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Tennis star Murray to make Muay Thai bow
By Mark Pickering | September 14, 2006
Teenage tennis sensation Andy Murray will leave the baseline and enter the squared circle when he competes in the Thailand Open this month.
The British number one will don a weighty set of boxing gloves and combat attire in exhibition Muay Thai bouts against two of the sport’s finest combatants.
Unperturbed by a challenge, the 19-year-old is set to battle acclaimed veteran Khaosai Galaxy, whose fondly dubbed ‘Thai’s Tyson’ and former amateur boxer Somluck Kamsing, who become a national hero by winning Thailand’s first Olympic gold medal in 1996.
Somluck, now a Thai film star and singer, offered some words of inspiration for the plucky Brit.
“He has to learn to fight first, so I’ll go easy on him,” Somluck declared.
“But tennis player or boxer, I won’t be letting him win.”
Muay Thai, now witnessed worldwide as a staple discipline in the world of mixed martial arts, permits kicking, kneeing and elbowing, in addition to punching.
Murray, who’s reached a career high world number 16 under the tutelage of new coach Brad Gilbert, makes his Muay Thai bow after his first round opener in Bangkok.
The Thailand Open runs from September 25th to October 1st.
Topics: All Topics, Mark Pickering, MMA, UK | 4 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Don’t forget that Khaosai Galaxy is also a 1999 IBHOF inductee (although I personally am not that big a fan of his induction).
I thought this was going to be a joke! Should be a good laugh 🙂
Galaxy?! Wans’t he and his brother boxers from the 1980’s?
Yes, Khaosai was the WBA Junior Bantamweight Champion and Khaokor was the WBA Bantamweight Champion in the 80s.