Amber Kitchen has made a big move. The kickboxer and Muay Thai fighter has relocated to Leeds in order to train at the Bad Company Gym there.
It is a long way from her native Cornwall but having lost her first two ONE Championship fights the 23 year old obviously felt it was time for a change. She has moved from the South West of England to the North and will be training alongside the likes of Liam Harrison:
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Up north
Bad Company was founded in 1992 by Richard Smith. His cousin, Liam Harrison, has been the gym’s most successful export but it has also produced fighters like Jordan Watson and Richard Cadden.
The gym has helped Leeds establish itself as a hotbed for the Muay Thai scene in the UK. Kitchen will be helping that training at Bad Company can help her turn her career around after a couple of disappointing results.
She dropped a split decision to Viktoria Lipianska on her ONE Championship debut in a fight that really could have gone either way. Kitchen went the distance against Diandra Martin and Jackie Buntan too but finished up on the losing end of both those bouts.
She comes from a famous fighting family. Her mother, Julie Kitchen, was nicknamed ‘the Queen of Muay Thai’ and won several titles in both kickboxing and Muay Thai.
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Different era
Bur Julie Kitchen was fighting in a different era for the sport and retired before ONE Championship started promoting Muay Thai. It means her daughter has opportunities to earn money competing in front of an international audience that didn’t exist a decade ago.
Amber will be looking to follow in her mother’s footsteps by winning some titles in the sport and at the age of 23 time is definitely on her side. But she needs to get her career back on track after a string of narrow defeats.
Kitchen will be hoping that the move to Bad Company can help her to resurrect her career. She will be looking to get back to winning ways in 2023 and training alongside the likes of Liam Harrison could be key to the success she caves.
