Muay thai fighter-cum-personal trainer Kim Khan Zaki may become a household name in Asia within the next few months.

He is taking part right now in The Contender Asia, a reality TV series where 16 promising muay thai fighters from around the world fight it out for US$250,000 ($381,000) in cash and prizes.

It is a dream come true for the professional fighter who, like many of his clients, picked up the Thai martial art just to whip himself into shape.

"There are a lot of distractions here. In Thailand, it's just eat, sleep, train." - Kim Khan Zaki

He just had to win  

The cool shorts with the Thai lettering and the pre-fight ring rituals - all these proved irresistible to a 16-year-old who had always wanted to learn a martial art. Besides, at 93kg, Kim Khan Zaki, or Zach, needed to lose a bit of weight.

Zach recalled that when he first started learning muay thai, his parents were happy that he liked the sport and felt that it was good and healthy for him.

That was until he said he wanted to fight in a match.

Despite their exclamations of "What?", "Why?" and "It's dangerous and you can get injured!", he went ahead. And true enough, he dislocated his shoulder in his first fight, back in 2000.

"Obviously, I never listened to my parents,"  he said with a wry laugh. He thought he would stop at one fight but changed his mind after losing the amateur fight.

He told himself: "I have to win one before I call it quits."

And he won his next amateur fight.

Then he wanted to go for a professional fight, where fighters wear no protection save for a pair of gloves, "just to say I've been there, done that - the real deal".

He fought in one and lost. But he did not give up. Today, Zach, 24, with 74kg on his 1.82m frame, has 16 professional fights with 11 wins under his belt. And seven of the wins were by knockouts, no less.

No black eye, please

These days, he trains about one to four clients a day. And they go to him for the same reasons he started learning muay thai.

"I don't want to train fighters yet," he explained. "It's just a whole different thing. You can't have one-hour sessions to train a fighter.

"You'll always need to spar, so you can see the punches and kicks coming as well. And I don't want to hit my clients and have them go to the office with a black eye."

The appeal of muay thai for his clients, comprising a fair mix of men and women, is that they get to hit something, like punching pads or bags.

"When they actually know how much strength to put in, rather than just punching the air, they start getting addicted to it," he said. "It lets them vent their frustrations as well."

On top of that, they learn something that can be used for self-defence - comforting knowledge, especially for the female clients.

"They get to learn how to use their elbows and knees," said Zach of the distinguishing characteristics of muay thai fighting. "And these are very good for close combat situations."

Lived and trained like a Thai

Zach's personal training commitments are sandwiched by his own training regime. He tries to go for a run, followed by some bodyweight exercises and shadow boxing early in the morning before his work.

When he gets back to his own training, often at the muay thai gym BXG Fitness, it is usually already 8pm.

There are a lot of distractions here, he said. "In Thailand, it's just eat, sleep, train."

That was what he experienced when he went for a six-month training in the boxing gyms in Thailand after his national service. He wanted to find out what it was like to "live like a Thai, train like a Thai, fight like a Thai", as the saying goes.

He paid about 20,000 baht ($888) a month then. He woke up at 5am every day for a 10km run before training by kicking pads and bags. After a rest in the afternoon, he would repeat the routine at night.

"I didn't go out, I didn't party," said Zach, who emptied his savings for the trip.

He said he hopes to go back there eventually to fight in one of the two big stadiums - Lumpinee and Rajadamnoen.

The reason is simple.

"Only the best of the best get to fight there. People who win a belt there are the top of the top in Thailand."

Zach can be reached at kickz@hotmail.com