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A nine year old Thai boxer named “Little” lies flat on his back after being knocked out cold in the ring. He was trying to win enough money to eat when his brain was scrambled and he was separated from his senses.
His poverty stricken parents scream at ringside for him to get up.His mother is beside herself as she beseeches Little or “Lek” in Thai, to get to his feet.
But her anguished cries are born of starvation and the fact that as a loser Little will pocket only 500 Thai Baht - £7.50 – half what the winner will take to the village food market.Five minutes later, Little, who began fighting as a professional aged seven, and has already had over 20 pro fights, is still unconscious.But he has fed his family for another day.Welcome to the shocking world of Thailand’s baby boxers.
In the impoverished north east of the country where the minimum wage is 110 Bhat a day - £1.64p – these pint-sized warriors are their parents’ best hope of putting food on the table.Three winning fights a month could mean as much as 3,600 Baht - £54 - to an impoverished family. Serious money. And by the time he is 12-years-old a fighter will have averaged 50 bouts and given his winnings to his parents.
There is no sign of a doctor, child welfare workers and certainly none of the paying crowd is complaining about the pounding these youngsters take in the ring.Little, who recovered shortly after our picture was taken, is just one of thousands of Thai boys forced into boxing to support their families. “I like fighting and it is better than school,” he says.“And anyway, I have no choice. I have to help my family. I have only been knocked out once. I hope it doesn’t happen again.”
And as Thailand clamps down on the tourist sex industry, Thai boxing, a traditional escape route from poverty, is proving more and more popular despite the risks to the children.Many kids are sent to the gyms by their parents at around five years old and start fighting from about 6-7. The shows are regularly found at the tourist hotspots of Pattaya in the south, although the children promoted in the tourist hotspots are usually older at 11-14 years.They are drawn from mainly from the Kaon Kaen district of north eastern Thailand, which is famous for producing Thai kick boxers.
The district is noted for its grinding poverty and Thai boxing seen as a means of escape for poor families.Our exclusive pictures were taken last month (Feb) at a travelling fair or temple fair in the grindingly poor north east of Thailand on the outskirts of a village called Ban Daeng Noi. These fairs set up in the local temple and the boxing is the main attraction – not only for locals but for also for western tourists.
Little’s parents paid their life savings of 10,000 Thai Baht - £150 – to place him a in a gym for three years when he was seven.During those three years his winning will be split between the gym and mum and dad and if he is god enough Little will graduate to bigger and better things in Bangkok. Education comes second.His parents hope he will eventually make it in the senior Thai boxing scene where he can make really serious money.
The kids in the gyms only see their parents twice a year because of the demands of training and fighting. A typical gym is the Norasingh Boxing Camp near Ban Daeng Noi set amid the endless rice plains.The open air gym looks like any other except the punch bag hangs only three and half feet off the ground. Kaenjai Wiengwises, 48, runs the gym.“If kids from the area show promise their parents will bring them here and they will be paid in Bhat, eggs and beef for their children.“If they are good they will make good money and the parents’ investment will be worthwhile.”
The daily training schedule is the same as for adult boxers: roadwork at 6am, followed by two hours’ training; sparring sessions and bag work from 4-6pm.In the evening they are free to watch television and boxing videos. At 10pm they retire to the cramped dorm and sleep.On Sundays, if they are lucky, some of the boys will return to their parents’ villages, but for many the journey is too far.
“The kids fight from one to three times a month,” Mr Wiengwises explains,” depending on the schedule of the temple fairs.“What I look for is courage. Real fighters are not scared of getting hit.”
Western tourists venturing off the beaten track place bets on which youngster is going to win.The children fight for five two minute rounds and regularly get knocked out which leaves them bloodied, as seen in our exclusive pictures. Children can be seen being kicked in the groin, punched in the head and one little fighter pictures peering through the ropes is clearly not enjoying the experience.In another shocking picture a stricken child is carried from the ring by trainers after being knocked out – a common occurrence.
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