine, the level of difficulty is much higher in muay thai,” he pointed out.
Nicolaou added, “you must have a lot of stamina and you must train hard. We are fighting mainly for knockouts. The sport also involves point scoring, but all the fighters are going for a knockout.”
Cyprus Cup
Neo Fiesta function centre, Limassol, march 27. Entrance €20. Doors open at 19.00.For info, Tel: 99 696035
