This is a review for Tiger Muay Thai & MMA in Phuket, Thailand. I turned up and originally planned and paid to stay here for 1 week... 1 week turned into 2 weeks. Then I came back for a month.
Pricing
The cost for training is about average for a Farang training in Thailand, and is as follows:
A strong recommendation I will make, is that if you are coming here on a budget and/or have not done much intense training before, then only pay a week or so in advance. Time and time again people pay up for 3 months in advance, then only train a few times a week. Pay a week in advance and then see how much you think you will train before shelling out loads of cash in advance.
Payment is accepted via cash or credit card (Visa & MasterCard).
Accommodation
Rooms vary from 2,500B (small room with fan) to 20,000B+ (room with air con and all modern facilities and a swimming pool)/month. I was paying 12,000B for a very nice double room with cable TV, Wi-Fi, hot electric shower etc. at a place just down the road called 'The Nature House'.
My advice for accommodation is to only pre pay a few days or a week to start with. As you may find something much cheaper or if you already have a cheap room you may not like it and wish to upgrade.
A good (but not exhaustive) accommodation list is available on the TMT website.
Food
Eating in the local area can be anything from 40B a meal to 350B+ depending on where and what you eat. The cheaper meals tend to be Thai food (generally consisting of rice or noodles dishes), western food is much more expensive. A restaurant called Mama's is one of the cheapest around here and has a solid reputation. They also have cheap rooms available (9,000B/month).
Whatever you do, DON'T pay in advance for the food plan at the gym. It is overpriced and many people end up missing meals. There are plenty of other places to eat, variety is more fun than eating at the same place every day.
Training
As well as Muay Thai, the gym offers classes in MMA (mostly no gi jiu jitsu and sparring), Western Boxing, Krabi Krabong, Yoga and Circuit training.
In all honesty, the Muay Thai classes are overcrowded, and you will unlikely be recognised and given individual attention unless you stay a long period of time, or pay extra for private sessions. But you can still get a good work out.
The western boxing classes are good, with two world champions and a stadium champion instructing. But can still get very busy.
The MMA classes I have mixed feelings towards. The mornings are just no gi jiu jitsu (which is taught to a fairly decent level by Ray Elbe) and the afternoons are fairly intense sparring. And they do have a nice cage to train in. However no wrestling is taught.
If you want to do MMA here then my advice is to get the best of it by training the morning no gi BJJ class and then do the Muay Thai or Western Boxing class in the afternoons.
The gym also hosts seminars often (most of which are free) with visiting fighters. Whilst I was there Royce Gracie, Alberto Crane and Roger Huerta gave seminars!
Facilities
Tiger Muay Thai has some of the best facilities in all of Thailand. At the time of writing they have 6 rings, a MMA cage, a weights room (with enough benches, racks, machines and weights to get a really good workout), another weights area with lots of kettlebells and several spinning bikes, and many heavy bags. They are also having a large extension built.
Location
Phuket is a very large tourist destination. However, Tiger Muay Thai is located in the subdistrict of Chalong, which is cut off from most of the distractions this brings (beaches, bars, nightlife etc), but these are easily accessible by taxi or if you rent a scooter for 3-4,000B per month.
I'd recommend a scooter if you are staying for any period of time (just be careful, there are some 10,000 accidents a year in Phuket alone involving bikes).
With the freedom of a bike you can access the food and clothing markets, Central Festival shopping centre (including cinema), Beaches, Bars & Clubs, the local Zoo, the aquariam, Elephant trekking, Snake shows etc!
Equipment Shop
The price of most things in this shop are jacked up. Shop around unless there is something really specific you want here.
Personal Comments
Your time at Tiger Muay Thai will be what you make it. It can be a serious training camp or you can come here with the best of intentions yet get caught up in boozing most nights and spending your days on the beaches... or you can do a bit of both.
This place is aimed more towards the casual trainer on holiday with plenty of cash to spare, so unless you are quite tight fisted you can easily spend a lot of money.
I made lots of friends and enjoyed myself and what all the different classes had to offer, but after a time I grew tired of the overcrowded and commercial side to the gym and decided to switch over to Dragon Muay Thai just down the road...
Pricing
The cost for training is about average for a Farang training in Thailand, and is as follows:
- Half day 300B
- Full day 500B
- Week 2500B
- Month 9000B
- 3 Months 24000B
A strong recommendation I will make, is that if you are coming here on a budget and/or have not done much intense training before, then only pay a week or so in advance. Time and time again people pay up for 3 months in advance, then only train a few times a week. Pay a week in advance and then see how much you think you will train before shelling out loads of cash in advance.
Payment is accepted via cash or credit card (Visa & MasterCard).
Accommodation
Rooms vary from 2,500B (small room with fan) to 20,000B+ (room with air con and all modern facilities and a swimming pool)/month. I was paying 12,000B for a very nice double room with cable TV, Wi-Fi, hot electric shower etc. at a place just down the road called 'The Nature House'.
My advice for accommodation is to only pre pay a few days or a week to start with. As you may find something much cheaper or if you already have a cheap room you may not like it and wish to upgrade.
A good (but not exhaustive) accommodation list is available on the TMT website.
Food
Eating in the local area can be anything from 40B a meal to 350B+ depending on where and what you eat. The cheaper meals tend to be Thai food (generally consisting of rice or noodles dishes), western food is much more expensive. A restaurant called Mama's is one of the cheapest around here and has a solid reputation. They also have cheap rooms available (9,000B/month).
Whatever you do, DON'T pay in advance for the food plan at the gym. It is overpriced and many people end up missing meals. There are plenty of other places to eat, variety is more fun than eating at the same place every day.
Training
As well as Muay Thai, the gym offers classes in MMA (mostly no gi jiu jitsu and sparring), Western Boxing, Krabi Krabong, Yoga and Circuit training.
In all honesty, the Muay Thai classes are overcrowded, and you will unlikely be recognised and given individual attention unless you stay a long period of time, or pay extra for private sessions. But you can still get a good work out.
The western boxing classes are good, with two world champions and a stadium champion instructing. But can still get very busy.
The MMA classes I have mixed feelings towards. The mornings are just no gi jiu jitsu (which is taught to a fairly decent level by Ray Elbe) and the afternoons are fairly intense sparring. And they do have a nice cage to train in. However no wrestling is taught.
If you want to do MMA here then my advice is to get the best of it by training the morning no gi BJJ class and then do the Muay Thai or Western Boxing class in the afternoons.
The gym also hosts seminars often (most of which are free) with visiting fighters. Whilst I was there Royce Gracie, Alberto Crane and Roger Huerta gave seminars!
Facilities
Tiger Muay Thai has some of the best facilities in all of Thailand. At the time of writing they have 6 rings, a MMA cage, a weights room (with enough benches, racks, machines and weights to get a really good workout), another weights area with lots of kettlebells and several spinning bikes, and many heavy bags. They are also having a large extension built.
Location
Phuket is a very large tourist destination. However, Tiger Muay Thai is located in the subdistrict of Chalong, which is cut off from most of the distractions this brings (beaches, bars, nightlife etc), but these are easily accessible by taxi or if you rent a scooter for 3-4,000B per month.
I'd recommend a scooter if you are staying for any period of time (just be careful, there are some 10,000 accidents a year in Phuket alone involving bikes).
With the freedom of a bike you can access the food and clothing markets, Central Festival shopping centre (including cinema), Beaches, Bars & Clubs, the local Zoo, the aquariam, Elephant trekking, Snake shows etc!
Equipment Shop
The price of most things in this shop are jacked up. Shop around unless there is something really specific you want here.
Personal Comments
Your time at Tiger Muay Thai will be what you make it. It can be a serious training camp or you can come here with the best of intentions yet get caught up in boozing most nights and spending your days on the beaches... or you can do a bit of both.
This place is aimed more towards the casual trainer on holiday with plenty of cash to spare, so unless you are quite tight fisted you can easily spend a lot of money.
I made lots of friends and enjoyed myself and what all the different classes had to offer, but after a time I grew tired of the overcrowded and commercial side to the gym and decided to switch over to Dragon Muay Thai just down the road...
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