While I’d done various forms of martial arts throughout my life, I’d never actually gotten into the ring. Until a few beers in Thailand lead to one of my more interesting life decisions.

On the island of Koh Phi Phi there’s a place called Reggae Bar. Imagine a huge, open-plan bar with a boxing ring in the middle where tourists can get in and fight each other. There are small stands that fit around 100 people each on every side of the ring. It’s totally random, and people just put their hand up to fight whenever they feel like it. Some decide to fight their friends, and other stupid people like me decide to fight total strangers.

I realised that this could be my one chance to get in a ring and fight somebody while having a bit of fun. So I put my hand up. Of course I then noticed who my opponent was – a 30 year old British man who looked like he’d started lifting weights while still in the womb. He was shorter than me, but probably at least 10kg heavier. The only rent this man paid was to the gym he lived in. The fact that I had torn my ankle ligaments a few weeks earlier and couldn’t kick (in a kickboxing match of all places) was fast becoming a serious issue. I immediately assumed underdog status with the crowd of hundreds of drunk tourists.

He claimed the first round comfortably. It was 11pm and 30°C outside with 80-100% humidity. The first round went for 90 seconds, and we could barely breathe by the end of it. In the break between rounds, the entire crowd started chanting “Red, red, red, red…” (which was the colour I was wearing). Since I was getting my ass handed to me, I decided to lap it up as much as I could. It appeared that it was going to be the only moment that made it to my highlight reel.

You’ll have to watch the video to see what happened in the second round and how the whole fight ended. But let me put it this way – he broke the rules and I was announced as the winner while writhing in absolute agony. It was that bad, that a total stranger came up to me afterwards and said, “Mate, that last kick was absolutely brutal. Good on you for getting in there. I bought you a beer”.

I used that beer to ice myself. It didn’t help.