Aaron Leverton sizes up the four Khmer fighters on the fight card Thursday night, the men who will literally be putting their bodies on the line in the name of national and personal pride.

“The Dragon”

Nicknamed “The Dragon” due to the full-canvass tattoo covering his back, Meas Chantha has the reputation of a killer, figuratively, if not literally. Currently the most dominant kickboxer in his weight class, Meas Chantha is the guy listed as “the only one who can beat Chey Kosal”. It helps if you know who Chey Kosal actually is, but, then again, that kind of title is fairly self-explanatory.

The recently married 23-year old is one of the true favourites of the Kun Khmer scene and one of the two or three most likely to inherit Ei Phouthang’s mantle as national hero. After defeating Chey Kosal to take the Cambodian-title in the Thai-created S1 Championship (a 65kg class tournament) in 2006, Meas Chantha travelled to Greece for the S1 World Championship last year. Chantha is still wondering where the apparently big-budget, and definitely self-hyped, tournament spent its money. His ticket put him in Greece the day before his first fight and without his trainer. No serious boxer ever travels without a retinue, let alone a trainer. His performance in the ring reflected it and there are still dark mutterings about money being owed.

Trips to Australia, where Mrs Meas hails from, however, have proven more successful for Chantha. There is a small corps of Kun Khmer enthusiasts downunder, most of them springing from the expatriate Khmer community, but Anglos (and others) have joined the fun and the major cities on the eastern seaboard host regular fights billed as “Ancient Battles”. To keep the flavour real, genuine Khmer boxers make the trip downunder as the drawcards. After an early defeat Chantha has gone back stronger and more determined each time. His record of victories shows it.

Born in Kandal’s Rokah Kong district, some 45km north of the capital, in 1985, Chantha has the serious air of someone who has worked harder than most to get where he is. Of course, to be able to beat everybody else usually does mean you’ve worked harder than them, but in comparison to Vorn Viva, Chantha is Mr Super Serious. He’s also Mr Super Polite. I’ll bet his mum is a mean old lady who beat good manners into him with a sledgehammer.

But polite ends the moment you climb over the ring ropes. Joel Nardin, the amateur New Zealand Champion, is a polite guy, too, but he discovered the hard way how seriously the Khmers take their kickboxing. Nardin put his left elbow into Chantha’s face in a strike that should have put the Cambodian fighter on the canvass. Instead he shrugged it off and returned the favour. Five seconds later, after a straight knee to the solar plexus, Joel was the one on the canvass suffering the indignity, not to mention the very real pain, of an eight-count.

After the disappointment of Greece and the S1 World Championship debacle, the recently-married, as well as recent father, Meas Chantha is looking to make his mark on the world-stage in his national sport and chosen vocation. Boxers have short career-spans compared to the rest of us and the need to pay off early is great. With a family to support and nowhere to go but down in Cambodia, Chantha knows what lifting a World Title belt on August 28th will mean.

Trained by kru Chhit Sarim from the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces boxing club (the former home of official national legend Ei Phouthang), Meas Chantha goes into the World Title Fight with a record of 48 fights with 34 wins, 12 losses and 2 draws. Among those 34 wins is the 2006 S1 Championship in Cambodia and one of those 12 losses is the 2007 67kg National Championships; more on that one later.

Nuon Soriya

Reigning national 64kg class champion Nuon Soriya is the hard luck story of the Fight of the Century. Hospitalised more than a month and a half before the fight, Soriya nonetheless found himself removed from the card because of scheduling needs; even although he probably would have been fit in time for the event, the need to lock the names down ahead of time worked against him.

Pich Sophan

Instead of Nuon Soriya, defending Cambodia’s pride is 66 kg National Champion Pich Sophan, who will be taking on former ISKA 66 kg World Champion Tim Thomas from the UK. Sophan’s surname literally translates as “diamond”, which is vastly different from the too-obvious nickname he has in English – Soap.

He may have been given an unfortunate, or at least unworthy, nickname, but that doesn’t change the fact that the 27-year old Diamond Soap shares the same club and trainer as 68kg world title contender Meas Chantha and his record shows it; 63 fights, 54 wins (including the 2006 66kg National Title), 9 losses.

Em Vutha

Filling out the card for the international fights is 18-year old Em Vutha. In promos for the Fight of the Century Em Vutha and Pich Sophan were stood next to each other and it isn’t too hard to see the nearly ten kilogram difference between the two. Em Vutha will be fighting gun 19-year old Australian Jacob Marks. If Marks’ promo photo makes him look like the teenager he soon won’t be, Vutha’s diet of rice makes him look a couple of years older than he is. Until he speaks.

Standing next to his kru (trainer) and in the presence of such legendary Khmer Boxers as Meas Chantha and Chey Kosal, Em Vutha kept his eyes down and his demeanour serious, in stark contrast to the recent contestants from CTN’s Kun Khmer Champion, who had just spent four months on television and had no problem laughing at their supposed betters’ multiple takes during the shooting of fight promos.

Trained by kru Em Chansophan (no relation!) at the Krud Meanchey boxing club, the 167cm 18-year old goes into the biggest fight of his career with a record of 24 fights, 15 wins, 7 losses and 2 draws.

Vorn Viva

Built around a cluster of low hills on Route 6, Batheay practically bisects the Kampong Cham plain. North of Batheay the sugar palms, the country’s symbol, stretch as far as the eye can see, south of town the rice paddies go uninterrupted virtually to the horizon.

Built like one of the sugar palms that mark his home, Vorn Viva is tall, his height hiding a body of incredible power. Kiwi Steve Donaldson found himself giving away twelve centimetres in height, a rare occurrence for a westerner fighting in Cambodia. Steve was also giving away a near religious vocation when comparing his commitment to kickboxing with Vorn Viva’s. For Steve, and his twin brother Andy, kickboxing began as a hobby, a way to keep fit. For Viva it was a way out of the village and maybe to fame and fortune.

After his spectacular “coming out party” at the 2007 Nationals against Meas Chantha, the fame is there. On anybody’s list he makes the top ten in the country, usually the top five. Only age counts against him. Viva is still young enough that if he wins the world title belt on August 28th he has almost his entire career ahead of him to defend it, lose it and win it back numerous times. Winning the ISKA World Title would give him the perfect entrée to the world of professional kickboxing outside Cambodia. Japan’s K1 championship regularly pays out purses many times what kickboxers earn locally and with Kun Khmer still building its brand against developed competition from the Thais, Viva will need that kind of experience if he wants to dominate kickboxing the way Ei Phouthang has.

Viva is known for his use of his elbows. In January, 2007, fighting against Australian Ben Mountford, Viva split his opponent’s head open with an elbow strike in the 2nd round. The big guy doesn’t look like a street-fighting thug; instead he has the looks of a model or matinee idol and the smile of everybody’s slightly-more-successful best mate. He probably has to beat the girls off with a stick, too. Or maybe he chooses not to. On the subject of girls he just smiles.

Typically fight fans will talk about the hardest/toughest/meanest fight they’ve seen (and they wonder why people look at them strangely for enjoying the spectacle of two grown men trying to hurt each other!). Viva’s greatest hits (both literally and figuratively) came in the ring at CTN in the afore-mentioned Cambodia vs Australia show. But last year Viva put the country on notice at the National Championships.

The Nationals are a ten-day tournament covering every weight division and which any registered boxer can enter.

At the time Vorn Viva and Meas Chantha weighed in the same and the 67kg final is a well-remembered epic. “Chantha came into that fight looking to own the title,” boxing blogger Robert Starkweather (who can usually be found ringside with his camera) recalls. “He tried everything. Remember, this is the guy who defeated Chey Kosal (nicknamed “the Bull” by some Australian fight fans) at the S1 final by breaking his rib. Well, everything he did, Viva answered. You could see that Chantha was getting frustrated. No matter what he did Viva was there, or Viva came straight back and he seemed to hit just a little bit harder each time than Chantha could.”

“Chantha didn’t lose that fight, Viva won it,” Starkweather says.

Since then Viva has, visibly, had his final growth spurt and added over five kilos to his frame, taking him up two weight divisions.

Vorn Viva is such a talent that he now can’t find opponents in Cambodia. Sometimes legend transcends the facts (for instance, Ali called himself “the Greatest”, and while his 93.3% victory rate shades Larry Holmes’ 92%, both lose out to Rocky Marciano who went undefeated in 49 fights); on paper Viva is beatable, as his record shows, but that performance at the Nationals, coupled with his newer, bigger body, has made him so intimidating that no-one wants to build their legend in the ring against him.

Vorn Viva: 23 fights, 15 wins, 7 losses and 1 draw.

The World Title Fight will be held in the Olympic Stadium Indoor Arena on Thursday August 28th. Gates open at 6:30pm.