The morning after I arrived, I was told the water pump was out and I’d have to use the creek to bathe in. The family seemed to think it might create a bit of a hardship but I actually found it pleasant bathing outdoors. Chionoi Creek is a hundred yards or so away from the home, hidden by a row of huge trees. The water was clear, cool, and perfect for bathing. Later in the day though, a new pump had been installed and all was back to normal.
The majority of the following interview was conducted at Chionoi’s home in Chiang Mai. Chartchai and I sat on the sofa in the front room side-by-side for the majority of three days, only periodically taking breaks. The conversation below is but a fraction of the time we spent together.
Scott Mallon: So – how’s everything going?
Chionoi: Good but I’ve got a bad toothache and it really hurts.
Scott Mallon: A toothache? Why don’t you go to the dentist?
Scott Mallon: I don’t like dentists.
Chionoi’s wife Oot steps in and tells me “He’s scared of dentists.”
At the same time, I’m offered some Thai chocolate wafers by Chartchai’s son, Boi. They are similar to Kit-Kat bars but lighter and come one wafer to a package, around fifty to a bag. The bag is full and I take a few. Chionoi smiles as he eagerly grabs a handful. He quickly opens one and begins eating it. Like potato chips, once you start eating them it’s hard to stop. Chionoi doesn’t stop for quite some time. Somehow though, even with his obsession with chocolate wafers, he has remained fit.
Oot: He eats these all day. If I give him the whole bag, he’ll eat all of them so I hide them and give them to him a few at a time.
Chionoi is chomping away non-stop on the chocolate wafers. There are three or four of the bars lying in front of him on the coffee table and his pockets are stuffed full with them.
When Oot walks away he puts his finger to his mouth and looks over at me.
Chionoi: Ssshhhhhhhh….don’t tell her.
Scott Mallon: I won’t tell her but did you ever think that eating all of these might be the reason you’ve got a toothache?
He just shakes his head as if he can’t believe he has such a toothache.
Note – This interaction with Chartchai was on the first day after I arrived in Chiang Mai. My initial thoughts of him were that he reminded me of a kindly grandfather, not of a champion fighter. When he spoke of boxing though I could sense he still had the competitive fire burning in him.
I told him he should just break down and see a dentist but had no success in convincing him. A visit to the dentist might have made a world of difference in how he felt but he wasn’t going no matter how much he hurt.
Whenever I travel, I always bring a small pharmacy – just in case. In my first aid kit I carry an assortment of pills for anything from bruises to diarrhea to pain. I asked Chionoi if he wanted a couple of pills for pain and he quickly replied, “Yes. Why, do you have some?!” I handed him two codeine tablets, 60 mgs each, figuring this would be enough to give him some much-needed relief.
Soon thereafter he fell asleep on the sofa in the front room. Shortly after awakening I asked if he felt better and to my surprise I was told “No, I feel the same. The pills didn’t help. I still hurt!”
Two 60 mg tablets of codeine should have been enough to not only take away the pain of his throbbing toothache but also to make him feel a whole lot better. He was clearly in excruciating pain though and they didn’t make a dent.
Scott Mallon: Besides your toothache, how are you doing?
Chionoi: I’m ok – I’m happy. Are you happy? I’m glad you’re here.
Scott Mallon: I’m glad to be here. You’ve got a beautiful place here, you must really like it.
Chionoi: My house is not so big, not so nice, but it’s quiet and I feel better when I’m here. In the morning I sit outside and listen to the birds, it’s nice.
Scott Mallon: So you live here all the time or do you have somewhere else you stay?
Chionoi: We go to my daughters Bee’s house in Bangkok once a month and stay for a few weeks. After one of the McGowan fights, I was invited to see the King. He asked me “If you could have anything, anything at all, what would you want.” So I asked him to give my baby daughter her name and he named her “Bee.”
Scott Mallon: So I know you get headaches all the time. What’s going on? Do you know?
Chionoi: I get headaches all the time.
Scott Mallon: Maybe because of your toothache?
Chionoi: No…I’ve had headaches for a long time, the toothache is only the last two or three months. Sometimes I get dizzy and feel like my head is spinning. When that happens I need quiet and rest.
During my stay, Chionoi would take frequent naps during the day or retire to his bedroom whenever he needed to.
Scott Mallon: How long have you lived here?
Chionoi: Around 3 years. We’ve had the land for about fourteen though.
Scott Mallon: Your house is full of boxing mementos. What got you into the sport?
Chionoi: When I was a little boy I used to watch Chamroen Songkitrat and wanted to be just like him. So I started boxing in school and since I was good at it, I continued.
On May the 2nd, 1954 in the National Stadium of Bangkok, Songkitrat challenged Australian Jimmy Carruthers unsuccessfully for the bantamweight title. The fight took place in the pouring rain and Songkitrat fought barefoot. The bout was viewed by Ring Magazine’s Nat Fleischer and because of the rain was changed from fifteen rounds to twelve.
Chionoi started boxing professionally when he was only 14 years of age and fought for eighteen years.
Scott Mallon: Did you fight in Muay Thai before boxing?
Chionoi: No, never. After I started boxing in grade school I stuck with it.
Scott Mallon: That’s unusual. Most Thai fighters start out in Muay Thai.
Chionoi: When I started fighting I was so young and after I met my wife and we got married, I had to grow up fast. When you have a family to support you do what you need to do. All I knew how to do was fight. My wife…she is the only woman I have ever been with. Promoters would send girls to my room, girls would come to the gym to watch me train – but my wife was the only one for me.
Scott Mallon: That’s unusual too. Is there any one fight that stands out for you?
Chionoi: The fights with Efren Torres, all of them. Miranda, he was tough because he never wanted to fight, he only wanted to dance. I hated fighting him. Walter McGowan – he had such a big heart. He was very polite also.
Oot: He always dressed very nicely!
Speaking of dressing sharply, during the 60’s teenagers wanting to copy Chionoi’s hair style would go into their local barbershop and ask for “The Chionoi.”
Scott Mallon: Was there any one punch you remember? Any one fighter who hit you so hard you still remember his punches?
Chionoi: They all hurt and I still remember them all. Sometimes I have dreams and I hear my manager telling me, “left – right – left, go forward, don’t go backwards, move your head!”
Scott Mallon: What made you stop boxing and what did you do after you stopped boxing?
Chionoi: It was just time. I had been boxing for more than half my life and just knew it was time. I had nothing left to prove. After I retired I’ve just relaxed and raised my children.
Scott Mallon: So what are you doing nowadays?
Chionoi: I don’t do much other than relax! I like the quiet here in Chiang Mai. Sometimes we go in to the town and go shopping; sometimes we go to the waterfall on our land to relax.
About fifteen minutes from Chionoi’s house, on the edge of a national park, he has a piece of land with several waterfalls.
Scott Mallon: This place isn’t relaxing enough?!
Chionoi: It is but we get bored so need other places to go.
Scott Mallon: Chartchai, your English is actually pretty good. Where did you learn to speak it?
Chionoi: I learned a little here, a little there. I’ve been all over the world; to the U.S., Mexico, England, Panama, Japan and Switzerland so the traveling helped.
Scott Mallon: Which of the places did you like best?
Chionoi: Switzerland…and Japan.
Scott Mallon: Do you watch much boxing nowadays?
Chionoi: No, not anymore. I did just after I retired but not anymore. I don’t know any of the fighters these days.
Chionoi secretly confided in me that he didn’t think a lot of the fighters who are champions these days would have been champions back in his day or before.
“Too many champions now, “he whispered.
Scott Mallon: How do you compare boxing today with boxing from your era?
Chionoi: Boxing used to be about the sport. Now it seems like it’s all about the money. Money is important of course but boxing is a sport.
Scott Mallon: Who do you rate as the greatest boxer from Thailand?
Chionoi: Pone Kingpetch. When Pone and I were fighting, we didn’t receive the same exposure as when Khaosai fought. Most Thais didn’t have TV’s in the 60’s and 70’s!
Scott Mallon: Is he your favorite Thai fighter?
Chionoi: Yes.
Scott Mallon: What about fighters from outside Thailand?
Chionoi: Rocky Marciano…and what’s his name? Roberto Duran! I like Duran a lot. He can really fight and was an animal in the ring. I like Marciano’s overhand right though. I used to throw an overhand right and I got it from watching him fight.
Scott Mallon: Nowadays, even fighters in the lower weight divisions are making $10,000-$20,000 and upwards of $100,000. What was the most you made for any fight in your career?
Chionoi: When I fought Fritz Chervet in Switzerland I made around $75,000. I used to walk around with a thick roll of money in my pocket, always handing some out to my wife or my children, now I don’t. I was able to buy some land and put my children through school with what I made and I did well enough during my career to take care of my family and that’s what was most important.
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