Ajarn Buck Grant is convinced the sport of Muay Thai is ready to hatch from its embryonic stage on the Island after spending two weeks coaching at the Bermuda Amateur Muay Thai Association.

Grant, one of the top coaches in the United States, is passionate about his role in helping grow Muay Thai in Bermuda, and was impressed with the “talent and open-mindedness” of the coaches and students he encountered at the BAMA gym at Beyond Fitness on Par-la-Ville Road.

The 40-year-old, who has coached some of the top names in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), was approached by BAMA a year ago about becoming an affiliate of Grant’s Muay Thai University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Immediately intrigued and excited about playing a part in BAMA’s development, Grant said his commitment to the project had intensified after witnessing at first hand the Island’s interest and enthusiasm for Muay Thai.

“In the US, Muay Thai has become pretty big, but in Bermuda it’s still relatively new,” said Grant, who was contacted by Chuck Morgan, the BAMA president, after being interviewed on a Muay Thai podcast in the US.

“I’m down to help and facilitate any way I can and plan to be here pretty regularly throughout the year and offer guidance on how to run a Muay Thai programme under our organisation.

“I have different affiliates throughout the US but Bermuda is my first international affiliate, which is exciting.

“I feel privileged to be an ambassador for a sport that has helped me as an individual, as well as helping grow something on an entire Island from its inception.”

Surprisingly, given his 22-year fighting career, Grant was a non-athletic and shy youngster, and was once beaten up by bullies in his own front yard, a chastening experience he vowed would never happen again.

In his pursuit of mental and physical toughness, Grant developed a childhood obsession with Bruce Lee, the trailblazing

martial-arts legend, and believed the most effective way to conquer his fear was by learning to fight.

“I got beat up as a kid in my front yard in front of my brothers and I felt weak, so I spent the rest of my young adult life trying to get strong,” he said.

“I was first exposed to Muay Thai at a Bruce Lee Jeet Kune Do gym and to be honest seeing real fighting in a ring scared the heck out of me. But because it scared me I had to go towards it; that was the very fear I was facing.”

After only one year of training, Grant competed in his first bout, defeating the Philadelphia state champion and embarked on a successful competitive career while cross training in many other martial arts disciplines.

His desire to teach accelerated his retirement, with Grant becoming the Muay Thai coach for top UFC fighters such as Brandon Vera, Forrest Griffin and Frank Mir, only to return to the ring eager to face his fears once more.

“I decided to come out of retirement aged 30 and do the mixed martial arts thing because I was coaching all these guys and cross training in the art I hadn’t fought in,” Grant said.

“I did two professional fights, won both but decided this is no sport for old guys and walked away to dedicate my career to coaching.”

Grant said he learnt plenty during his time sharpening the skills of the UFC’s elite but still felt there was something missing.

“To see your sport at the highest level, the expression of it, the mindset of an elite athlete — well, hopefully you can draw on the work ethic and characteristics from that,” he added.

“But I didn’t want to be involved at the professional level for the rest of my career.

“It’s so intrinsically focused on winning and losing that people’s values become based upon that.

“Some fighters are very emotionally and mentally unbalanced and they don’t have people around them keeping them well-balanced.”

Instead, Grant began to focus on “the character development aspect of Muay Thai” with the goal of reconnecting the training of the sport with personal development. It is an approach he believes will strike a chord with the practitioners at BAMA.

“People see the sport at the elite level and think only the top guys can benefit from it, but Muay Thai is for everybody,” Grant said. “I’ve taught people from as young as four years old to 80.

“There’s a lot of talent on this Island and I’ve met a lot of great athletes. If Bermuda wants to become a force to be reckoned with, they can absolutely do so.”

Morgan, a certified coach under Grant, established BAMA about a year ago. He said it had been “something special” to have such an esteemed Muay

Thai coach share his knowledge with BAMA members.

“I wanted to build a legitimate school in Bermuda and needed a teacher who I could learn from,” said Morgan, who has trained at Grant’s gym in Virginia.

“What I really wanted was for Buck to come here and meet some of the BAMA coaches and pass on some of his skill set to them.

“It’s been awesome having him here and we’ve had a lot of new students and former students come to learn from him. He’s one of the top instructors in the US and to have him here is huge.

“Muay Thai is at its very early stages in Bermuda and it’s great to have someone like Buck helping to build the programme.”

For more information about BAMA contact chuck@beyondfitbda.com or visit www.facebook.com/bermudamuaythai