KO Victory at the King's Birthday World Championships

Latest Update: At the World Professional Muay Thai Federation championships, Vince Soberano Kaewsamrit KO'd his Thai opponent with a devastating left hook and elbow in the 3rd round. This event was held to honor the King of Thailand on his 80th birthday, Dec. 5, 2007. More than 60,000 spectators attended the 2-day fight marathon, with fighters from 50 different countries competing in the most prestigious international event of the year in Muay Thai. Coming from his recent wins in Thailand this year, Vince is the first and only Filipino-American to fight and win at both the Queen's and the King's Birthday on the same year here in Bangkok.

China Daily Recognizes Beijing's Top Muay Thai School

CHINA DAILY / Page 18

A one-two punch

By Jeremy Hartley for China Daily
Updated: 2007-09-13 07:1

The two fighters circle one another, testing the distance with jabs and low-slung kicks, aimed at the knee and ribs. Without warning, one combatant charges, and in a flurry of fists and grasping hands, the two grapple their way toward the choke or excruciating arm-bar that will end the fight.

Within seconds one is on his back, the other sitting astride him aiming punches at his nose and mouth. When they finally break, the fighter on the ground slowly rolls to his knees.

"If he gets up like that again, kick him in the face," says Professor Chet Quint, a bull-necked black belt in Brazilian Ju Jitsu (BJJ).

The combatants chuckle as they catch their breath.

"I'm serious," adds Quint. "He knows better than to get up like that."

Scenes like this are common at Beijing's Black Tiger Academy, home to what its owners describe as China's most authentic experiences with BJJ, muay Thai (Thai boxing) and Mixed Martial Arts, the system that blends the two together. Every night and weekend at the school's ninth floor space in Jianwai SOHO, paying students from China and beyond learn the world's most bone-cracking fighting styles. It is a testament to the interest in these arts that Black Tiger Academy draws such a crowd, even in the country with arguably the world's most rich and celebrated martial arts culture. Think of it as all the promise of globalization with an elbow to the throat.

Black Tiger Academy is the brainchild of Quint, a "martial arts junkie" from the United States, and Vincent Soberano, a former World Welterweight Champion Thai boxer from the Philippines. Before opening Black Tiger, the two had traveled the globe, perfecting their respective arts on the wrestling mat and in the ring. A chance encounter in Beijing in 2005 revealed the two to be kindred spirits, each intent on sharing his art, and both open to the possibilities of combining them.

Muay Thai and BJJ might seem like strange bedfellows. Muay Thai is a centuries-old kickboxing style that incorporates knee and elbow strikes. Though Thai boxers do learn grappling techniques, their primary focus is toe-to-toe brawling. It was developed by Thai kings and used in wars throughout history. Today, muay Thai is a wildly popular sport, both in Thailand and abroad.

BJJ is a comparatively modern - and aggressive - adaptation of Japanese Judo that was developed in Brazil by the legendary Gracie family, and which grabbed the world's attention in the 1990s when the diminutive Royce Gracie won several Ultimate Fighting Championships using the art. Its language is one of arm-bars, chokes and other submission holds.

"Eventually you are going to end up on the ground with us, and you will lose," Quint says.

The two styles are recognized for the efficiency with which their practitioners dispatch opponents. Both are steeped in legend, from tales of Thailand's royal family learning to box to the rise of the Gracie fighters. Combined, these arts have reshaped the way martial artists fight - the slashing kicks and elbows of muay Thai are mixed with the apparently unstoppable ground fighting techniques of BJJ in a Frankenstein's monster that is equal parts violence and tradition.

Soberano got his first taste of muay Thai 32 years ago, when, at the age of 10 he saw a professional fight at Bangkok's Lumpini stadium.

"I saw these guys soccer kick each other's heads off," Soberano recalls.

He was hooked. He started training at a camp in a former prize-fighter's garage the next day, and had his first real fight at the age of 13. He later moved to the United States, where he would go on to become the World Welterweight Champion, with 64 professional fights under his belt.

Inspired to share his skills, he opened his first Black Tiger Academy in San Diego in 1991.

A software engineer by trade, Soberano moved to Beijing in 2004 to run an outsourcing office and then started his own software consulting company in 2005. However, the lure of the ring never faded. Tired of shadowboxing in his office, Soberano looked for a place to teach the art he had practiced since his boyhood. That same year he met Professor Chet Quint.

"I didn't really have any plans to teach until I met Chet," he says. "It was a great opportunity to present the two most powerful fighting systems in the world."

Quint is the only BJJ black belt teaching the art in China. His own love affair with martial arts started at the age of 13 in Miami, Florida, where he trained in everything from Tae Kwon Do to stick-fighting. After stints as a bouncer and police officer, Quint picked up on stories of a tough ground-fighting new style from Brazil. A video entitled Gracie In Action convinced him that he had a hole in his repertoire.

He started training under Professor Pedro Sauer, one of the world's most famous BJJ teachers, in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1996. Sauer, along with Gracie brothers Rickson, Rorion and Royce, was part of the first wave of BJJ teachers to travel abroad.

In 2004, Quint moved to Brazil to train and met an Australian student who encouraged him to come to Beijing. Quint decided to take him up on the offer.

What he found surprised him. Many of the young Chinese people he met were more interested in Western culture than their own traditions, while many of the expats were having a hard time finding a Chinese martial art that suited their needs.

"Chinese people had no idea what Jiu Jitsu was," he says. "I was naive because when I came out here I thought I would be able to tap into this huge martial culture."

Soberano agrees that people here are wary of non-Chinese martial arts.

"We're not the first choice. We're not even the second choice. But eventually people come here looking for something more realistic," he says.

Tamara Shefa, 25, from Tel Aviv, Israel, is one such student. She had studied Chinese at home and came to Beijing for a deeper experience. She was also looking for a way to continue her kickboxing hobby, but struggled to find a place to study kung fu.

"And Tai Chi is too slow for me," she says.

Black Tiger proved to be a fortuitous discovery. "I've never had physical contact. I've only ever hit the bags and the air," she says, wrapping her wrists before a muay Thai class.

Quint says some of the school's students come for the fitness and some for the self-defense. Some even come hoping to fight professionally, which Quint says could take 10 years of training.

Bush Shen, 22, a Chinese American student at Peking University, had been studying muay Thai for one year and a half before coming to China and spent his Spring Festival holiday at a boxing camp in Thailand.

"I see it as the most practical form of self-defense," he says, adding that the health advantages were also important.

Stress-relief is one of the reasons Brandon Cristiano, 36, an American chef from Washington DC, comes to Black Tiger.

"I have a little too much energy for one person," he says. "I spend most of my free time here at the gym."

"To train with people of their caliber and experience you can't ask for a better thing in a school," he adds.

Whatever people's reasons for coming, they are in for a tough workout. And, as Quint notes, the experience of fighting can be transformational.

"You can take that knowledge, that lineage, with you wherever you go in the world," he says.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2007-09/13/content_6102108.htm

(China Daily 09/13/2007 page18)

2007 World Muay Thai Championships, Bangkok, Thailand

Latest Update: In August 2007, Vince Soberano fought Somchak of Thailand in the 140-pound division at the Queen's Birthday Superfights. Check out the video of Vince's win by second round KO against the more experienced Thai fighter. Watch closely because it happens real fast!

Click here to go to Muay Thai China's YouTube Channel.

Fight Photos:

Muay Thai in Beijing

Sawatdee khrup!

Ni hao from Beijing, China, where Muay Thai is about to become the new and hottest martial arts and fitness trend! Kru Vince, founder of Black Tiger Thai Boxing Gym in San Diego, California, brings his own brand of authentic Muay Thai to Black Tiger Academy in Beijing.

Kru Vince came from Orange County, California to Beijing on a work project for his previous software company in 2005. Knowing that he would be staying in Beijing for a while, he searched high and low for an authentic Muay Thai school. He found some schools that practiced SanDa (Chinese kickboxing) and mixed in a little bit of Thai Boxing but it wasn't the real thing. He was soon resigned to the fact that if he wanted to train real Muay Thai in China, he would have to teach it. As a 30-year veteran of Thai Boxing and former World Champion, he is the most legitimate Thai Boxing expert in Beijing and arguably, the rest of mainland China!

At the end of 2005, Kru Vince met Prof. Chet Quint, an American black belt in Gracie Brazilian Jiujitsu who came to China to pioneer his martial art as well. By the middle of 2006, Prof. Quint and Kru Vince had teamed up to found Black Tiger Academy (Beijing). Within the past year, they had attracted over a hundred students (mainly foreigners and expatriates) in Brazilian Jiujitsu and Muay Thai and trained successful MMA fighters here in China.

They now run the Black Tiger training facility in the plush Jianwai Soho complex in the Central Business District (CBD) of Beijing.

This blog is a chronicle to Kru Vince's quest to promote and innovate Muay Thai kickboxing in China through events, instruction and various types of media.

Kru Vince's fight bio:

• Muay Thai/Kickboxing pro record: 30 wins , 2 losses
• Total fights (pro, am, non-sanctioned): 60 wins, 4 losses
• MMA fights: 4 wins, 2 losses

Titles/Achievements:

• 2007 World Professional Muay Thai Federation Lightweight Division, King's Birthday (Thailand)
  
• 2007 World Professional Muay Thai Federation
  Lightweight Division, Queen's Birthday (Thailand)
• 1995 World Muay Thai Association
  World Welterweight Title
• 1994 International Kickboxing League
  World Welterweight Title
• 1993 World Muay Thai Association North American Welterweight Title
• 1989 World Kickboxing Association California State Lightweight Title
  

Other related bio:

Founder, Black Tiger Thai Boxing Gym, San Diego, Calif.
Founder, Ringsports Productions, San Diego, Calif.
Co-Founder, Black Tiger Academy, Beijing, China
Co-Founder, Black Tiger MMA Team, Beijing, China
Producer, Black Tiger Media Productions, Beijing, China

Websites:

http://www.muaythaichina.com
http://www.blacktigerclub.com