Former WBC heavyweight boxing champion, television personality and gentleman, Frank Bruno MBE, recently visited Pattaya for a series of promotional events, including an evening of white-collar boxing at Thepprasit Thai Boxing Stadium.
Another event Bruno attended was a charity evening at the Robin Hood Tavern in aid of two local charities, Hand to Hand Foundation and the Father Ray Foundation.
It was here that he met ten boxers from the Father Ray Children’s Home.
The boys at the Home do not take up Muay Thai boxing so that they can become a future world champion, or to be the toughest kid at school, they take up the sport so they can cope with the life they have.
Coming to terms with being abandoned and neglected by your parents, being abused by family members and then being left at the Children’s Home, where you know no-on and really don’t want to be, can lead to behavioural problems.
Often the abused child becomes the abuser as they take their anger and frustration out on other children.
This is where boxing comes in as it teaches the boys, and some girls, discipline and respect. It also gives them direction and focus and the boys are less likely to start a fight, they will usually try to calm a situation. It also integrates them into the Home and they also make friends.
They also have discipline not only to box, but also to go to school, study and work hard for the life they want to lead.
After many hours of training with Khru Porn at the Home the boys arrived at the Robin Hood Tavern to perform a Muay Thai exhibition for Bruno and the assembled crowd, all of whom had paid a lot of money to be there.
They were so excited to be meeting a former world champion, but unfortunately there was not enough room to perform in the bar, so being the gentleman he is, the boxing legend left all his paying guests sitting at their tables as he came outside to watch the boys perform.
And he was very impressed watching as they boys, the youngest just eight years of age, punched, kicked, kneed and elbowed the pads, and once they were finished Bruno then signed all their gloves and pads as well as posing for photos.
As they waved farewell to Frank Bruno the boys couldn’t believe that they had just met a real life world champion.
