Muay Thai child fighters put their health on the line for gamblers and hope of a better life
Critics say encouraging children to fight in the ring is a form of child abuse, but thousands of young boxers in Thailand get into the sport to win prize money for their poor families
The 10-year-old twin boys are prize fighters in the making, and they waste no opportunity to duke it out.
In between pounding a punch bag and kicking a pad held by a middle-aged trainer, Pornsak and Jirasak Katsriphuak clamber up into the ring and let fly at each other.
The diminutive wannabe Muay Thai bruisers each weigh just over 20kg. During their sparring bouts they pull few of their punches, bobbing and weaving in imitation of professional boxers before unleashing flurries of kicks and punches.
Jirasak tends to get the upper hand, but his brother will not back down. Pornsak weathers an onslaught of flailing fists and flying feet from Jirasak, before sending his twin tumbling by sweeping a leg out from under him. In a refereed fight, Pornsak would have earned points for the move.
Then he gets caught off guard as Jirasak lands a well-timed kick on his head. Wincing with pain, Pornsak drops to the floor to nurse his ear. In a moment, though, he is back on his feet for another round of rough and tumble.
“They’re like angry grasshoppers. They hop and skip a lot,” says Jamlong Jaipakdee, 49, who helps train the boys at a spartan, outdoor boxing camp set up between two concrete pylons underneath an elevated highway by the side of a busy road in central Bangkok. The brothers train alongside fighters twice their age during intense sessions where sinewy bodies glisten with sweat in the clammy tropical heat.
