Death of a Nak Muay

Sweating olive oil on a hilly dirt road in north-east Thailand, Jordan Coe was a young man on a mission. The nak muay farang (foreign kickboxer) from Falkirk via Glasgow had to bust 3kgs in weight for a bout the very next day in Korat. The 20-year-old kid fighter, who boxed out of the Lamnamnoon Sor Sumalee Gym in Ubon Ratchathani, regularly competed at 64kgs. Now the young colt had to slim down pronto for a ruck with hard-as-nails Cambodian boxer Khon Bola at 61kgs. Losing weight fast is a simple yet gruelling routine for a nak muay, be they farang or otherwise. But Jordan was a consummate pro, one who'd been living and fighting in Thailand for the last three years. The "dancing boxer" had been up and down this rocky road on countless Saturday mornings in the past.

The mercury hit 86°F (30°C) on the thermometer, but neither dizziness, fatigue nor gloom could stay the 70-fight veteran from the swift completion of his appointed task. Hot or not, and bundled up in a weight shifting sauna suit, the thick-skulled Jock was used to getting up first thing and hitting the road to run alone. And give or take the vast difference in temperature, and the harsh lamp of the Thai sun, the steep dirt roads were just as tough as the cracked pavements and tumbledown streets of Falkirk or Glasgow back in bonny Scotland.

Jordan wasn't some wanderer from the drove roads in over his head. Nor was he the type to mix with bar girls and engage in lewd behaviour with the wrong crowd. Jordan was tied up there to the scene: the Muay Thai boxing scene. The locals knew who he was, knew what he was up to, and they knew full well that the nak muay farang from Scotland was a gallant knight from a distant land. This place was his home away from home and he was living the nak muay dream. He'd left Scotland aged 17 and was growing to manhood via the pro fight circuit in Thailand and South East Asia. How many schoolboys from the decadent West do that? Zilch very much.

Living in Thailand, Jordan went native. Proper loco native. Riddled with voodoo tattoos, and in lieu of bagpipes, the young Scot was keen on playing the khaen, a Thai/Laotian woodwind instrument made out of bamboo. And the "dancing boxer," famous for his ring entrances, had even taken to wearing Thai tartan – which is every bit as gaudy as some of the tartan back home in Scotland. But living in the "Land of Smiles" does that to a nak muay farang. It's different for us. You become part of the place and the place becomes part of you. It's a slow metamorphosis and you can't help but roll with the changes. You are in situ, absorbing the lingo, customs, charms and quirks of the host culture; much more so than being embedded in this alien environment as a diplomat, foreign correspondent or sexpat businessman with an inappropriately aged Thai wife called Superporn.

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