Bang Tao Muay Thai has its grand opening next weekend and two of the biggest names from the sports of kickboxing and MMA will be coming along. UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski and ONE Championship featherweight kickboxing champion Superbon Banchamek will both be doing seminars.
Volkanovski is fresh from his win over Chan Sun Jung at UFC 273, the Australian put a serious beating on The Korean Zombie. While the latter was left contemplating retirement the former is flying back to Phuket to put on a seminar at the Hickman brothers brand new facility.
Superbon has established himself as the best pound for pound kickboxer on the planet with a series of impressive wins. He is coming off victories over Sittichai Sitsongpeenong, Giorgio Petrosyan and Marat Grigorian.
Big names
Superbon will be putting on a kickboxing seminar on April 21st while Volkanovski will be doing an MMA seminar the following day. George Hickman and Frank Hickman used to run the MMA program at Tiger Muay Thai but left to set up their own camp.
Several Tiger Muay Thai alumni have spent time training at Bang Tao Muay Thai since it unofficially opened its doors including Topnoi, Shannon Wiratchai and Rika Ishige.
Getting Volkanovski to appear at the grand opening is something of a coup for the newly opened camp as he has been representing Tiger Muay Thai since 2014, well before he signed for the UFC. The Australian would go on to establish himself as arguably the best featherweight of all time.
Famous destination
Bang Tao Muay Thai is located at the north end of the island. The majority of MMA camps in Phuket are further south, including Phuket Top Team and AKA Thailand as well as the globally renowned Tiger Muay Thai.
While Thailand is known for Muay Thai the island is now well established on the MMA map. Some of the best fighters in the world regularly travel to Phuket to train including Volkanovski and Petr Yan who both had title fights at UFC 273 last weekend.
With Fairtex promoting MMA fights at Lumpinee Stadium for the first time this year we have seen fighters from several of the main Phuket camps compete in Bangkok. The island seems to be bouncing back after Covid-19 with fighters travelling from all over the world to train and even compete.
