Blair Smith is one half of the Domination team (along with Darren Curovic), as well as a legend of the Muay Thai scene in Perth as a fighter and a trainer. Blair retired from fighting and opened his gym, The Thaiboxing Pit to great success. Here is an interview with the man himself…
1. So tell us a little about yourself? How long have you been involved in the sport of Muay Thai?
I am 41 years old and have been invovled in muay thai for over 20 years first fighting out of Jeff Devines gym Saktienchia in the early 90’s then starting my own gym The Pit in 1998.
2. How did you get into promoting?
My good friend Darren Curovic was already promoting with Western Progression, things didn’t work out so Darren and I teamed up and Domination was born.
Photo by Emanuel Rudnicki www.noisypixels.com.au
3. How have the Domination fight shows evolved? What are the biggest differences between your first few shows to the latest shows?
In the start we went crazy with matches sometimes we had 22 fights on the card – we had the mentality the more fighters on the show the more punters through the door. Things have changed a lot since then, we now have a lot less fights and focus more on high quality hard match ups – everyone is matched hard, if you don’t accept our match offer you don’t get on our show. Our shows have gone from strength to strength because of our matchmaking.
4. What do you think Domination fight shows will look like in the future?
There are so many young hard boys coming through the ranks in WA at the moment we virtually don’t need to bring big names from interstate any more, WA is on the verge of becoming the strongest muay thai state in the country, our shows will continue to develop with our young guns. I’d personally like to see some media coverage from Fox sports in WA – the rest of Australia is missing out on WA’s emerging talent.
5. Are there any fighters you’d like to bring over to WA to fight?
We will bring out who ever is in form through out Australia as well as A class Thais from Bangkok.
6. How is your gym, The Thaiboxing Pit, going?
The gym is going very well mate, I couldn’t be happier with the young blood in the gym and with Clint Howson 2nd in charge and a good team of dedicated pad holders everything runs nicely. We have a heavy workload to get through every night so a good team is a must to be successful…
7. Your own son, Toby Smith, has just turned pro and is now matched up against the feared Nonsai from Thailand. You’re not holding back opponents for him, throwing him into the deep end…
Yeah mate it’s a big fight for Toby were under no illusion about that, really, but it not that much of a big deal – Toby is as hard as nails and will give it a hell of a crack. It’s no difference to the young JWP fighting Orono for the first time or Paul Briggs taking on Jomhod or Daniel Dawson squaring up against Jonsanan, these fights did no harm for there careers.
Photo by Emanuel Rudnicki www.noisypixels.com.au
8. What is Tobys 2012 looking like? Anyone in particular you’d like to match him against?Toby is planning a big 2012 he has moved full time to Kaewsamrit gym in Bangkok. We probably wont see a lot of him in Australia this year as he will be focussing on the bangkok circuit hopefully he can make his mark and pick up some big fights.
9. You’ve recently had another son born. Another fighter to add to the TBP?
Yes I have a new son 6 month old, little Zac – he comes down the gym every night after we hold pads and watches the boys clinch. He will definatley grow up around muay thai but it will be up to him if he wants to fight. My daughter Shanae has been around muay thai her whole life and has no interest in it so I guess I will just wait and see if he embraces Thaiboxing the sport of kings…
Thanks Blair. Good luck for Domination 8.
Check out Blairs gym website, The Thaiboxing Pit, here.