Mark Pease continues to coach some of the world’s best Muay Thai fighters, and lays claim to having the very first dedicated Muay Thai gym in Australia. In Part 2 of Shannon’s conversation with Mark, he delves into some highs and lows of his life and career, from almost quitting Muay Thai, to the global circuit his fighters are now consistently on. He talks new and old Muay Thai techniques, fighter mindsets, mental health, and more. This Muay Thai podcast episode has wisdom, laughs, and practical advice for fight coaching, training, and anyone passionate about the sport.
TRANSCRIPT
Shannon
Yeah. Yeah. Lighten it up a bit Mark. What's, what's one of the funniest, one of the funniest situations that's ever happened to you in a training or fight situation?
Mark Pease
Yep. Mate there could be thousands of things. Well, hearin the one about the Danny Derdowski and you got the training session, ol mates nuts hanging out. That sort of cuts me up a little bit. I've had a strange one once before. can't think of this guy's name. It was at the old gym at Mermaid Beach. And he went to throw a kick and his leg got wrapped around one of the other boys leg, but dislocated his knee backwards. And in other words, his knee came right across. And everyone panicked because his kneecap was on the side of his leg. And when I saw him, I panicked as well. And I've just slapped it really, really hard and it went straight back in. But I was told later on that was the right thing to do, but it was also the wrong thing to do because he should have been under anaesthetic but it was sort of funny, but not funny because everyone panicked and all that. And soon as I did everyone goes, he's right now, but he wasn't right, man. He wasn't right. That's probably the most funniest, strangest ones I've ever come across. We all come across, strange things in the gyms and at training camps. There's those weird scenarios as well, but it's just a great journey, man. I mean, you know, I mean, you've been in it for as long as I, well nearly as long as I have So it draws you in, you know what I mean?
Shannon
Yeah. Can you describe a time when you felt like giving up? And what kept you going? What kept you going during that time?
Mark Pease
Okay. All right, now that one's a real good one. It was a fight with Aaron Leigh Aaron Leigh was fighting Gott. Aaron Leigh was at Paul Demicoli show at Beenleigh Aaron Leigh was four rounds to the good. Quite easy. And I said to him, end of the fourth round, said, mate, you don't have to do anything, stay away from him. He's gonna have to try and bomb you out to win this fight.
And Aaron stepped in and straight away went straight to engage straight away. And I'm going get back back. And Gotts rolled an elbow, hit Aaron and dropped Aaron, just sprawled him out. And he's looked at me, but he was, I could see he was already gone. He was glass-eyed. He got up in eight and I looked at Nugget. Nuggets looked at me and Nuggets looked up to Gotts and goes, don't knock him. Carry him. I thought no. And I screamed out, no, knock him, knock him. And you know, you could see it through. And then at the end of the fight, They'd given the fight to Gott. I mean he should have won by knockout. And I walk out the back and I say, I'm done. I grabbed all my stuff. I didn't talk to anybody, didn't unwrap Aaron's hands. Got in the car and drove home and I thought I'm done with the sport. I've had enough, you know. It took me probably a week to decide that I will go back because people needed me. You know, people were calling me, why aren't you in the gym? I'm done, I've had enough, that's it. People aren't gonna listen to me, you know.
As I said, even back then, that was 2002 or three, I think it was. It was hard times, man. Like it was everyone had to go to Thailand to learn, you know, and what you learned, you brought back and stuff like that. And then you had your fighters in going as well and staying there. Aaron stayed there for three months or four months and you know, and learned all that sort of stuff. it was hard, but that was the only time that I thought to myself, I want to give this sport away.
If he's not listening to me, no one's gonna listen to me, I'm done. So I took people like Danny and Jimmy and a couple others just talking to me, c'mon we need you, get back into the gym, you come on, we're here for you, brah, you know, lots of stuff. I think I was a bit older than them, you know, it was a bit hard to sort of go, you know what, they're right. I can't let them down, I'm accountable for these boys, you know, they're my friends, they're my family, they're my community.
I've got to get back, so it took about a week for that to come back, but that was, I think it was 2000, I don't remember, man. Might have been after he won the world title, so it might have been 2005, somewhere around there, but it was, you know.
Shannon
Yeah. It's so you know, like so much time and, you know, like passion, like the passion that you've got for the sport and the time, you know, away from your family, like everyone's got to work and, you know, we've to run families. We've got to look after our own kids and, you know, time and money. I know how you can feel like that, you know, when you're just like, yeah, no bugger it aye.
Mark Pease
Yeah, well, back then I had other businesses as well with the Cash Converters, know, So I thought, you know, if they're not gonna listen might as well just put all my eggs into this basket. then I'm lucky I didn't because probably 10 years later, I decided to do it full time, And I was doing uni part time for my sports degree.
And when I finished that, that was 2017, And to be honest, man, it just sort of grew from there. I call it blessed at times because back in the golden era when you guys were around and that, I had Pixie, Molder, Danny, Brody Smith, Aaron Leigh, Diamond Jim McCloud.
So we had a good run like you guys at Boonchu did as well and Nugget. So it was a really good golden era of Muay Thai. But I think after about 2013 when all the guys sort of dissipated and retired and whatever have you, I think Muay Thai was in a of a lull because there was no real grounding for the next generation because we concentrated so hard on the generation that were doing good. And it was sort of like, yeah, you guys were right to train with Coach Darren & that. And there was no real emphasis on building that person to the next level. I think Muay Thai in itself, especially here, was probably flat till about 2018, a good five year period. Don't get me wrong there was a couple of good people, but there was no real, wow he's a superstar, but now we've gone through a bit of a purple patch. This is Muay Thai in general. We're getting invited to America for fights, Russia, England, doing seminars there as well in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. So like we're flying really international, like back in the days, like if you got a trip to Cairns or if you went to WA, you flew over to WA to Perth, everyone would think, woah you guys must be really good, but now it's WA, so the guys have had two and three, four fights, are getting flown across there. So the sport's uplifted, and there's a lot more gyms around there, and a lot more promotions, as you know, like New Zealand's the same, I've watched you guys as well, so a lot of gyms opening up, a lot of old school gyms too, like Lolo and Jackals and all those guys. So yeah, it's good to see, man. It's really good to see.
Shannon
What's the best piece of life advice you've ever been given and why
Mark Pease
Yep. Okay. My grandfather, this is going back, man, it must have been 13 or 14. He was always very talented with his hands. He was good in business and that as well. But when he retired, he didn't want to stay, started running marathons. So he started running marathons around 75. And I think he ran them until he was about 82 or something like marathons, man. You know, like I don't do that stuff.
And I remember asking him when we walked along the beach at Cronulla in Sydney, that's where he lived then. And I said, what made you ...? Mark, he said, I'll tell you this for free. He said, the day you stop using it all, the day it all falls apart. And he died at 95 of a broken heart because his partner passed away six months earlier and just died. He just let himself, willed himself to die. But he was fit, had all his faculties, the whole thing always worked. He always did things with his hands.
And it sticks here, the day you stop using it is the day it all falls apart. And I'm thinking, you're probably definitely right there. that's, yes, philosophy from my grandfather, my friend.
Shannon
Yeah, As a trainer, what techniques and methods do you teach now that you didn't have like when you were fighting?
Mark Pease
God, how many hours do you have? Now look, Okay, prime example, you'll go to a lot of gyms. Say if you were in Thailand, you went to a gym called Luk Prabhat. Luk Prabhat are very strong related clinch gyms. Or if you go to somewhere like Fairtex that says that they are Muay Femur fighters. But I just look at a person and gauge them. Like I'm not gonna train somebody to be a big puncher if they're a tall skinny fighter, you know that they can be step up and knee so I try to look at what they can do and then, you know, put a plan into place for everybody now. So getting back to your question on that is things that I do now is things like footwork patterns. Now, footwork patterns are the same for a punching fighter to a kicking or a kneeing fighter, same sort of footwork patterns, but then it changes from there up. Do you know?
I learned a lot of footwork patterns, and there's about 94, and stuff that I still use today, religiously. So when I was training as a fighter, I didn't have any of that stuff. As I said to you, man, you get in the pocket and you get belted and you try and cover up, think, dang, there's gotta be an easier way than this. If I'm watching boxers learn how to step off, I'm thinking, hang on, start incorporating things like that. So I learned a lot of stuff, even today with focus footwork and balance, cause you got no focus, you'll have no balance. With no balance, you'll have no power. So those three things that are really, as soon as someone walks to my gym and starts, especially in the beginning classes, they'll learn how to walk properly, how to stand properly, how to balance properly, how to move, how to turn off things that I didn't have, you know?
So again, back to that question, man, everything, the knowledge that we've got today, is completely different than what we had in the days when you guys were fighting. It was raw, man. But people say, which era do I prefer? I really enjoyed that era because people got in and actually fought. As soon as the bells went, it was hammer and tongs. You and, what's his name, the Kiwi boy, Rex, that fight, and Pixie, and Clayton, all those sorts of guys. They just got in and fought.
But nowadays, if someone's getting hit hard, they gotta learn how to step off and be evasive and try and keep away, just to become a little bit, because not everybody's gonna be able to stand in the pocket and punch on, as you know. A lot of guys don't like to get hit at all, and you gotta teach them little bit more, Muay Femur stuff, like hit, move, and be evasive. all those skills now that we have on board, and I think most coaches will have those now, because not everyone's gonna be that in-pocket fighter at all.
I look at today with like Chadd Collins, he's that in-pocket fighter. He does not give you a chance to breathe. He stands on you as soon as you're holding pads. If I move away, he pulls me back in line straight. So he's hitting the pads constantly for those minutes on the pad. Whereas someone like James Honey, he's more of a, because he's taller, he likes to stand back, hit and get out real, real quick. he doesn't, know, but he can still punch on, but two different styles of fighting. So I've had to understand how to work with James and how to work with Chadd on completely different footwork pattern and movements.
There's a lot, man. I said, it's a knowledgeable book. I mean, you've probably got one as well. Still today, man, I can watch one of my fighters and go, ooh, that move looked pretty good. Show me that again and I'll have look at it. Because I record everything in the gym, so I can go back and have a look at it myself, see how it worked and why.
and I start breaking it down for myself, can I use that? Can I use that for that fighter or will it be better for that fighter? So there's a lot of things, man. If you think you know it all, you shouldn't be coaching.
Shannon
What do you think are the most common misconceptions about the life of a professional fighter that young people should be aware of?
Mark Pease
Okay, well as a Muay Thai fighter, misconception is you're get paid a of money. It's false. In Muay Thai you don't get paid a great deal at all. In fact, it's a very minimal sport. Look, Chadd Collins is a five times world Champion and there's people that get 10 times the amount of him boxing. Do know what mean? So the sport is not an overly high paid sport. So if you're in it to make money, don't get into it.
If you're in it to make a legacy and to become the best fighter you possibly can be, then be in it. Because if you're there for money, you're not going to last too long at all. You're going to very much get pulled away from something else.
There's some of the fights, like Chadd's probably the highest paid fighter in Australia today. But 10 years ago, 12 years ago, when Pixie and Aaron were fighting, Pixie was getting, sorry, Aaron was probably getting nearly as much as what Chadd's getting now, back then.
So even though there's a lot more promotions and gyms and better promotions, a lot more sparkles and all that sort of thing, it's more of a sports entertainment sort of thing now, know, as well, know, with dancing girls and stuff like that. But the purses haven't gone up enough, I believe, you know, there's just not enough financial backing from other sponsors and so on.
Shannon
Yeah, yeah, it hasn't.
Is there a, has anybody taken over since Tarik's passed away, Has anyone else got any Fox rights now? Any other promoters?
Mark Pease
Fox, now see, here's where the social media thing comes in. See, now it's all to do with live streaming. Now, because I'm still really good friends with Hammer, Mark Castanigi from, think they, I can't think of how many tens of thousands of people used to watch the first initial, say, War on the Shore or Evolution on Fox Sports. But now, because of social media, people don't have that anymore. They have other streams, like Netflix and all that sort of stuff. So the promoter loses out a little bit.
But I think the streaming side of things especially in Australia is still in its infancy because you look at America and or Japan when we go in Japan because we fight on Rise quite a bit with Chadd and a couple other boys and man, they got it's next level man. Like you go to a venue. There's 10,000 people on the venue. And Russia Russia was the same and they can stream it. So we're here where we're a little bit behind man. Definitely behind on that
Shannon
think you mentioned it before, Mark, about your accident is a real good one, but what's a difficult season that you've had in life and how did you overcome it?
Mark Pease
Difficult season. Okay, I'll say this year, my wife and I, we have Labrador dogs, we love dogs. It got cancer, liver and we thought we were taking him down to the vet to get just checked up because his stomach bloated and that. But they said, you got to come back and say goodbye to your dog. And so I had to get my two sons down there and everyone broke down. It was hard. I'm not going to lie, but this was really, really personal and we're still getting through it, to be honest with you. And what we did, I think two days after it happened, Danny called us up and we went up there and had a quiet drink and barbecue and just talking about all the times with the dogs.
And to me that was probably the biggest thing, because it sort of let us get all our emotions out and cry and hug and all that sort of stuff. Now I believe this old cliche people say, know, like dogs are family.
So, I like everybody, man. I've had hard times. that's why I really enjoy talking to Sandy, because Sandy's always - you've got to you've got to learn to talk to people. It's not Weak to Speak, know? doesn't matter if people look up to you, but who do you look up to and who do you talk to about stuff like this?
Shannon
If there young people out there having a tough time at home and in life, what would you say to encourage them and give them hope?
Mark Pease
Don't give up, talk to somebody, let people know how you're feeling. You know what mean? I mean, you probably get them, we teach teenagers now. I can tell you for here & now, we train about, tenance class we've got about 25 to 30 kids. I can tell you at least half those kids get bullied and their parents come and go, we've got to put them into a martial art, we need to give them confidence and so forth, you know? Okay, but it's not gonna stop the bully.
He's doing Muay Thai now, we're not gonna bully him anymore. So I reckon it's up to them to, again, don't sit back and do nothing. It's not Weak to Speak. Talk to somebody and even tell the bullies. Face them, face them front on. Don't back down. I mean as silly as this might sound, you might cop a punch or one, but most of the bullies you know, they're like a pack mentality.
And then obviously something wrong in their childhoods, what's happening at their hand. They might be bullied at home by their parents or bigger brothers or something. And they're just putting it outlaying it to somebody else. So I've got to tell them that don't be weak to speak, speak up. You've got to speak up. You've got to let people know about this to cut all this stuff out.
Shannon
If you weren't a fighter or a trainer, what other career or profession would you be doing?
Mark Pease
Male model, I thought. Yeah, I could model gloves. No, No, look man, I was always in business with cash converters and things like that, I don't know. If I had of done this degree earlier in my life, like when I was in my early 20s and so forth, I would have liked to have been a sporting psychologist. I reckon that would have been, now what I know, from having a bit of a psychology or sporting psychology background with it, I could sort of help a little bit more with the kids and so forth. Because I really, really thrive in that now. I can watch a fighter now from, instead of me being assertive or aggressive in the corner, which some like, some don't, but me being able to... tap into their little pocket and say, on, you've trained for this. We've worked hard. And I can watch somebody being down in the corner to actually start uplifting and smile, all in that one minute or two minute scenario for me to be able to do that to them, to them to get back out and maybe not win, but perform better. Because to me, most fights to me aren't realistically about the results. We all like the results. Lines are about performances. If my fighter fights the best fight they possibly could and still lose, how can I be disappointed with them?
And I've told them that because you see them getting down. you know, being the coach, I'm accountable to help them and get through this. So I like doing that, man. I really enjoy that. Anybody can hold pads. I'm not gonna lie. I can train people to hold pads, but to be a really good coach, you've got to be able to get into somebody's mind. And so they actually fully trust you like you're their brother or their mother or father or whatever, you know? And once you've got that, once you've got that, bond between the fighter athlete, man, it's pretty special. And it's a really good thing. I really enjoyed it.
Shannon
So you got Chadd and others going over to Japan soon.
Mark Pease
Okay, we've got Jaga Chan who's just come back from England and Thailand. He was on the RWS tournament at 63 and a half. I've got James Honey fighting Kong Thailand who's the WBC 72.5 World Champion in a three rounder. I've got Britney Dolheguy fighting
Amanda Russell. And then I've got Jesse Astill fighting. But on the same day in America, I have Jayden Eynaud fighting on Karate Combat. it's very big. And I've got Chadd and the eight man over there with the best Super Lightweights in the world. So it's busy. You know, it's just crazy.
Shannon
Yeah. Mark, what training technique, you probably already answered this, but what training technique have you used from day one that you consider tried and tested? No successful fighter can go without.
Mark Pease
Teep. Teep. Teep.
Teep, teep, yep. Teep to the leg, teep to the stomach, teep to the face. It's the most underrated kick in Muay Thai, but it's a game changer. If you can do a good teep, especially if someone's coming, you can break the rhythm up by hitting on the leg, folding him, hitting him in the midsection, or like Chadd Chadd will teep to the face under the chin. It's good to watch, so a teep.
Shannon
Yeah, cool. All right, Mark, thank you for your time. How can people find you and follow you online?
Mark Pease
We're on Instagram as StrikeForceGym Australia. That's pretty easy to find that one.
Shannon
Thank you Mark, see you soon.
Mark Pease
Cheers, mate. Krup khun krup. Thank you, buddy.
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