WILFRIED MONTAGNE (2011)
Interview of WILFRIED MONTAGNE by Serge TREFEU (2011)
Serge TREFEU: Hello Wilfried how are you, good shape?
WILFRIED MONTAGNE: Yes, very well, always installed to Ao Nang to Krabi, the life is beautiful!
Since how long you are installed to Krabi?
It is going to make now two and a half years, we opened in November, 2008…
Who gave you the envy to set up your camp in Thailand, that it was your motivation for this project?
It is a whole, the Thailand, the Muay Thai, the region that tempted me and I had it fed up of the daily round in Paris, the life in Paris in a big city, subway, job, sleep. I had the opportunity to be able to live my passion, open my camp in Thailand in a great attractive region, so…
Why to have chosen the region of Krabi?
Because Ao Nang is a sea resort very attractive with paradisiac beaches and we are at a stage of still liveable development not as Phuket, Pattaya or Koh Samui. It is not too much invaded by the prostitution, the big hotels, finally everything bad side of the Thailand, it remained still not enough healthy…
And to Ao Nang there is no camp of boxing thus less competition, I suppose that it influenced your choice also?
Yes exact, there is just a camp in the stadium of Ao Nang with some youngs but it is everything, at the moment OK, we are the only ones here…
It was difficult as foreigner to set up your camp in Thailand?
Not it been rather simple and we had a good contact with our neighbours, Thai welcomed well us. As we have good connections and a good relational with locals, all passes for best…
At first what is that you had a precise idea to realize your project, you wanted to make a camp for the foreigners who just come to train or rather fighter’s camp?
On the base the project it was to make a camp opened to the tourists so that they can come to train in Thailand and to learn the Thai boxing with Thai but my intention in the end it is to go up a team of Thai boxers, male and feminine fighters. With of course on also some boxers professionals westerners who already come to train to us…
When do you think of set up this boxers’ team Thaïs?
At the moment we are still in a phase of locate, we look at the boxers who are worth it, more or less beginning to be able to form them in our way. No boxers with that the typically Thai style which works for example only with knees because we would like to form them also in the Boxing. Thus there we try to locate the boxers and especially to have a reliable relation with the boxers and the boss of a camp, that takes time, and it is also a financial investment…
For the girls it is going to be a little harder to find them?
Yes because girl boxer’s is rarer. On the other hand we have a girl in Bangkok which fight since quite a lot of time and which is going to compete for a title in the Queen’s Birthday, she is going to come to train here. She has connections to Bangkok with her uncle who is an owner of a camp, Kietprapat Gym. It is a very good camp but there is no girl and when she is going to train over there, that stuck little because the Thaïs boxers are little “old-fashioned”. Then she is going to come to train to us from next month…
For what title she is going to compete in the Queen’s Birthday?
She is going to make at first two, three fights of preparation and with the promoter we have ends for a championship of the World WPMF. It is the serious girl who train hard, she wants it. I am moreover going to make come some foreign fighter’s girl for a sparring with her for his preparation…
From now on more than two years than you are installed, how it is crossed with Thaïs in your camp, at the level of trainers?
Of good experiences but it is complicated, it is two different cultures which meet. Every time we renew the team, I do not take beginners, I take people with one certain experiences so that they can pass on their knowledge, I try to have good people, no interested people.
For example at the moment as to trainer we have Pakda, his name of fighting it is Wangchinchai, he has make two hundred fights with 100 victories by KO, former boxer of Boxing, he made his last fight in 43 years!
It is an old veteran of boxing rings. He is always positive, he has a great deal of connections in the south and same to Bangkok. He has trained of the champions for Sakadpetch, Singthongnoi, Prompitak. Next month we should have maybe Prompitak who is going to come here. Prompitak Kietbanchong, is a very big champion, he was Lumpinee Champion and Thailand Champion, he train to Koh Phangnan at the moment. It is a friend of Pakda. Our other trainer it is Silapeth, he has 120 fights, he fought in the TV7, in the Radja, in the Lumpinee, So at the moment we have two good trainers, maybe a third…
You had foreign champions who came to train in your camp?
Yes we had some French champions, Mohamed Bouchared, Emmanuel Payet who gained a title with us at the Queen’s Birthday, Karl Dubus a heavyweight who also make of Free Fight, we also had some French champions who came to visit us…
There is many French who come in your camp?
Yes there is not bad but bizarrely at the moment the trend is reversed we have more foreigners who come home that from French, in fact it depends on the season. But it is true that we always have at least French to the camp…
Otherwise at the level of your career you had hung up gloves but I believed to understand that you were again going to rise on the boxing ring, you can speak to us about it?
Yes by to my age, just a little deprived not to be able to any more fight at high level but one my fact of the interesting propositions with some fights of fitness’s. Not with exceptional boxers, but it’s not serious it is just for the fact of going back up on the boxing ring…
The boxing ring misses you?
Yes the boxing ring, the atmosphere. Then by doing to taking pupils on the boxing ring you want to fight also in the looks them, there is forcing adrenalin which rises. I know that I could not fight at high level as before but I can again indulge myself, I did not take bad blow thus why not to continue still little…
Your next fight it would make when?
Next month to Phuket, I would make two fights in Phuket. Then can be in the Queen’s Birthday in Bangkok and one my suggested also fighting to Rangsit, so…
It is more that a fitness there, you have a calendar charged in fight?
Yes I would like to make at least four fights before the end of the year and I also hope to fight in the King’s Birthday in December, it would be good…
Thank you Wilfried for the interview and CHOOKDEE for your fights and your camp!
Thank you Serge, CHOOKDEE to SIAMFIGHTMAG!
Wilfried (Europe Champion and France Champion) is a champion recognized in the hexagon because it fought almost everywhere worldwide, several times in Thailand in particular during the famous King’s Birthday in Bangkok. He beat champions of good names such Chalunlap (China Champion, N°3 in Lumpinee), Samkor (3 times Lumpinee Champion), Wannai Pongpila (World champion and Thailand Champion) and makes draw against redoubtable Saimai (World champion and Lumpinee champion). He also faced great champion as Dejpitak (Lumpinee champion), Narupol (Lumpinee champion), Yinyai (N°2 of Lumpinee), Mourad Sari (World champion and Lumpinee champion), Yassine Benhadj (Europe champion) and Sofiane Allouache (World champion)!
His camp to Krabi is one of the biggest and of the most beautiful of the South of the Thailand. The Emerald Gym is a camp for everybody, from the simple beginner to the professional, the trainers adapt themselves with no problem at all at every level boxers. Wilfried and his wife Eve will welcome you warmly in their magnificent camp, try the experience to the Emerald Gym you will not regret him!
WILFRIED MONTAGNE
Birth day: 22/05/1975
Weight: 70 Kg
Height: 1m75
Number of fight: 73. 54 Wins (25 KO). 16 Losses. 3 Draws
Title: Europe Champions. France Champion
EMERALD GYM
SOI 11
AO NANG
KRABI
THAILAND
Tél. : +66 08 35 48 38 50
Website : www.emerald-gym.com
Contact : contact@emerald-gym.com