Chicks who kick ass

The Million Dollar Baby has nothing on this gang. Meet the women behind Chicks That Kick Kick what, you may ask? Any butt these masters of Muay Thai want to

Sep. 20, 2005. 06:30 AM
MEGAN OGILVIE

They spend most nights in the gym, preparing for the fight.

The drone of a thumping techno beat drowns out their groans and grunts as they skip rope at breathless speeds, pound out dozens of sit-ups, and work on their deadly technique.

These young women are Chicks That Kick, Canada's first all-female Muay Thai collective, and they have waited more than a year for this fight. With less than two weeks to go, every last training minute counts.

The Toronto group is hosting the province's first all-female Muay Thai Fight Card Oct. 2. Sixteen women Mauy Thai fighters will get a chance to step into the ring for their first sanctioned fight in Ontario.

Something the women have been wanting for a long time, says Sofia Ramirez, founder of Chicks That Kick.

Muay Thai — also called, more simply, Thai boxing — is often called the deadliest of the martial arts. Muay Thai makes use of a fighter's eight weapons — the hands, feet, elbows and knees, times two for each, of course — to defeat an opponent. It was first used as a close-combat fighting skill for the battlefield and, in later centuries, became the entertainment of kings.

To heighten the drama, and increase the bloodletting, some fighters wrapped their hands in twine and covered them in tar and broken glass — much like the Hanson brothers did with tinfoil, famously, in Slap Shot.

While modern day fighters forgo the glass-covered gloves, Muay Thai is still plenty tough. But the women of Chicks That Kick say that's what they like most — the toughness. The confidence they glean in fighting carries over into all realms of their life. "Muay Thai is a passion for all of us in the group," says Ramirez, 32, who works in public relations for the Hospital for Sick Children. On a recent Tuesday evening, five Chicks That Kick met for an after-work drink at a trendy King St. W. café. Slim, sexy and elegantly urban, the five women don't look like hard-hitting Muay Thai fighters.

Their appearances are one of the biggest misconceptions the women face, says Lucy O'Neill, a junior producer at a Toronto post-production house.

"It's not just butchy girls who fight," she laughs. "We can be tough and feminine at the same time."

Four years ago, Ramirez turned to Muay Thai as an outlet for her stress during, what she calls, a tough personal time in her life. At first, she was the only woman in the classes, but slowly she met other young female Muay Thai fighters.

Ramirez decided to get all the women together to find out if they wanted to form an all-woman's group.

They wanted camaraderie in their sport and decided to go all in. "We all started brainstorming ideas for a group name," she says. "We came up with really bad names, like Warrior Women, Roar — Respect Our Athletic Rights, and Vixens." Remembering the names they came up with a year ago, the table of Muay Thai fighters erupts into laughter.

"Sarah is still hooked on Warrior Princesses," says Ramirez as she points across the table. Chicks That Kick has two goals: create more opportunities for women to compete in amateur Muay Thai and to give back to their community, says Ramirez.

Because there are so few expert women Muay Thai fighters in Ontario, Chicks That Kick had to organize the first all- female fight card in the province. All proceeds from the fight will go toward the SickKids Priorities Fund.

"There were very few opportunities for women in Ontario," says Ramirez, who now trains at White Tiger with Kru Darwin, the North American super lightweight champion.

"Women can't get fights here. So we decided to create our own opportunities."

For the last two years, Melissa Misiuda, the Muay Thai Canadian middleweight champion from Toronto, hasn't been able to get a fight for two and a half years.

There was simply no opportunity to fight in Canada. As a result, the Chicks That Kick Tournament will be her first — and the province's first chance to see her in action for real. All the woman of Chicks That Kick have different reasons for taking on Muay Thai. O'Neill, 28, saw her first Muay Thai fight when she visited Thailand four years ago. From the moment the fighters stepped in the ring she was hooked.

"I spent six hours watching it," she laughs. "I loved it. It looked like they were killing each other in the ring.

"Blue knocked out red. But they hugged each other at the end of the match. That would not happen in any other sport in North America."
O'Neill now trains five days a week.

"Muay Thai has given me confidence," she says. "I carry it from training into other parts of my life."

Fellow Chick Annalisa Hill, 24, also fell in love with Muay Thai after watching one match in Thailand.

When she came home, Hill joined a Muay Thai gym and now trains at Siam Number One in Toronto.

"I was fascinated by Muay Thai," she says. "I had tried so many different kinds of martial arts before, but none kept my attention.

"Muay Thai seems so brutal, but there is a strong culture of respect behind it. I need to be consistently challenged and Muay Thai does that for me every day."

Sarah Thompson, a media relations manager at a Toronto IT consulting company, says Muay Thai has brought her patience. About 10 years ago, Thompson turned to kickboxing — what she calls a bastardized version of Muay Thai — to help her lose weight. It worked; she dropped 60 pounds in four years.

Wanting something more than a fitness regime, she decided to try Muay Thai after she was accosted by a trainer while walking down King St. W.

She's now been training for three years.

"I know I can walk home at 12:30 at night from a concert with no one around and be okay," she says.

"I know I could kick, punch or out-do anyone."

The women Muay Thai fighters admit this poise and self-confidence can be a deterrent when meeting men.

"After I told this guy about Muay Thai on our first date, he dropped off the face of the planet," laughs Hill, who now has a steady boyfriend, who likes her Muay Thai skills.
Ramirez, too, has had problems meeting the right person.

"You need a really, really strong guy to keep up with you," she says.