Pinto (Sports) Dispatch: CHIANG MAI, THAILAND

Hot off the wire at blue skies forever NEWS headquarters...




12 February 2005
CHIANG MAI, Thailand

The fix was in at Kawila Boxing Stadium on Friday
night. Fight six featured a Swiss boxer, U Ran,
representing the Chay Yai Gym, against home-bred Payak
Dum, representing Sit Sor Jor Sanae. To give the
reader some idea of the fighters, imagine Rocky IV. U
Ran is Drago, the chiseled, robot-like Russian. Dum
is Rocky, but flabbier. To absolutely nobody's
surprise, U Ran had his opponent against the ropes for
most of the fight. Amazingly, Dum withstood five
rounds of brutality without falling on his face. It
was fortunate for him that five rounds is all you get
at Kawila. So the decision rested with the judges.
Boos and cheers alike erupted from the half-foreign,
half-Thai audience when Dum was declared the winner.

In other action from the night, the best knock-out
came in round four of fight four, after Chao Pee took
multiple knees to the head from his opponent, Payak
Kao. (All limbs are viable weapons in Thai boxing,
therefore so is holding, resulting in many knees to
the gut and kicks to the kidney.) Coming out of an
eight count, Pee, shunning any common sense he had
left, continued fighting. He took the next punch to
the face and was finished.

In more sports news, visitors to the Kawila Officer's
Club, a horse racing track somehow associated with the
military, received free cups of ice cream with
admission on Saturday. The winners for races 1
through 6 were 6, 5, 9, 2, 1, and 4, in that order. (No further
details are available as the racing program is
completely in Thai.)

END


Fisticuffs! Ourself and a Muhammad Ali look-alike outside and inside Seattle's Blue Star Bistro, respectively.
(Photo credit: Nick Haney)