Fight! Fight! Blood and Beer at The Legend's Fight Night

Fight Club made it look so glorious – spilling another man’s blood in the name of … actually, I’m not sure. Whatever it was, Ed Norton and Brad Pitt spent months practicing taekwondo and boxing to prepare for their roles. To which I say: Seriously? Taekwondo? Taekwondo is the Diet Coke of martial arts.

If you want to see a bunch of white-collar workers unleashing their printer-jam-induced wrath upon each other, you might as well make it a group that has been trained in the most vicious striking art of them all – Muay Thai. But let’s keep it underground (literally), for the sake of drama, and let’s involve alcohol, for the sake of obviously. Welcome to The Legend’s Fight Night.

The Legend is about as plush as boxing gyms come. With the excellent acoustics, frosty air, couches, TVs, wall-to-wall mirrors, and dudes in tight shirts checking themselves out, it’s got a bit of a swanky bar atmosphere to it. And then there’s the boxing ring in the middle. “Last year’s Fight Night turned out really well,” says Alex Ng, owner of The Legend. “We had about 80 people come to watch. It got very … loud inside.”

Matchups in both Muay Thai and Western boxing will pit The Legend’s team of fighters, men and women of all weight classes and abilities, against fighters from other gyms across Beijing. Ole Prabpramlek Sitsantad, head trainer at The Legend, is a five-time Rajadamnern Stadium champion, which is basically the Thai equivalent of saying you are the five-time ping-pong champion of China. For The Legend’s team, it means they have one of the deadliest men in the world teaching them how to hit. For the crowd, if the event is anything like last year’s, it means be prepared for a TKO or two.

As the fighters beat in each other’s faces with all eight of their limbs (fists, elbows, knees and shins), your only job is to stay clear of the spray of sweat and blood, to drink beer and to cheer. Are you not entertained?

The Legend’s Fight Night has been postponed until mid-July from the originally planned date (June 30). More details on the rescheduled event will be announced later.

Click here to see the June issue of the Beijinger in full.

Photo: Mary Dennis