Women’s muay thai still isn’t anywhere near where women’s MMA has evolved to in recent years. In some events, they make the women fight last so that a man won’t have to enter the ring after a woman has touched it. Meet Petjeeja Or Meekhun, the young Thai girl who’s forcing the boys to get over their fear of cooties by replacing it with the fear of being savagely beaten.
She was born in 2002 and has been training since the age of 7 when she was inspired to fight in order to raise money to help support her family. This is a harsh reality of life for many Thai people, and the reason that it’s common to see children fighting over there.
She earned a measly $13 USD for her first fight, which she lost, and her parents figured that would be the end of it but she was just getting started.
Here she is in action…
Visit the next page to watch her beat the crap out of another boy…
She’s cleared out the girl’s divisions so now she’s bringing the thunder to the boys. It’s a tough position for the guys to be in. If they win it’s like “Okay cool you beat a little girl”, but if they lose it’s like “You lost to a girl.” But gender doesn’t matter when she steps in the ring because she’s throwing strikes with the best of them and leaving a trail of KO’d boys in her wake.
Here’s another one of her fights (MUST SEE).
The whole idea of children fighting with full contact makes North Americans pretty squeamish, and rightfully so, but Muay Thai is a way of life over in Thailand and something that’s engrained into their culture the same way that Happy Meals and entitlement are in the west. For many of these people, fighting is all they have, it’s their life, and it’s their best shot at a brighter future.
It might not be the healthiest thing in the world, but is this?
What’s next for Petjeeja? Check out the last page.
She’ll probably end up in traditional boxing, because of the absolute lack of competition for her and the fact that people won’t want to see her fighting post-pubescent men.
After each fight, she takes 2 days off to recoup and then gets back to the grind. She runs 10km every day, trains her clinching and striking every day before and after school, where she maintains a 3.75 GPA.
As with many Thai fighters, it’s near impossible to find their overall records, especially with the amounts of amateur and un-sanctioned fights taking place. By the time she was 11, she had over 100 fights under her belt.
Her dreams are to one day fight in the Olympics in western-style boxing.
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