From tyre plant to Thailand

Mar 30 2008 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

A FORMER North factory worker who went to Thailand to try kick boxing is now a champion fighter who runs a top training camp there.

Alex Dally, 31, quit his job at the Pirelli tyre plant in Carlisle five years ago to jet to south east Asia and learn the art of Muaythai.

And the one-time engineer became so good that he ended up staying on the island of Koh Samui to teach others the tough sport, a fast-moving style of Thai boxing in which the head is the only part of the body not used.

As well as falling in love with the exotic isle, he fell head over heels for local girl Anong — also a Thai boxer — and the pair have now been married for two years, and have a daughter Jasmine, two.

Alex — who has run Koh Samui’s Muaythai training camp for the last four years — was even crown- ed 79.8kg light heavyweight Muaythai world champion after knocking out Alamas Kassenov in his opponent’s home country, Kazakhstan.

He said: “I ended up running the camp by luck really. I came out to Thailand to see how much progress I could make in the sport . . . then after eight months the guy running it asked if I’d like to help out.

“I must have done some- thing right because I’m still running the place.

“Winning the world title was amazing.

“The prime minister of Kazakhstan entered the ring to present me with the belt and the home crowd were very generous to me after the victory.

“I remember constantly telling myself that I wanted my daughter to be proud and be able to tell her friends her daddy was a world champion.”

Despite reaching the peak of his sporting career, Alex said he and Anong are now planning to set up a new life in the North. He said: “We are really thinking about Jasmine’s future because we’d like to send her to some sort of play school, but there is nothing on Samui for her, only a private school that is too expensive for us.

“Jasmine is now a registered British citizen and we can get her a British passport so feel an education in the UK would be beneficial.

“We are looking to probably come back this summer when it is hopefully warmer and easier for my family to adapt to the new environment.

Alex won’t, however, turn his back on kick boxing.

He added: “I do intend to carry on training Muaythai in the future, though I would like to have my own gym and give back to the people what I have learned from my time in Thailand.”