Celest Hansen did not have a conventional upbringing. The Australian lived in a caravan with her family who travelled to events and festivals selling food and doing carnival games.
She does not have a conventional career either. The 29 year old is a full time Muay Thai fighter and was the first woman to ever win a tournament at the famous Lumpinee Stadium.
Life for Hansen is definitely not dull. But the Australian admits hat it never has been,
“I had a pretty different childhood. My family lived in a caravan. We didn’t have a house, and we worked everywhere in Australia, working shows, special events, and music festivals. It was a very interesting life.”
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Different path
Hansen is too busy with her Muay Thai career to help out with the family business these days. But it doesn’t sound like life for her parents has changed much,
“We sell strawberries and ice cream, chocolates and things like that. We also have carnival games, burst the balloon, roll the coke bottle over, basketball.”
Naturally she set out on the same career path as her parents. But Hansen always wanted to blaze her own path in the world and Muay Thai gave the Australian the platform to do just that,
“I just spent my whole life working with my mum and dad which I loved but everything I ever did in life wasn’t for me. Then I found Muay Thai, and it just gave me something to look forward to and I’d never really felt like that in life. I just knew that was what I wanted to do.”
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Outdated tradition
She won the Road to ONE atomweight tournament at Lumpinee Stadium. Hansen fights this Friday at a venue which must be starting to feel a bit like home.
But it hasn’t always been this way. When she first arrived in Thailand the prospect of ever fighting at Lumpinee Stadium,
“When I came to Thailand seven years ago, there was just no opportunity for a girl. The best thing you could do was just fight at local stadiums. To even think about fighting in Lumpinee, people laughed at you.”
Back then women weren’t even allowed to touch the ring at Lumpinee Stadium, let alone compete in an actual fight there But times change and the modernization process was definitely expedited by the pandemic which hit Muay Thai promoters particularly hard.
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Stepping stone
Women now fight at Lumpinee Stadium every week and Hansen is facing Yau Pui Yu at ONE Friday Fights 29 tomorrow. She sees her opponent as a stepping stone and thinks bigger fights await,
“This next fight is just another pit stop in my goals. Fight her, get her out of the way, and get closer to the goal.”
And Hansen is very clear about what the goal is. She wants to be one of the top female fighters in the sport and once the Australian has scaled that summit she does not plan to descend,
“My goal is to get into the top tier in Muay Thai and stay there as long as I can.”
