John Wayne Parr

As for the fight I thought I did well the first 2 rounds, the 3rd was close as I was tagging Eugene on the way in as he was starting to get his grappling happen. 4th and 5th end up going very opposite of whatI was planning when Eugene came into the grapple, not sure if it was the extra weight or just Eugene’s grappling style but it really sucked the life out of me and I just couldn’t manage to keep him off. End of the fight I didn’t do my usual carrying on cause I knew it was close and never sure what the judges are thinking, I had a gut feeling it was 2 rounds each with the middle round was the decider. When they called the draw you sort of get that “mmmm, I’m not quite happy but I’m not quite sad, I am just where I started before the fight”. Angie’s Dad told me that getting a draw is like kissing your sister, its winning and losing at the same time.

After the fight I looked in the mirror and seen my two cuts, one was pretty massive and the other just a paper cut. I told the boys to grab the camera and tried to make a few disgusting video’s while I was still numb from the fight. Doc phil put in 3 internal stitches and 9 on the outside, with the other cut Phil said ”I can either jab you three times with local anaesthetic or I can give you three stitches”, I decided on the latter and tried to be a tough guy while getting put together in front of the boys (so stupid, hurt so bad).

Eugene came into the room and had a chat after the fight, no hard feeling and end of the day just a sport. Eugene is one of the true gentlemen of the sport and really nice guy. Maybe one day we will fight again, still questions marks as to who will win, but for now it’s time to rest and heal. Before a fight I can’t wait to get in there, after the fight I am quickly reminded that fighting bloody hurts. I guess its like a tattoo, hurts for a week, give it a month and can’t wait for the next one.
Next fight June 12th, mmmm, deep down inside I cant wait to punch on again and make up for this draw.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CopRQm3ls5s

Before the lunch time gig we went and visited the kids at the Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. I was a little worried going up thinking “oh man, none of these kids are going to know who I am and going to look like a goose”, another one of my worries is seeing really sick kids that never got a fair chance in life like the rest of us. When I got out of the lift in front of us was a little fella wearing his gym’s Muay Thai shirt with a tube in his nose and a very surprised Mum. We gave a talk to a few of the kids and their parents, I talked about my time in Thailand and Contender and Tino talked about why its not right to fight on the street, we took some photos and signed a few things for everyone that wanted one.

One lot of parents got me to sign something for them and a photo before they told me “you have really put a little happiness in our day and so glade to meet you. We got a little bit of bad news this morning that our 3yo son has cancer tumours on the brain, he starts treatment soon and hopefully when he beats it and gets older we can show what you have signed for him”. Man I was hit for six and really had no idea what to say.

Next the little boy I met before me in the lift come up with his Mum, poor little fella had tubes coming out of his nose and bandages on his arms. He really seemed genuinely excited to be getting a photo with me and when he put his hands up had a way more staunch guard then I did. When we left the hospital couldn’t help feel some what sad for these little guys who have to struggle so early just to stay alive. I just got back to the Gold Coast now I had a email from the mother of the little guy with the tubes.

Dear John Wayne
On behalf of my son Joel, I’d just like to say what a thrill it was to meet you at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth on Friday February 26th 2010.
You have no idea how exciting it was when we stepped into the elevator, coincidentally decked out in our Odine’s Martial Arts Centre TShirts, and saw the poster “John Wayne Parr in the Megazone today”
Joel spotted you before I did,”Hey Mum look it’s John Wayne Parr from dad’s Devvee devvee’s (DVD’s) Coooool!”
It was 9.50 am and you were coming in 10 mins so we bolted up to the Megazone only to realise Joel had to haave meds at 10.15! I don’t know who’s eyes bulged more when we went to step back into the elevator and saw you and your whole crew.
You were all so polite and down to earth. When you acknowledged Joel and flashed that gorgeous big smile my eyes welled up!
We flew up to his room, and he had to have a couple of pin pricks in his finger to take blood to test antibiotic levels in his system. Of course he was hysterical for this, but as soon as I said “Do you want John Wayne Parr to see you crying Buddy” he snapped right out of it and we headed back up to see you all.
So on behalf of my Husband Craig and Joel and Jeslyn thankyou from the bottom of my heart for visiting PMH. You really gave us reason to smile on Friday.

About Joel:
Joel was born 10 weeks prem in February 2002 weighing 2lb 14oz. At 2 weeks of age he was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. Little did Craig and I know we shared the gene that causes Cystic Fibrosis. We also have a little girl Jeslyn who’s 5 but she doesn’t carry the gene.

Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited genetic disease. It is caused by a malfunctioning membrane that prevents salt and chloride ions being produced in the body thus resulting in the body producing a thick sticky mucus that blocks the Lungs, Pancreas, Salt Glands, and Reproductive System.

Joel has Physiotherapy every day to remove Mucus from his Lungs. This is important because if he gets a chest infection the bacteria grow in the Mucus and this results in Lung damage. It is a progressive disorder which means every Chest Infection he gets causes more Lungs damage resulting in a short life expectancy. Most CF kids will need a Lung Transplant in their 20′s or 30′s.

Joel is very energetic, he loves to swim, ride, he has a scooter and a go kart and we have a small pool in the back yard.
I started Muay Thai at my brother in law Gary Odine’s gym in December and have to admit, I feel better in myself and more confident!
It wasn’t until start of school year that I made the decision to start Joel and Jeslyn taking Muay Thai with Uncle and now I’m so glad I did. They both thoroughly enjoy it. But THE best part is Joel now has a real life idol, John Wayne Parr! We used to use The Hulk or ben 10 as examples.

“Mate if you drink all this up you’ll get muscles like the Hulk!” to my delight only a month ago he said “will I be big and strong like John Wayne Parr?” Mummy’s eyes welled up, because Joel is also Intellectually handicapped, awaiting Autism Assessment, so for him to realise you as an idol of his own accord was very special to me.
Stay just the way you are – John Wayne Parr! You are everything I aspire my little boy to be
Kindest regards and best wishes
Can’t wait to see you fight against Valent! We have a whole busload coming up to watch.
I hope one day we meet again and you can autograph Joel Boy’s Gloves!
I only hope one day we can get you to do a little Publicity for Cystic Fibrosis!
I’m sure we will be calling into Boonchu one day when we get his Make a Wish Foundation Wish along with heading to Seaworld & Dreamworld of course!
It takes a special person of your stature to stop and take time to brighten the day of sick kids.
Sawa Dee

This photo was after my 6th fight, I just won my first ever belt at 17 at super light weight. All I ever dreamed of was winning a belt and now I had one around my waist. I have no idea what is going on with my eyes, I think when you look scary and crazy it suppose to mean you’re happy ha ha.

When I first got to Thailand I stayed in a place called Pattaya, it is famous for their lady boys. I was very lucky I was told by one of my friends that you have to listen to a lady boy talk, then you know straight away if it’s a girl or a boy. Soon as this young lady started talking I knew straight away it wasn’t a lady.

Here is some of the cuisine that they have on offer in Thailand, the beauty about Thailand is everything comes to you, your groceries come in the back of a ute, snacks, flowers, everything. Every seller has a different noise or bell so you can tell who is who. Here are two of my favourites, first one was the lunch time special noodles, I would wake up in between training sessions and get one of these everyday to make sure I had enough energy for afternoon session. It was only 10 baht and sooo good. The next was a dessert, its a bread roll with sweet sticky rice in the middle with ice cream on top, I would never in my life would of thought this would taste good but I ended up addicted and would get one every morning after training.

Kitchen at Loomingkwan

Since we are on food, here is a little pic of the kitchen at Loomingkwan, all the food was made here with the ring becoming a bench top after we stopped sweating in it. Looks weird but in Thailand everything makes sense.

As I was saying Loomingkwan was such a small gym and we were so tight birthdays for everyone was a big deal. After spending day in and out together I really began to feel like family. Here is a pic of us with one of the kids getting ready to blow out his cake.

The early days fighting for the camp I had three fights in a stadium called Bungyai, there was no westerners there and just having a white guy there would have everyone stop and stare, when they knew you were fighting then it really become a big deal to see if you could hang with the Thai fighters or get knocked out in the first round. I ended up three from three there so happy I didn’t get laughed at by the locals. Check out the change room, concrete floor and sheets of iron to make a wall. Back then I didn’t care though, just to be fighting was all I cared about.

Working with a legend like Sangtien was pretty amazing, I had heard of the stories of the Deadly kisser but to be training with him was crazy, when it was just us and the pad holders man did I have to lift my game everyday so I didn’t get rag dolled in the grapple and beat up play sparring. When we sparred boxing we would wear 18oz gloves, if I was only going 80% Sangtien would stop half way through a round and yell me “you either spar me 100% or don’t waste my time”. So much love in the camp back in them days ha ha.

When I was going to have my first fight at Lumpinee, me and my best mate Bik, who was Por’s youngest son and my age decided to make up a new ram muay. We were thinking of everything we could to try and come up with a cowboy ram muay, after joking around with stupid ideas for half a hour we finally thought about shooting the guns. When I pulled it off everyone at Lumpinee gave me a massive cheer, it was on Thai tv and it helped me stand out from the rest of the westerners that had fought in Thailand before. When I did it in front of my opponents the first few times they would look at me like WTF is he doing, then they would really want to beat me up after that.

Here is a bit of Thai culture for us that I had no idea about, ghost live in tree’s, when you cut a tree down and make a house out of it the ghost comes with it. Everyone in my camp believed the post in my room had a spirit in it and they would decorate it, add perfume to make it smell nice and bring flowers out of respect. My first night I got to the camp I had no idea, i picked my place on the wooden floor to sleep in front of the pole. At night we were having a chat with the boys and silly me put my feet on the pole, the whole room went silent, then one of the boys dived across the room and got my leg off the pole. They quickly went down stairs to get Por’s oldest son so he could explain in English about the ghost and that I never do that again. I won’t go into it too much but i seen lots of ghost in my dreams after that during my stay in that room and held down in my sleep 100’s of times, very scary but either that or sleep outside?

Another way of keeping the gods happy is offering food. When Sangtien opened his own camp we had a big day with monks blessing the ring and also food offering for the ghost house. Instead of buying whole pigs, the Thai’s buy the head, the hoofs, and the tail to represent the full body of the piggy. After the ceremony the Thai’s boil the head and make a soup. Think that sounds gross, yep it is!

Kings birthdays are the most crazy nights ever, not only are you fighting in front of 100,000 people in a park but the change room is complete chaos. There is a fighter’s tent you get ready in on a dirt floor, then there is a tiny piece of string going around the tent, this is to keep out the fans from coming in as you prepare. Now you have about 50 people in this tent, there in 10 to 15 people deep surrounding the tent at all times and its about 35 degree’s, with all those people standing there though it feels like 50 degrees. After you get your Thai oil massage you try and shadow box but the dirt sticks to you like glue and you have to practice your kicks in sandals. You are only about 5 meters away from your opponent in the same tent so little bit of tension before you walk out. All good but, wouldn’t be Kings Birthday if it wasn’t the craziest night of the year. I got a photo of me and Rexy in my pile of photos somewhere.

When I had time off between fights there was a good chance I was drunk somewhere. I think almost every Thai has a drinking problem and it didn’t take long to work out why. One day me and our mates went on a drinking adventure out in the country. One of our friends was a police officer, all Thai’s like to carry guns as well. We drank all night and into the day. Someone had a good idea we get the guns out and practice shooting targets, the policeman handed me my gun and said go for it, was so much fun but so wrong at the same time. Once again everything in Thailand made sense, it was best not to think about it and go with what everyone else was doing.

Thats another 5 minutes of your life I have wasted. Hope you enjoyed that as much as the other 2 threads and not getting bored with my “once upon a time” stories.

Let me explain about the owner of the camp. We all called him Por (Dad) and he and his wife looked after all us boxers as if we were family, very very hard man when training but after training very fair. Por was not only famous for having great fighters but he was the only trainer in the world to only have one leg (lost it through drinking and smoking). Por had great pad holders and would explain techniques with his hands (and swearing ha ha).

After a few small fights in the small stadiums that I won I started to make a name as a figher to look out for. On a huge show that Sangtien was fighting on Danny Bill never turned up, my trainer told Songchai (number one promoter in Thailand) that he had a farlung that could take his place. I didnt fight the guy that Danny was suppose to fight but still got a chance to fight on the show last minute, this was in front of a crowd of 40,000 people. We had a war, I got cut in the 5th but still won my fight. Songchai was very happy and I became his boxer after that up until this day.

All the stars were on that show, Namkabon, Orono, Sakmongkol, Pirote so it was a honor to be getting high fives from all the legends after the fight. Pretty much after that I spent 4 years on the circut fighting along side this guys every month and all started to become friends and hang out when we went on fight trips.
Here is the most crazy and lucky part of my stay in Thailand. We had about 8-10 fighters in the camp, one night one of the boys got in trouble because Por heard that he was going to throw a fight for money. That night he talked all the other younger fighters to run away with him. I had been in Pattaya for a weeks holiday after one of my early fights, when I got back all the fighters besides Sangtien had run away. This left just the owner Por, his wife, his two grown up sons who were the trainers, a pad holder and Sangtien. For the next four years I had to become Sangtiens sparring partner, grappling partner and pretty much his all round bit*h. The trainers only had two people two watch so I learnt on the job very fast. It was only Sangtien and I making a income for the camp so I got to fight plenty and make some not bad money for a Thai fighter (over there it was good money, cut that by 50% and its not much).
One of my scary fight was agianst Hanarong, not because he was a big name, but because at the time the bloke was a monster. I was lucky to win over five rounds and live to tell the story.

In the year 2000 after beating Scott Bannon for my first world title I travelled back to Thailand to fight on the Kings birthday. Masato was suppose to fight Orono but rumor had it that Orono had Hep B. Masato and his managment pulled out from fighting Orono wanting another opponent. I was suppose to fight another Thai but Songchai said I looked to big and decided then and there that tomorrow I would now fight Orono instead. I pooed my pants because Orono had already stopped me once before cutting me 21 stitches. This time however I was a little more experienced and managed to beat him over 5 round on points in front of 100,000 people, live on Thai tv for his world title. To win a world title in Thailand after all the years I had lived there was the ultimate experience I could have ever dreamed of.

Sorry many stories, could write all day as its so much fun thinking back to the madness. I hope you enjoyed the little trip down memory lane.

John Wayne Parr – “The Gunslinger”, five-time Muay Thai world titlist, one of the finest stand-up fighters in the world – looks every inch the brawler. His hair’s cropped to a marine-style buzz cut. Both eyebrows are wealed with scars. He’s liberally smattered with tattoos, many in Thai script. He’s lean-limbed and furrowed with ribs and abs and various other muscles I wasn’t aware existed. His hands are square and hard – two sharp packs of lead. He looks, in short, like a weapon. Until he opens his mouth. Then he’s pure boyish charm – chatty, eager, a little nervous; leaning close, talking fast, cracking jokes and always, always giggling. It’s so incongruous it’s disconcerting.

Read Full Article At Inside Sport

His accomplishments include being crowned IMF world champion, ISKA world Champion, 3 times King’s Cup Champion and S-1 Champion as well as being amongst the elite in the Superleague and K-1 Max, John Wayne Parr has established himself as the force to be reckoned with in Muay Thai.

With a fight record of 72 fights, 54 wins and 27 coming by the way of knock out, John Wayne Parr has had in my opinion a great year. A lot of people reading this may disagree with my choice of fighter of the year. What about Buakaw Por Pramuk or Remy Bonjasky? Well, great fighters they are indeed, but when you mention the names Buakaw, Bonjasky and John Wayne Parr… I’m sure 99% of you will go “Ahhh yes, John “Wayne” Parr”.

Read the full article here at Iron life

WERE your oldies fans of western flicks?
No, this name was given to me when I went to live and fight in Thailand. My real name, Wayne, means “bastard” to them so I had to come up with something new. “John Wayne” stuck with me and most people think it’s my real name now.

Surely as a five-time world champion, the Thais would think you’re a bastard for dominating their national sport?
A lot of people over there weren’t happy when I started to beat their best fighters, that’s for sure. Accusations were flying around that they’d given all the secrets of the game away to an outsider.