With her hair perpetually in a ponytail, and with an easy smile and general effervescence, Joey Lee's the kind of girl who would win Miss Congeniality at any event. But she's not heading to any competition with an evening gown and bikini round. Her competition may have voyeuristic masses of screaming men, but her stage is a square-shaped battle ground and bruises, blood and bone-crunching, though not expected, are still anticipated by the wolverine crowds that congregate to watch this sport.
Traditional Muay Thai's history is distilled from Thailand, where, historically, it was a martial art used only by men in the military. Known as "The Science of Eight Limbs", hands, shins, elbows and knees are all used extensively. A Muay Thai competitor has the ability to execute strikes using eight points of contact. If late night forays into Cable TV's numbing pleasures have gotten to you, you might have witnessed the versatile, brutal martial art on 3:00am shows, and been riveted for its heated, quick and intense exercises of pain and submission.
Women were not allowed to take part in this often bloodless but bruisey sport until quiet recently. It's definitely an acquired taste and as Michelle Moldowan, Lee's childhood friend, points out, Lee wasn't born into it.
"When I knew her back in Canada, she was a very sporty, competitive person but she certainly wasn't kicking people around at an early age. I knew her from basketball and she was very determined, and in fact I remember not liking her much when I first met her!" She smiles, gives Joey a look and continues with brutal honesty, "She is just very focused on what she does, and she does it well. You have to admire
that."
While many train since tender ages, Lee has only been doing this for the past six years and is already ranked among the best in the field. With gender no bar, she has sparred with guys and gals with equal ease.
"The biggest challenge doesn't really, come from the physical aspect of this sport," she says. "As a female, its really, really hard to find a good training partner. For a competition you have to spar quite a bit and when you have, pound for pound a sparring partner, you have to find someone who's on the same level as you and someone who's the same weight. So experience and weight wise, it's really difficult to find women to train with. So you end up sparring with guys quite a bit, guys who are either heavier than you, who don't go very hard to go down to your weight. Or you end up with guys who are very green who go nuts and you end up getting hurt."
Watching others hem and heave in the ring as bullets of sweat drip down, this is one of the fastest ways to loose weight, tone and train at Pure Fitness, where Lee has a daytime gig as a personal trainer. Many have seen her kicking around at IFC, in her shimmering, trademark pink shorts as her legs go up to smack the training boards that her sparring partners sheathe their arms with. Sharp slaps of contact reverberate in the gym and they punctuate the Hip-Hop, Techno muzac that runs in endless cycles. How this little frame of a body can execute such sharp bursts of energy is beyond comprehension.
During a quick body check for perforated injuries and post-fight collateral damage, she appears surprisingly unscathed. "The only injuries I've had are two black eyes-both from training, not from actual fights," she says with a laugh. "I've had a hyper-extended elbow, which is also from sparring; I went to throw a cross and she went in for a hook and hit me right in the elbow. Flexibility wise, that's beyond the proper range of motion so tendons get stretched and that's not a nice feeling. Otherwise, I've had one badly bruised knuckle and swollen hands, but no major injury. I punched a girl on the skull and even with gloves on, I bust up my hands more than I hurt her head."
Indeed, everything's a life lesson in a sport where if you're still standing straight and walking out calmly, you're the winner at large. "No bleeding noses, no major bruises and all my teeth are still there. But they're all fake, but is that what you're asking me?" Oh she kids too.
Rigorous training, four to five times a week, particularly just before a fight means that Lee will drop anywhere between 10 to 11 pounds. Gearing up for her next match, her bags are neatly packed and she's representing Hong Kong (she was born here) in a world arena, while her family has its collective fingers and toes crossed, wishing her luck.
"My mom is very supportive but after seeing my first fight, yeah, she couldn't come to any more," she says reflecting on those back home, half a planet away in Canada. "No mother really wants to see her kid get beaten up, which is cool, but she's been supportive of everything I do."
As we go to print, Lee is training for her next big fight in Australia with her trainer Pierre Ingrassia, who says his "tough little girl" has it in her to be the best.
"Not just the best, but the World Champion. There's no one around that's as good as her. With the right support and training, she's the one to beat."
World you have been warned.
Also see feature 24 hours: Joey Lee
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