Our friends over at Kickboxing 24 conducted an interview with Marcin Parcheta who recently won the WMF World Championship in Thailand. Kickboxing24 is a Polish website that covers the striking arts. The interview was originally in Polish, but translated to English. You can read the original Polish version of the interview here.
Marcin Parcheta is polish Muay Thai fighter from Szczecin. He is both a coach and fighter at Nak Muay Szczecin. He has won 11 Polish Championship Titles and 5 World Championship Titles. Recently he won WMF World Championship Title in Pro-Am formula. He fought 4 guys in 4 days, eliminating local Thai in semi-final winning the title by KO in the third round against a fighter representing the Republic of South Africa. In his hometown (Szczecin) he tries to promote the sport by organizing Muay Thai events for amateurs.
Kickboxing 24: I won’t exaggerate if I congratulate you once again in the name of all the sport fans. Another World Title, was this tournament any different?
Marcin: It was the hardest one for me so far. I have been cutting weight for 5 days straight and fought 4 tough fights.
Kickboxing 24: Four days – four fights, how did you feel psychically and psychologically? Any serious injuries?
Marcin: I had both my left feet and right shin bruised. It was not easy during these four days. But in the morning, on the day of the finals knowing it was the last day, I felt that my energy is fully restored.
Kickboxing 24: Which of the fights was the hardest for you?
Marcin: Hardest and most ferocious was the one against the Ukrainian. It was very important for him to win it after loosing to me in 2011 finals, but once again I emerged victorious.
Marcin Parcheta is polish Muay Thai fighter from Szczecin. He is both a coach and fighter at Nak Muay Szczecin. He has won 11 Polish Championship Titles and 5 World Championship Titles. Recently he won WMF World Championship Title in Pro-Am formula. He fought 4 guys in 4 days, eliminating local Thai in semi-final winning the title by KO in the third round against a fighter representing the Republic of South Africa. In his hometown (Szczecin) he tries to promote the sport by organizing Muay Thai events for amateurs.
Kickboxing 24: I won’t exaggerate if I congratulate you once again in the name of all the sport fans. Another World Title, was this tournament any different?
Marcin: It was the hardest one for me so far. I have been cutting weight for 5 days straight and fought 4 tough fights.
Kickboxing 24: Four days – four fights, how did you feel psychically and psychologically? Any serious injuries?
Marcin: I had both my left feet and right shin bruised. It was not easy during these four days. But in the morning, on the day of the finals knowing it was the last day, I felt that my energy is fully restored.
Kickboxing 24: Which of the fights was the hardest for you?
Marcin: Hardest and most ferocious was the one against the Ukrainian. It was very important for him to win it after loosing to me in 2011 finals, but once again I emerged victorious.
Kickboxing 24: Who were your corner men?
Marcin: Coach from Puncher Wrocław (Polish Nathional Muay Thai coach), and Antonio Delf from Strasbourg.
Kickboxing 24: How was the Bangkok event organized? How many people were watching your fights?
Marcin: This is the best tournament I've participated in. First of all it takes place in the world capitol of Muay Thai - Bangkok. Secondly it is under patronage of the Thai Ministry of Sports, Thai’s really attach huge weight in to organizing it. It's like Muay Thai marathon, organized on the open air, every evening it attracts huge amount of fans.
Kickboxing 24: How many days did you spend in Thailand? How would you rate trainings at Sasiprapa Gym?
Marcin: I flew here 8 days before the event and started to acclimate. It is not that easy, since the climate in Thailand is pretty tough for foreigners. Sasiprapa Gym is a well known gym in Thailand and in the whole Muay Thai world for that matter. I had some quality training sessions over there.
Kickboxing 24: Many people in Poland supported you during fight days. Do you think Muay Thai became more popular recently?
Marcin: I would like to thank all of you for the support once again. It gave me lots of strength. Also I have to thank my teammates from Nak Muay Szczecin. I would not be able to prepare myself for the fights without them. And for the second part of the question, unfortunately no, still MMA is most popular.
Kickboxing 24: Looking how martial arts has evolved, it seems like MMA is growing fastest of them all. Many observers do not really understand/enjoy the ground game though. On the other hand Muay Thai is all about constant action, pure show. Do you think it could reach a bigger audience?
Marcin: MMA is so popular thanks to big promotion groups and investments from rich and influential people. Thanks to them mixed martial arts made it to public TV. If we could get that level of publicity towards Muay Thai we would see more dynamic, dramatic fights and much better prepared fighters. We already have some events which are very spectacular like Thai Fight or K-1 Max. All we need is promotion. I’m not against MMA, few of my good friends are leading polish MMA fighters and I train with them a lot. It just hurts to see Muay Thai gets so little attention.
Kickoxing 24: Do you prefer K-1 or Muay Thai fight rules?
Marcin: Doesn’t really matter to me, but I prefer Muay Thai rules.
Kickboxing 24: When are we going to see Marcin Parcheta fighting again?
Marcin: Need to get some rest for now, but I'm waiting for response about fighting abroad again.
Kickboxing 24: Thank you for the interview. Would you like to thank anyone?
Marcin: Yes, thanks to all the people supporting me physically and spiritually. All guys from Nak Muay Szczecin, and coaches from BKS Skorpion Szczecin: Marcin Stankiewicz and Karol Chabros!
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