When UFC stars head to Thailand they tend to wind up at either Tiger Muay Thai or Bang Tao MMA. But Marvin Vettori has decided to explore outside of the traditional tourist camps and has travelled to Bangkok to work with the best kickboxer in the country, if not the world.
Vettori shared some photos of himself with Superbon Banchamek. He is the reigning ONE Championship kickboxing featherweight champion and on one of the most impressive run of results the sport has ever seen.
Vettori has been at Tiger Muay Thai but the #4 ranked UFC middleweight decided to check out Elite Fight Club in Bangkok and found himself rubbing shoulders with some legendary fighters and trainers:
View this post on Instagram
Living legends
Standing next to Vettori and Superbon in the photo are legendary Muay Thai fighter Namsaknoi Yudthagarngamtorn and Kru Gae, who has amassed a substantial Instagram following after some training videos went viral. He earned a reputation for pushing foreign fighters to their absolute limit and beyond while holding pads.
But Kru Gae has also worked with some of Thailand’s top fighters including Superbon. He will probably be in the kickboxers corner when he defends his belt against Chingiz Allazov at ONE on Prime Video 6 next month.
Namsaknoi was a mentor to Buakaw Banchamek at the Por Pramuk Gym. The two men trained together in the days before the two time K-1 Max winner was an international superstar.
Vettori, who also spent time at at AKA Thailand in Phuket, appears to have been working with Kru Gae for several weeks:
View this post on Instagram
Sharpening up
With two losses in his last three fights Vettori appears to be sharpening up his striking skills ahead of a potential UFC return. He remains one of the top middleweights on the roster and there is no shame in losing to the likes of Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya.
At Tiger Muay Thai he was reunited with his nemesis Darren Till. The two were scheduled to fight and engaged in a war of words on social media but became friends after sparring together in Phuket.
Till prepared in Phuket for his UFC 282 fight with Dricus Du Plessis but came up short against the South African. Vettori will be hoping his time in Thailand gives him the impetus to launch a more successful comeback.
