![]() ![]() He said, 'If come here, you will have a big future.'" Then when she was 18, destiny came calling, and it was in the form of a representative from the legendary Fairtex Gym in Pattaya."Fairtex wanted me and female fighters for their MMA program," Stamp said. ![]() All the while, she used her winnings to help support her family. Over the ensuing decade, she was able to amass a record that spanned 80 pro bouts and included a stadium championship and a two-division Northeastern Thailand title. On average, Stamp competed every other month, which gave her at least some time to see to her schooling. No doubt that helped her build a foundation that was second to none. As the only female fighter in the camp where she trained, she frequently found herself fighting boys. ![]() Competition quickly became a way of life for the youth. New Star Unlike Daniel-san in The Karate Kid, however, Stamp didn't stop after winning her version of the All Valley Karate Tournament. "I walked forward and kneed, kneed - and won." "It was Children's Day in Thailand," she said. (In this Southeast Asian nation, it's not uncommon for young people to compete in full contact.) She won her first match in less than 30 seconds. Within a year of taking up muay Thai, Stamp had ended the bullying and started fighting in the ring. "Now I'm never scared when I have the clinch." Perhaps this is why she considers her father the hero of her life. At the gym his brother operated, Stamp's dad taught his daughter the basics of the martial art and, most important, the intricacies of the clinch, which was the position in which she often found herself in those schoolyard scraps. When she'd endured the abuse long enough, she sought help from her father, a muay Thai practitioner. "When I was 5 years old, this girl kept pinching me," Stamp recalled about the earliest days of her victimization. There was only one problem: Starting in kindergarten, she was bullied by other girls. Looking back, she told me that for the most part, she enjoyed a happy life in the country. She grew up on her family farm, which grew durian, a tropical fruit. It wasn't until later that she adopted the fight name Stamp Fairtex. To become the first female world champion in three combat sports - well, you don't even want to try to figure out those odds!īut this is precisely what a Thai fighter named Stamp Fairtex is striving to accomplish, and she's almost there.įarm Girl The future champion was born Natthawan Panthong in the city of Rayong, Thailand. To become the best on the planet at two different combat sports, the odds can be calculated only by someone like Stephen Hawking. The odds are stacked even higher against a person who sets out to become a world champion in a combat sport. Statistically, it's about a million-to-one shot that a person can become a pro athlete in the NFL, MLB or NBA. And, believe me, you don't want to fail his pop quiz! ![]() Why? Well, because later on in this story, the world's toughest math teacher is going to show up. In order to continue this real-life version of the "wax on, wax off" saga, we have to talk math. Before you stop reading so you can go catch up on Cobra Kai, know that this particular story has more twists than a double spinning back kick. ![]()
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