By Tanya Faulkner
From working with some of the town’s most mentally unwell, to fighting elite athletes in the ring, a Dandenong local is taking his career to the next level.
Rhys Kirk, an occupational therapist out of Dandenong Hospital, is one of several amateur muay thai fighters set to embark on a journey of development in the country the sport began; Thailand.
Mr Kirk, who fights out of World Fitness Cartel (WFC) gym in Ferntree Gully, took a win against Adelaide-based Cody Roberts at the most recent Muay Thai Victoria fight in Altona earlier this month, which he said took weeks of preparation to achieve.
“We started fight camp in early December, and really ramped-up training in January leading up to the fight. I was training five days a week with a focus on speed and power, and managed to win the fight by technical knockout in the third round,” he said.
According to Mr Kirk, the process of preparing for a fight takes weeks of training, nutritional guidance, and focus to achieve a win like this.
“I had a goal of dropping to 71 kilograms to make my weight class. I worked closely with my coach [Dwayne Harris] for nutrition and weight management outside of training, which included a calorie drop and a water load. In the end I dropped six kilos the week before my fight,” he said.
A usual day for Kirk includes training before and after working at Dandenong hospital, including sparring and bag work, and also helps take classes and train other athletes at WFC gym.
Now, the amateur athlete has his eyes set on Thailand, with the opportunity to develop his skills and potentially fight overseas.
Owner of WFC gym and coach Dwayne Harris said this trip was an opportunity for several fighters, alongside Mr Kirk, to experience muay thai from its original country.
He said the trip would be a combination of a holiday mixed with full-time training for the athletes, some of whom have never been overseas.
“There will be two-hour morning and evening training sessions where they will be put through the rigours with bag work, spar work, and techniques, learning from other world-class students and former world-class champions as their trainers,” he said.
For Mr Kirk, it’s an opportunity and honour to be able to train with the Thai people on this trip.
“There is so much more to muay thai than the combat part. There’s a really big history behind it and it’s a privilege to get to train with people who have done it their entire lives and experience it in the place it’s from,” he said.
Ahead of their departure, set for late April this year, Kirk has another two fights lined up with Muay Thai Victoria in March and April, and seeks to use his Thailand experience as a lead-up to his next big fight in Victoria at the upcoming Cartel Wars.
