Thai boxer Sirimongkol takes it all off

Sirimongkol

Worapoj Petchkoom (วรพจน์ เพชรขุ้ม) is not the only Thai boxing star to have posed for a gay magazine.

Remember the saga of former Thai boxing champion Sirimongkol Singwancha (ศิริมงคล สิงห์วังชา)?  

In 2005 he was convicted of producing pornography after naked images of him appeared in a gay magazine, Heat.

The images were taken 10 years before, and the naked ones were not supposed to go public. He posed without clothes in fun for the photographers’ private viewing, he said.

Heat published them in 2003, but they did not become widely known until two years later, after police raided a newsstand selling naughty mags at Chatuchak market.

About the same time, he posed for a swimsuit spread in Lips, a magazine popular with women and gays.

Read more about the saga at the Fridae website, here (link harvested: it died).  I loved this excerpt, which I suspect comes from one of Bangkok’s English-language dailies:

'Sopon Petsawang, an MP from the government ruling party Thai Rak Thai and a former boxer himself, was quoted as saying that as far as he was aware, only transvestites or transgenders read the magazines, and expressed sadness that an increasing number of divorced women and older women are viewing them as well.'

See the images, here.

Boxer Worapoj Petchkoom: Duped by a gay magazine

Worapoj, from his mag shoot

More from Worapoj's mag shoot

Former Olympics Thai boxing star Worapoj Petchkoom (วรพจน์ เพชรขุ้ม) agreed to pose in skimpy outfits for a men’s magazine – only to find out that it sells to the gay market.

The Amateur Boxing Association of Thailand is upset, and has set up a panel to investigate Worapoj’s conduct. It believes his cover shoot for this month’s Stage magazine may have brought the association into disrepute.

The 2004 Olympics silver medal winner (bantam class) did not seek the association’s consent before agreeing to the spread.

Worapoj, who has gone to the media with his complaints, says he agreed to the shoot after a dentist friend who knows people at the magazine invited him to do the cover, to mark the magazine’s third anniversary.

'I thought they were doing me an honour by asking me to pose for their birthday issue,’ he said, insisting he did not know at the time that the magazine was aimed at the gay market.

Worapoj denies he has squandered his B10m prize money and has ended up broke and desperate, like other Olympics Thai boxing champions before him.

'I still have enough to live on. In any event, the magazine paid a miserly amount – just B15,000 for two days’ work,' he told the Joh Jai show on Channel 5, in an interview taped yesterday for air on Aug 6.

‘I posed for the shoot last month. On the first day I started to have my doubts, when they brought out a pair of underwear for me to wear.

'I thought I would just be wearing a swimming costume. I refused, but they coaxed me into it, saying they wanted to see my six-pack.

‘That night I called my girlfriend, who told me it was probably a gay magazine, and the shoot would probably have repercussions for the boxing society if I carried on.

'The next day my girlfriend accompanied me to the shoot. She asked the organisers if I could pull out, but they said I had signed a contract. If I cancelled, I would have to pay compensation,’ he said.

Pressed on his finances, he added: ‘I still have the motorcycle and car I was given by sponsors. I am building a resort, the Worapoj Resort and Gym, on Khao Sok in Surat Thani.

'I do not have a problem with money,’ he insisted.

'I did not know the magazine would turn out this way...I thought it would be an ordinary fashion shoot. I am straight, with a girlfriend, but the news has upset my family.

‘Since the magazine appeared, another two gay titles have offered me work, but I turned them down. I meant to show my six pack – not my private parts.’

Worapoj says the boxing association’s rules stipulate that members get permission before accepting modelling or advertising work. He did not ask, as he thought it was just an ordinary fashion job.

He is waiting to hear from the association, and in the meantime keeping up his training regimen, at Bonanza Khao Yai in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Worapoj again hopes to compete for the country, at the 2012 Olympics in London, but if the association hands down a 12-month suspension to penalise him – one possibility he fears – he would have to hang up his gloves, as he is now getting too old for the game.

'I regret what happened and would like to apologise to boxing fans. It is one of those life lessons – next time I shall have to be more careful,’ he said.

PS: I haven’t seen the magazine. Although Thai media reports refer to him having posed in the nude, readers at the Pantip webboard, where these images appeared, disagree. 'It looks just like a spread in any other Thai gay magazine with a focus on fashion,’ say several posters who have seen it.

Lowering the drawbridge

Regular reader Tahmnong wants to know why it is harder to leave messages these days.

Readers now need to be registered to leave comments. Raising the comments bar has led to a drop in the average number of comments for every post.

Where once posts drew an average of eight comments or more, now we are down to just a couple. That's a shame for a blog which attracts 900 unique readers a day, as it does at present.

I have taken the step to avoid criticism by fool male farang who think all Thai blogs with a gay theme should be set in a gay sauna.

As I have said before, readers who want that kind of dismal, uninspired fare should go elsewhere.

The anonymous posting option is no longer. Anon the Psychic and his bitter kin will have to find their kicks somewhere else.

Anon the Psychic, for those who don't know, liked to leave personal criticism of me, but more often the boyfriend.

I enjoyed getting reader feedback on this blog, but in this case the antics of a bitter, misguided few have ended up ruining the experience for everyone else.

Update: Comments bar is now permanently lifted. I changed my mind.

Savings scheme-in-a-box reinstated, Big Martha's pasta

The household savings are back in their place.

I left the empty savings box on the kitchen table this morning, hoping Maiyuu would get the hint.

While I was out jogging, he replaced the money he had taken earlier, then gave the box back to me.

Earlier, Maiyuu took the B2,000 we had saved in the box and hid it in his room. He was worried I would break into it, as household income ran low before pay day.

Now pay day has arrived, and we both have money again, he felt safe to bring it back out of its hiding place.

He hid it the cash in a slender, pretty box he keeps in his room, which normally stores incense sticks.
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Martha Stewart and her Mum

Chef Maiyuu is over his flu and now is back in the kitchen.

He is making an Italian dish of pasta envelopes, stuffed with potato.

Martha Stewart made it yesterday, with help from her Mum, Big Martha (aka Martha Kostyra).

Big Martha, as her daughter called her affectionately, died in late 2007, aged 93.

In her guest appearances on Marsha's show, she would make dishes which she had passed on to Little Martha as a girl.

The tribute episode we watched yesterday, made shortly after Big Martha's death, pulled together footage from many appearances on the show over the years.

Big Martha and Little Martha shared the kitchen bench, with daughter Martha looking on while her Mum made pasta, Polish beetroot soup...

Martha Kostyra was terrific at kneading dough, which impressed Maiyuu as we watched.

'Watch how she does it!' he enthused.

She was a tiny woman, but had plenty of arm muscle strength.

Maiyuu will try his hand at making dough using the same technique today. Pictures to come.

Tomato soup aroma trail, savings plan vanishes

We have just walked through the condo with noses in the air like hi-so, queeny models, inhaling the scent of fresh herbs.

Maiyuu has risen from his sick bed and is making a large pot of tomato sauce, which he will serve over pasta.

He chopped up oregano, rosemary, Thai red basil and parsley and added them to the mix. Those are the herbs giving off the aroma from his steaming pot.
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It’s two days before pay day, and money is running short. Today I tried raiding the little wooden box where we have started our savings ‘plan’, as the modern language has it. It contained B2,000, which we have saved over the last month.

I wanted to break one of those notes, and spend perhaps B200, which I would duly replace when pay came out on Friday.

When I opened the lid, however, I found someone had been there before me.

Two days ago, I told Maiyuu that I was thinking of borrowing cash from the kitty.

‘Don’t do it – Thais would regard that as bad luck. You have started saving, so now you must carry on. You can’t break those B1,000 notes.’

Today, while Maiyuu was out shopping for food, I thought I’d take the money anyway, and quietly replace it in two days with a new B1,000 note. He wouldn’t know, right?

Maiyuu knew I could not be trusted. He must have taken the money from the box some time over the last couple days while I was not looking.

When he returned from shopping, I asked what had happened to our savings plan.

‘I have hidden it somewhere safe, until the danger has passed,’ he said.

Danger? Me?

Maiyuu promised he would replace the money on Friday, when pay comes out and I will no longer be tempted to raid the float.

For the last week or so, Maiyuu has felt unwell. A few days ago, as he lay on his sickbed, the poor thing lost a tooth.

He reckons the experience of losing a tooth was fun. However, he also appears to be coming around to the idea that I should take him to the dentist at the end of the year.

I have nagged Maiyuu to see a dentist for ages. Previously he refused outright. ‘When it is time to go, I will go,’ he likes to say.

My boyfriend doesn’t like to be a drain on the household finances. However, now that he has lost (another) one of his teeth, he is having second thoughts.

We have started discussing the dentist ‘option’ in earnest.

'If you take money from the savings box, I won’t be able to get my teeth done. You still want me to go to the dentist, don’t you?’ he asked today.

'Of course!’I replied.

By the end of the year, we still hope to marry the result of the savings ‘plan’ with the dental 'option' - and get his pearlies fixed.

What a transformation. Once, Maiyuu couldn’t see the need to save, and tended to live day by day. Now, he’s showing me how to do it.