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April 21, 2024

Petchrungruang is a traditional muay thai gym in Pattaya, established in 1986. It is located in an alley off of the main (Sukhumvit) road in southern Pattaya. If you are driving from the south, you should see a sign for the gym at the intersection of the alleyway and road. Similar to Keatkhamtorn gym, the gym raises children from a young age to become stadium fighters. The gym definitely has a family/close knit atmosphere. I first heard about this gym from Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu, who trains here. While I was in Pattaya, I would often do morning sessions at Winner Muay Thai then head over to Petchrungruang in the afternoons. The training was tough and there were many strong younger thai fighters there. There were also a fair share of foreigners of differing backgrounds/experience, mainly Russian and Italian. The afternoon training started at around 3pm. I'd arrive, pay for my session then set my stuff in the weightroom which was adjacent to the main training area containing the bags and rings. The gym contained 2 rings (one main and one smaller), a couple of heavy bags, tires, and other various training gear. The main area is in a somewhat open air environment but the weight room is mostly enclosed. The weight room also included a matted area, which served as a warmup/cool down space. It was the perfect place to apply some nanman muay oil (hot and stuffy). I would begin the session with some shadowboxing, jumprope, and tire jumps. Then I would grab any available bag, waiting for a trainer to call me up for padwork. Padwork was either with Kru Nu (the owner) or Kru Den. I often went with Kru Den. He kept it pretty basic, but it was exhausting. Something about the way the trainers held the pads; you would really have to kick with good technique and follow through with each strike to feel a good impact. I usually got 3-4, 4 min rounds. Afterwards was usually clinching. Like other traditional thai gyms, clinching is emphasized and the clinching sessions are long. All the boys I clinched with were very strong and had incredible clinch locks. The sessions usually ended with some conditioning such as pushups, situps, and pullups. Occasionally the gym would do these "mock" fights, which consisted of 2 fighters sparring at nearly 100% (with large gloves/shinpads). They would try to recreate the atmosphere of a real fight by having corners, a referee, gamblers and audience members. It would get pretty wild and was very entertaining to watch. I could definitely see the benefit of this for those having upcoming fights. Overall, if you want an authentic training experience in Pattaya, I believe Petchrungruang would be a good choice. The training is intense but they cater to everyone; from fighters to those looking to get in shape. Most of the younger fighters were fighting on Lumpinee/Rajadamnerm cards, and some of the foreigners there were fighting on MAX. However, if you are a larger fighter, one thing to note is the majority of thai fighters there were probably around 65 kg and less. Nonetheless, you could get some very good training in.