This column began in a mystery and ended in the chance to find out about a wonderful young talent. A few months ago, looking through Mies Stolp’s photographs of a Muay Thai tournament in the small town of Bladel in the Netherlands, I was astonished and delighted to come across a young female boxer whose glamour and evident boxing pedigree far outshone her rather ordinary surroundings. It was immediately obvious that here was someone with an unusual and interesting story – and so it proved.

'Pam at Bladel'

The photographs showed a beautiful young Thai woman whose stylish pink, silver and gold shorts bore the word ‘KAEWSAMRIT’ on the waistband – a top gym in Thailand, so what was she doing in the Netherlands? The photographer was obviously so impressed by her poised and graceful Ram Muay that she took some 12 or 15 images of it, the average number of pictures of other fighters’ ritual dances being precisely zero! I began to wonder if she was some visiting star from Thailand taking part in a demonstration bout, but this was a real fight – and one that, sadly, didn’t go according to plan. It can be difficult to trace a fight through still pictures, but it looked at first like an easy win for the Thai with her greater athleticism, poise and range of techniques. To my astonishment and horror later pictures showed her in pain and falling to the canvas (knocked down or slipped over?) – surely she hadn’t lost inside the distance, pretty humiliating in the circumstances!

I was determined to find out the story behind these pictures, but the website where they appeared gave no results or names. Fortunately Mies Stolp and the trainer Ludo Kaethoven were most helpful and eventually I learned about the career of Pam Chonyut, a splendid talent on the way to becoming an international star. The Bladel fight turned out to be almost the only disappointment on an awesome fighting record.

Pam’s real name is Nutiporn, but, as she explains,

The first two surprises I had were that she is only 15 (how self-possessed she looked in the ring!) and that she had avoided Muay Thai as a girl in Thailand:

Six years ago Pam’s mother married a Belgian and they decided to move to Belgium with her and her two brothers. Two years later the girl took up Muay Thai. She describes herself as ‘sensitive’ and her response to my questions is totally charming, but clearly she has great determination and a strong will. Most of her 12 fights have been in Belgium (5 wins out of 5 and the Belgian title) or the Netherlands (3 wins, 1 draw), but her ambitions are much wider than that:

‘When I asked my trainer, Ludo, what he thought about a fight in Thailand, he advised me to go to the Kaewsamrit camp. The training was really good, I had my own trainer there and I improved my knees, kicks and elbows a lot. The funniest thing was at first when I was there they looked at me so weird. I told them I was a fighter and they totally didn’t believe it at all. The training was hard, starting at 6.00 am with running, then three hours morning and three hours afternoon training round on the pads, clinching with other fighters, learning new techniques and self-training.’

‘The owner of the gym really liked me as a daughter and he arranged a fight for me for the Queen’s birthday. I fought 5 rounds Muay Thai rules for the first time and I won with a tko in the 2nd round.’

In fact Pam won two fights as a professional in Thailand, the only loss on her record being in another professional contest in the United States. In Thailand she met Malaipet, a famous Muay Thai fighter, who was so impressed that he gave her the chance of a fight in the States. Now she frequently travels to the States for training, holidays and teaching and at the end of this year will move to Los Angeles to study and practise Muay Thai.

So, to return to the photographs that started my quest for Pam Chonyut, what happened to this young international star when she fought at a small tournament in Bladel? Her contests in the Netherlands were 3x2 minutes (even 2x2 minutes), a big contrast to the 5x3 minutes she had fought in Thailand. Pam is too modest to say this, but clearly she was a different class from her opponent and even she admits that she expected to win and thought it could be an easy fight.

What happened came as a shock to the talented teenager. In the 2nd round Pam accidentally suffered an unpleasant injury, but fought on with great courage to draw the fight, even though the referee gave her a count that she thinks was not fair:

Pam bravely claims,

but is at the moment taking a break from fighting to get over the injury as well as studying hard before going to LA. In Belgium she mentions with gratitude her trainers Ludo and Tom and sparring partners like Debby, plus her family and other supporters who have helped her to turn into a jet-setting sportswoman by her mid-teens.

Despite her remarkable success in the ring, Pam has not forgotten about her education. Her goals are clear, sensible and mature: to graduate, to become one of the best professional Muay Thai fighters and, then, a good trainer, and to have a successful career in something like marketing.

Her crowded schedule means that, as well as training in Los Angeles, she expects to fight in Thailand in the New Year, but I am sure her many European fans hope, as I do, that we in Europe will have another chance to see the gloriously talented Pam Chonyut!

Special thanks to Pam Chonyut, Ludo Kaethoven and Mies Stolp.

Photographs of Pam’s fight by Mies Stolp (www.samuraisports.nl)