Muay Thai fight couple’s non-profit gym gives sense of purpose to Thai village children
Husband-and-wife former pro fighters have dedicated their lives to giving refuge, training and hope to poor and often parentless children in rural northeast Thailand, their gym supported by regular donations
Muay Thai led Frances Watthanaya into a backstreet Bangkok gym when she was 19 years old, and it led her to the love of her life.
“I never believed in that kind of stuff, but I remember seeing him skipping rope and that was it. I was in love,” says Watthanaya of the man who would become her husband, Boom Watthanaya. “Muay Thai trainers are very good with feeling energies, and they all picked up on it straight away.”
The couple were soon married, and after both fought professionally on Thailand’s regional circuits, they spent an extended period in Watthanaya’s native Canada, where she finished a Bachelor of Arts degree in South East Asian Studies, and their daughter Parvati was born.
But Thailand – and Muay Thai – kept calling.
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Watthanaya had first started training in Muay Thai as a frustrated teen in the small Canadian town of Rossland, British Columbia (population: 3,500), in which she was raised. The martial art – a national treasure in Thailand – had given her life structure, as well as developing her sense of worth and purpose, and it had led to an opportunity to become a full-time professional fighter. Hence Watthanaya had found herself in that Bangkok gym after buying herself a one-way ticket.