By Matthew Jukes
Rarely are children and violence a good mix. But come Wednesday November 11, fighters at the Battlefield X1 event are going to have a good old fashioned punch up that will do a lot of good for some of China's children. And it's all thanks to World Lightweight Muay Thai Champion Vince Soberano.
"It's funny how the whole story began. I wasn't planning to do a big show like this,"says Soberano, sitting in his gym at Club Hero surrounded by the noise of students hitting the bags.
"My girlfriend just told me one day, 'I really want to do something for impoverished kids in China.' She showed me pictures on the Internet of kids living in other places in China, the pictures were really sad. She said we should do something, maybe donate money or hold a charity event. I don't know much about holding other types of events, or fund raising, but one thing I do know is how to promote a Muay Thai event."
That's certainly no lie. The Californian not only holds the World Lightweight title, but still hosts frequent fight events and looks after a business and its 350 students while still finding time to train (and be pestered by Metro Beijing).
Caped crusader
For those who don't know, Muay Thai, also known as Thai boxing, is the national sport of Thailand. It is a highly effective martial art which utilizes as much of the body, including elbows and knees as a weapon to be both practical in a real fight, but also maintains a rich history in competition.
"I was 10 years old when my dad took me to watch a fight in Bangkok. As soon as I saw my first Muay Thai fight, I fell in love with it and never stopped since. The next day he took me to join a local gym, and the rest is history,"Soberano says.
"I had done some karate and taekwondo as a kid but after I saw Muay Thai, all the karate and stuff I did before just seemed so fake, they don't hit each other. They do all these nice looking movements, but you don't really know how effective it is. I watched a Muay Thai fight and thought: 'Oh my god!' They're using parts of the body that are really effective, they know how to create the distance, they know how to bridge the gap…this is real fighting, not just forms and dancing around."
Prior to his career as professional fighter and trainer the mild mannered champ had been working batman-style as a software engineer for an American company. "By day I was working in a software office and by night was a fighter. I've been doing both of them at the same time over all those years,"he adds. It was the software work which brought him to Beijing, but it's not what keeps him here now.
In 2006 after holding some seminars at fitness clubs, the fighter was defeated by the need for a Muay Thai gym in Beijing. Wasting no time Soberano went back to the US to hand in his resignation in person and came back to China to become a full time fighter.
"I was so surprised at how it turned out. I realized that the Chinese want something new, something exotic, they want to experience a whole new and alternative style of fitness and martial arts. In Muay Thai they're doing something special that no one else does. It's trendy."
Las Vegas
Now since a merger this year with a Brazilian jiujitsu gym, Black Tiger Club Hero has taken off, and MMA (mixed martial arts – fighting both on the ground and standing up) are the way forward.
At Battlefield X1, Soberano's fight will be the only MMA bout of the evening, and as it's a full contact professional event it's going to be gritty. But other than his opponent he's got some others to look out for. "I'm concerned about my fighters; I have eight students who are fighting. The majority of the fighters are from my gym and of course I want them to win, I've spent a lot of time training them and working with them,"he says with genuine concern.
That's not going to stop the event being a little upscale. One of his students is the executive chef at the China World Hotel, and when he heard Soberano wanted to host a charity event, he was only too happy to oblige. The result is a Las Vegas style black tie set up, complete with all the hobbies of the aristocracy; fine dining, a silent auction, and of course a big name guest list.
"If we're going to have a charity event, why invite people who don't have any money, who can barely pay for the tickets? Let's invite people who have bundles of cash that they can give to charity. So we made this a black tie event to bring in the upper echelons of society – and it sure did,"says the charitable champ.
There will be 10 fights, featuring fighters from China, USA, Europe, and of course Thailand. Two of them are championship fights.
Proceeds from the event will go to the China Children and Teenagers Foundation and although names can't be dropped, some of China's famous faces are set to attend. It looks like it's shaping up to be an evening to remember.
