Muay Thai champion Kwok Hoi-ling from Hong Kong finds learning to never give up is the sport’s biggest prize
- The 25-year-old only took up the sport as a teenager to lose weight, but now has at least five major titles
- Kwok hopes to add to the tally at next month’s world championships in Thailand
At a boxing gym in Prince Edward, Hong Kong’s Muay Thai women’s boxing champion Kwok Hoi-ling sweats from pounding a punch bag, as she prepares for her next title bid at July’s world championships in Thailand.
Kwok, 25, has been practising the combat sport, also known as Thai boxing, for about 10 years. She is the three-time Hong Kong 51kg Muay Thai Champion and two-time WMC I-1 51kg Asian Champion.
From the initial goal of losing weight to becoming a top class professional with 10 gold belts under her name, she finds in the sport something even more priceless.
“I used to give up easily on everything, but Muay Thai has taught me to be persistent and keep going whatever the difficulties are,” she says.
Muay Thai has boomed in popularity as a fitness sport in Hong Kong in recent years.
Unique among other forms of kick-boxing, it allows elbows, knees, clinch fighting, throws, sweeps and low kicks.
Because of its high intensity, many people practise it to keep fit, stay trim or relieve stress.
Despite her lean figure – 161cm tall and weighing 53kg – Kwok started learning Muay Thai at 16 to lose weight, never thinking of making it her profession.
Before finding her passion, Kwok was a lost teenager. Being energetic and sporty, she says she was never interested in studying, and her impulsive personality sometimes got her into trouble in school.
She dropped out of secondary school in Form Five. After leaving school, she spent more time practising Muay Thai at the gym, but at first she did not take it seriously and it was simply a way of killing time.
At home, she turned a deaf ear to her parents’ calls for her to return to studying or find a job.
But thanks to her coach, to whom she always feels grateful, she pulled herself together and became devoted to something for the first time in her life – Muay Thai boxing.
“I remember one day the coach gave me three options – go back to school, find a job or take boxing seriously. I chose boxing,” she says.
Ray Or, head coach of Ray’s Muaythai and Fitness Gym, has been coaching Kwok for 10 years.
He sees how the passion for Muay Thai has turned the frustrated teenager into a boxing champion, with her biggest advantage over rivals being the speed at which is able to land punches on an opponent.
“At first, she was half-hearted with no objectives. She didn’t know what she wanted. But since she found an interest in Muay Thai, she has been focused and hardworking,” says Or, who is also the coach and manager of the Hong Kong Muay Thai Team.
Most people train in Muay Thai to keep fit and only a few who are passionate and devoted become professional boxers, according to Or.
Young Hongkongers find new life after gangs at Muay Thai classes
Kwok, who started fighting in domestic and international competitions after three years in the sport, is one of them.
A quiet person in daily life, and not a big fan of crowds, she likes playing with her two Shiba Inu dogs at home in Sai Kung.
But once in the boxing ring, her intensity and competitiveness comes to the fore. For her, the appeal of Muay Thai lies in the thrill of combat.
“You never know what the next move your opponent would make – that is thrilling,” she says.
