This is a rather unconventional post since not a lot of foreigners go inside a Thai prison. When I went to Thailand the first time the embassy told me: “We can help you with a lot in Thailand but make sure you’re not getting yourself into prison. We won’t be able to get you out”.
So after being here for 4 years, I got to prison but luckily for me, I was also able to get out.
A trip back in time, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When I was going to high school, my math teacher in 4th grade told me I was going to end up in prison because I didn’t like to follow the rules. Well, it was that and; bad grades for math. He’d probably been rubbing it in my face and giving me the good old “I told you so”.
But it doesn’t end there. On the 15th of February, I started ‘project making mommy and daddy proud’. I quit my job to go to fight in Thailand. Once I was there I told myself I’d get a tattoo after I won my fight.
Eventually, I got the tattoo before my fight and won the fight. After that, it kind off took me a while to put the cherry on the cake when it came to this project.
I assume me going to prison was a whole bunch of cherries on top of the cake.
But that begs the question: how did I end up in Thai prison of all places?
How I ended up in Thai prison.
After fighting 3 times in a row in Thailand I decided to go back home with my wife for about 6 months. During that visit, I didn’t fight due to the political fuckery in Belgium. So as soon as I was back, I went to my gym owner/promoter and asked him to fight a killer. Now either something went wrong in translation or people took it too literally.
Because I ended up fighting a killer. He was convicted of murder. People that have long sentences in Thailand are brought to less harsh prisons where they can earn reductions in their sentences. One of those ways is to train/fight or teach Muay Thai.
There have been made multiple documentaries and even a movie (A Prayer Before Dawn) about this event. Check the Vice documentary out here. Check the second documentary out here.
The idea of this event is simple, foreigners go inside the prison to fight prisoners in a show. If the prisoners win, they get a 2-year deduction in their sentence. If they lose nothing happens.
Before attending the event, I watched the documentaries and you see Jitti say “Winning will be very difficult if you don’t dominate him or knock him out”. Funny enough, Jitty was at this event as well and he said the same thing the day of the fight.
The prison experience.
Going inside that prison was quite the process. We couldn’t take phones inside or anything that could be used to film. All bags were searched and we had to wear badges all the time. The first time we went in was for the weigh-ins, to check out who we were fighting, and to have lunch. Once we were there, I thought the prison looked better than my college just a bit more wired of course. But it definitely felt less than a prison in comparison to my college.
Once we arrived we sat on one side of the ring and the prisoners on the other side. But that didn’t take long we got mixed rather quickly and obviously we started talking to each other.
The majority of people were in there for possession or dealing of Yaba (methamphetamine) and just got really long sentences. A small minority had done other stuff (like my opponent).
The majority of them were very polite, they were obviously guarded but not heavily. there was a very relaxed environment over there. We were allowed to talk to them and eat with them the whole time in the designated area.
My opponent his English was pretty good so I talked to him for a bit. Found out he was ex-army and even served abroad with a branch of the French army.
Fight day.
On fight day, I met the mother and grandmother of my opponent. Yes, there was an audience, and there were commentators and cameras filming the whole show. The section next door was an open market where you could get free food and drinks. The food and drinks were prepared by prisoners and it was delicious (I told you it was better than college).
I was scheduled to be the first fight, my first time fighting 3 rounds. It was a close fight and I ended up losing on points. Before the decision was announced, me and my corner were sure that I won round 1 (which was close because he started fast) and round 2 (which was very one-sided). In round 3 I took a bit gas off the pedal because me and my corner thought I had it. Of all the 10 fights, 2 non-prisoners won, one by KO, and one was very dominant.
After the fight, I was happy that I finally was in the ring again after 10 months of absence. A lot of prisoners and people from the audience came to congratulate me on my performance. I even got some vouchers (since money wasn’t allowed) from the VIP section. In Thailand it is very common to tip fighters after a really good performance, this is mostly done by gamblers.
After that, I went to my opponent and took a picture with him and his family. And this is where it got interesting.
Never judge a book….
My opponent was one of the nicest guys I’ve met. After the fight, he didn’t leave his mom and grandmother for a second. I found out that because of the win his sentence was reduced to 1 year. So he was very close to being reunited with this family.
Everyone knew what he did but no one ever asked him what happened or why he did it. So I decided to ask him. Now his English was good but not like a native so I got a brief summary. He got into an altercation with a drunk person and the drunk person tried to attack him, he thought the drunk guy was armed and killed him. Later he found out he wasn’t armed and ended up in prison.
People were so scared of asking but cold-blooded killers won’t be put in the ‘good behavior’ department. There are obviously some cases that will never be fit to reintegrate into society no matter how well they behave. Those stay inside the big prison in Bangkok.
Later we found out that 15% of all prisoners who got released ended up back in prison. That’s a pretty good statistic if you ask me. In my opponent’s case, he had a gym in Bangkok that he was going to run as soon as he got out.
Prison fight.
In the end, I’m very happy I took this opportunity. Not a lot of people get the opportunity to go inside a Thai prison. At least not voluntarily. This is one of those ‘once-in-a-lifetime experiences’. The fact that I got to fight in there was a nice bonus.
Until next time
Alex
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