MMA in Malaysia, The Sport of a New Generation

The bell rings, and Malaysian national san da team member Raymond Tiew flies out of his corner, ready to do battle. His opponent, Kong Ravy is a Khmer Bokator fighter, probably the first Cambodian to ever fight in Malaysia. Ravy throws a flying knee technique, better than any Tony Jaa movie, because it was real. [...]

Fighting Fit at K-1 Fight Factory

On day six of training, with two K-1 Fight Factory instructors pushing me, I broke my personal record, 10 sets of Randy Couture speed weightlifting routine, each in just under a minute. On the first day, my average had been two minutes. These are the kinds of insane results you can get training three times [...]

Vo Thai Lan in Saigon

My first experience, training with a Vietnamese boxing and Muay Thai team didn’t workout very well. A bigger boy picked on me, and smashed my innards into jelly. After it didn’t hurt to pee or think anymore, I began looking for a new place to train. Luckily, my Vietnamese teacher found me a Muay Thai [...]

Brooklyn Monk in Asia: Fight Night Malaysia (Parts 1 & 2)

In Kuala Lumpur, Antonio Graceffo covers two nights of professional fighting, including Muay Thai, boxing, Kyokushin, and MMA. In this multipart series, you will see trainers and fighters previously featured in episodes of Martial Arts Odyssey, including: Alex, of Alex Gym (Boxing), Michael Ding, head of Kyokushin Malaysia, and Kirsty Leigh, of Kirsty’s Muay Thai [...]

Boxing in Cholon, 2011 (Part 1) – Muay Thai Comes to Vietnam

I’ve had martial arts teachers yell at me in Chinese, Thai, Khmer, Korean, and now, Vietnamese. You’ve NEVER been yelled at, till you’ve been yelled at in Korean. Somehow, I picture getting yelled at in Japanese as being even worse, blood-chilling. Getting yelled at in Vietnamese, however, is just confusing. The language sounds like they’re [...]

Antonio Graceffo on Samantha Brown’s Asia

Samantha Brown has been traveling the world for years on are various Travel Channel Series. In this episode, she comes to Fairtex Bangkok, where she learns some basic Muay Thai from Brooklyn Monk, Antonio Graceffo. Next, Antonio translates while Samantha gets a lesson from Kru Apidae, the living legend of Muay Thai. Now you’ll know [...]

Sport Battles Effectiveness By Antonio Graceffo

Back in the 1970s when I began kickboxing, I had to explain to people what that sport was. They couldn’t grasp the concept of boxing which included kicks. I remember my father’s friend telling me, “You can’t kick in a boxing match! They are going to disqualify you.” Chuck Norris was being hailed as an [...]