No place for faint hearted as Muay Thai comes to city

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

FOR the first time in a decade, Muay Thai instructor and Galway City native Dave Joyce will host a major show in the Black Box on the Dyke Road this Saturday. Entitled ‘Muay Thai Revolution’, the headline act will be Mike Harty’s Four Nations title fight against Mark Amos of Scotland.

Just to be clear, Saturday’s show – doors open at 5:30pm; first fight 6pm – promises not to be for the faint hearted. In addition to multiple pro fights, Joyce, who has run smaller events in the city in recent years, will also be placing some of his more talented amateurs on the canvas.

Instructor Joyce is a captivating character. Quiet-spoken, you would never think this man is a martial arts expert who not only fought MMA star Conor McGregor’s coach John Kavanagh but has also in his time assisted in the hand to hand combat training of the United States’ Special Forces.

The latter is particularly interesting and although the 52-year-old is limited in the amount of information he can divulge of his time working with the Green Berets and Navy Seals, the Filipino martial arts guru acknowledges it was a fantastic experience.

“One of my (Filipino martial arts) instructors had come to Ireland in early 2000s and did some public seminars here and he was looking for a couple of people to help out with the tactical unit in the United States so I went over a couple of times,” outlines Joyce.

“They teach it (Filipino martial arts) to the elite levels in the US military and to law enforcement as well. I am not sure if I should be talking too much about it but I did get a chance to go to Fort Bragg in North Carolina to work with some Special Forces guys.

“I would have been one of the assistants there at the time. We also got to work with some Navy Seals. Some of the guys we would have also trained with were involved in the movies. They would have been the choreographers for scenes in films such as The Hunted, which starred Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio del Toro.”

Unfortunately, the travelling back and forth from the United States became too much but there was no doubt he enjoyed the experience, describing the Special Forces guys as “unreal”. Usually, with the training laid out, most would fold by the end of the second day. Not the Special Forces.

“By the end of the fifth day these guys decided to do a recap when they should have been wiped out after two days! Then again, these guys were known as the ‘Jedi’ of Navy Seals. We were very fortunate to work with them and to get the chance to talk to these guys.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.