The point of the sport is to knock the other guy down ...... OR KNOCK HIM OUT!  You can hit the other guy with your fist, elbow, knees or feet. There is blood....and doctors standing at the ready! This is Khmer boxing, like Muay-Thai boxing. Except it is in Cambodia ... by Cambodians. This entry is all about a boxing match. If you consider it a barbaric sport (maybe it is) and don't want to read, then pass it by and wait for my next entry. But, when will you get another chance to see video clips of a Cambodian/Thailand fight? Or, if you consider it a barbaric sport and want to see it because it is, then this is for you! 

I spent a couple of weeks in Battambang with Villa and Samnang and a couple other Cambodians I met the last time I was there . But, I wanted to spend a week in Siem Reap before leaving Cambodia. I spent the last week in Cambodia in Siem Reap. Villa and Samnang wanted to come to Siem Reap and go to the airport to see me off. They came for the last two days I was in Siem Reap, a 4-hour bus ride from Battambang, if everything on the bus goes right!

I have been trying to see Muay-Thai boxing ever since I came to Thailand in 2013. (I have been traveling for over a year now!) Everytime I thought I was going to see one, something happened. The people I was going with couldn't go at the last minute or my plans got changed, or the fights were on the wrong night for me. I tried to see a fight in Phnom Penh, Cambodia once, and it fell through, also.

I found out they have opened a new fight arena here in Siem Reap and asked the guys if they would like to see it. They had never been to one but Cambodians watch it on their tv's almost nightly.

The boxing is on Monday and Wednesday nights each week in the new arena in Siem Reap . It just happens Villa and Samnang will be here early Wednesday afternoon. So....here we go! After nearly a year, I finally got in to a fight and it's with my two Cambodian friends!

The ticket for the 2 1/2 hour fight costs $15 for foreigners but only $3 for Cambodians. There is a lot of discontent over the double pricing in these countries. I have sat somewhere with a local friend, eating the same food and when it came time to pay I had to pay two or three times as much for my food as the local person paid. 

There is a boat from Battambang to Siem Reap. It is $25 for foreigners and $1.25 for locals. Tourists feel if you eat the same food or sit in the same seat watching the same show it should cost the same. 

Anyway, I paid my $15 to see the fight. It was well worth it, I think. (Although I agree with other foreigners, there is too much of a price difference for admission.)

This is traditional Cambodian free fighting, known to the world as kick-boxing . Boxing, along with Cambodian football (soccer) are the two big sports here. When you visit the temples, you see boxing images carved into the ancient walls, so boxing has been a sport here for centuries.

Some of the biggest names in Kun Khmer square off in the rings here. They go for 5 rounds, if they can. I saw a couple of knock-outs that only went a couple of rounds, but most went 4 or 5 rounds at least. The first fight lasted only two rounds and the Thai boxer was knocked out and a lot of blood was flowing. They carried him out of the ring, but I didn't get that fight on video. I did get videos of some fights that were good, though.
 
There were Cambodians betting on the matches, even though gambling is illegal in Cambodia. They would pay off at the end of each fight. You see the money passing around by the people in the stands.

The police would be standing right there while the money was being exchanged, but pretended not to see . You can see this in one of the videos. 

I asked Villa and Samnang about the betting. They said there were too many Cambodians for the police to interfere, so they looked the other way. I think there was probably some bribe money paid also. Just my thought, but that is the way things are done in these countries.

In these fights today, a Cambodian fighter boxes a Thai boxer. There are two fight nights each week but only between Cambodian fighters. Only twice each month do they have a match between a Thai boxer and a Cambodian boxer. So, we lucked out getting to be here on this night. I get to see Thai boxing and Cambodian boxing all in the same night!

At the end of the fight, if the Cambodian fighter won, he would roam around the crowd and they would give him tips. If the Thai fighter won, though, there were no tips for the Thai winner. 

Villa didn't like that. He said it was prejudice and both fighters should be treated the same by the Cambodians. In some bouts he even pulled for the Thai boxer. He said he was for the fighter, not the nationality of the fighter. I didn't know any of the fighters so I just picked the one I thought was the underdog (smaller size, etc) and pulled for him. Cambodian fighters were always in red trunks, Thai boxers wore blue.

There was plenty of sweat and blood and bruises. It was a good night!