The Word of Ward

Somrak stands next to an earlier likeness in his gym

Somrak Kamsing (also known as Somluck) has achieved a lot in his 34 years. He has been a Muay Thai champion, an actor, a musician, Olympic gold medallist boxer, and now co-host for ‘The Contender Muay Thai’ – the Thailand based version of the popular ‘Contender’ TV show. I went to interview him at his training camp on Nawamin road, Bangkok.

            Accompanied by the slightly intimidating sounds of men hitting each other, I ask Somrack how his career began. “When I was seven my dad, himself an ex-fighter, came to school early and took me away. I was excited because I simply thought that I was leaving early.” He was wrong. His father was taking him to fight a child of similar age in a nearby village. According to the rules, if no one was knocked out in three rounds then it was a tie. “I was scared,” Somrack says, “I had never fought before. I planned to simply run around the ring until it was a tie.” Somrack had seen Muay Thai on the television and before the bout imitated the pre-fight rituals (known as Wai Kru) that he had seen. “When the fight started I just copied what I had seen on television and to my surprise found that I constantly had the advantage and was winning.” The fight eventually ended in a tie but the judges were so impressed by his pre-fight rituals he won a trophy for ‘best ceremony’. “It was my first trophy,” Somraks says, smiling.

            The next morning he got an offer to join a gym and his Muay Thai career had started. As he grew bigger, so did the level of his fights. He won at village level, then province, then his region, until, at the age of 14, he found himself in Bangkok. His school was extremely keen on both Muay Thai and boxing and there were several inter-school competitions. “I kept fighting and kept winning,” Somrack remembers. He then started to box. He was asked to represent his school as a boxer and had the misfortune of being drawn against a professional. He lost. “It was the first time I had ever been knocked out and I felt like crying. I focused more on Muay Thai and less on boxing after that.”

            He won numerous fights at Ratchadamnoan stadium throughout the remainder of his schooling. Then he decided to return to boxing and entered the inter-province boxing championship as a complete unknown. Much to everyone’s surprise, he won. He kept boxing and kept winning and his fame and popularity grew. He was asked to represent his country at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. He fought well but was defeated by the host nation’s champion.  

His loss spurred him on and he trained harder than ever. His next

Somrak v Deiski

 international competition was at the Asian Games. This time he was successful and was the only Thai to get a gold medal. He then managed to top this achievement by being the first Thai to ever win an Olympic gold when he defeated all comers in the flyweight division at 1996 games in Atlanta. “I knew I was going to win at Atlanta. I had already defeated every one of my opponents except for the Bulgarian I faced in the final. Although the Bulgarian had defeated me before, I knew I would beat him after all my training. I was very confident.” His popularity, already high, now skyrocketed. He became a national hero.

Somrak was then asked to appear in a Thai soap opera that was about Muay Thai fighters set in olden times. “After Atlanta I started to get more into the entertainment business. I did not train as hard after that.” Consequently, his outings at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic games were not as successful.

He not only acted in the soap. He also became a pop singer and released two solo albums and one collaboration album with two other boxers. One of his fellow musicians was Khaosai Galaxy, the famous professional boxer. In 2003 and 2004 he also acted in three movies, one of them, ‘Kerd ma lui’ (aka Born to fight), with Chinese action star Jet Li. His scene was deleted in the international release but a special version including the scene was released in Thailand. His other two film credits were in the movies Lhorn (aka Soul), and Kohn sang pea (aka Ghost Delivery).

Fighting still held interest for him however. “I opened my Muay Thai training camp about four or five years ago,” he says gesturing behind him at the ring and the fighters. “I have also started to promote fighting demonstrations.” He now has about 20 fighters and adds: “Last month I had around 15 Westerners joining to train here.”

His latest career project is to be co-host of “The Contender Muay Thai,” along with Mexican American Alfonso Gomez, a light-middle-weight boxer. “It is a good project for me, I felt very happy to be asked,” he says. “It is an interesting project and chance to mix Muay Thai with entertainment that will reach an international market. It is also a good promotion for my gym.” Keep an eye out for the show, it should prove addictive viewing.

If anyone is interested in training at Somrak’s gym, the contact number is: +66 (0)816411953. It is located on Niwamin Soi 95, Bangkok.

The next generation in training