Bangtao mastermind Alex Schild open to ONE Championship submission grappling return, but fighting days are over – ‘I can’t be so selfish’
- Former ONE flyweight Schild says he now has an opportunity to change people’s lives at Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA gym
- Jiu jitsu coach ‘wouldn’t be doing right by our employees, friends and investors if I was so selfish to start fighting again’
It’s fair to say Alex Schild is the mastermind behind Bangtao Muay Thai & MMA, the new gym changing the game in the Southeast Asian fighting haven of Phuket.
Not that he would let you give him all the credit.
It was in September 2020, amid another wave of Covid-19 restrictions in Thailand, that Schild brought together his best friends and fellow coaches at Tiger Muay Thai – Frank and George Hickman, and Andrew Wood.
Having spent years turning Tiger into the premier facility along Chalong’s competitive “Fight Street”, he knew “now was the time” to launch their own gym.
“We are a team,” Schild stressed in an interview with the Post. “Not only are we all really good friends, but we all add a lot of value. I’m the jiu jitsu coach, Woody is strength and conditioning, Frank is wrestling, and George is MMA.
“I couldn’t have done it without them. This gym isn’t for myself, it’s for everybody. I didn’t put this together to say, ‘Look at me, look what I built.’ It could’ve been my idea or my plan, but my plan was to include my friends.”