Philly Fight Night: A Report-back from a Recent Anarchist Muay Thai Smoker

Report on anarchist organized Muay Thai event in so-called Philadelphia. Originally posted to Philly Anti-Capitalist.

On April 27th, 2024 during the Northeast Regional Bash Back! Convergence, anarchists with an affinity for Muay Thai held an explicitly anarchist Muay Thai smoker (unsanctioned Muay Thai fight). This smoker was however organized as explicitly separate from Bash Back!

The idea to have an anarchist smoker in Philadelphia has been floating around for at least a few years now. A project that recently went semi-public in the city, Balagoon Boxing club, has interacted with other Muay Thai projects in the U.S. ,Canada, and Mexico which inspired some to host a smoker and get USA-team fight culture off the ground. Balagoon Boxing Club was in part galvanized as a counter to the rise of fascist fight culture, and for one thing knew we could put their shitty little smokers to shame…so we did. With people ostensibly coming from out of town to Philly for the BB! Convergence, we put the word out amongst our networks that there would be a smoker that weekend.

Bringing some violence to the weekend a crew showed up 2 hrs before the event to prepare a squatted warehouse room for a fight. This involved posing signage and placing glow sticks on the path for people to make their way to the event. It involved some final cleaning tasks, setting up table, chairs, sound and DJ equipment, mats for fighting, lights, etc. The mats we used were puzzle piece mats. The crew who helped put the thing on were so fucking helpful and we’re so thankful for each of their contributions. Fighters started trickling in and assembling in another space, here they could get changed, wrap their hands, and do pad work.

There were 10 fighters, so 5 fights. 8 fighters were local and 2 were from out of town. One of the out of town fighters was a last minute replacement, so we want to give a special thanks to them for stepping up and fighting hard. Organizationally, we aimed for each fighter to have 2 corners, one with more fight knowledge and one to give them water. We had a referee (who did a great job), a DJ (who also did a great job), a timekeeper (who did a great job, as well) with a sick custom bell, and a phenomenal announcer in a balaclava and bright orange suit. There was some rave lighting setting the mood. A black anarchist flag hung on the wall, as did a trans pirate cat flag. Each fighter was announced and walked out to a song of their choosing. Each fight consisted of three 3 minute rounds. It was so cute, incredibly fun, and the energy was fucking HIGH. There were about 100 people in attendance, people were crammed in and standing on the window sills. The crowd was screaming their heads off, heckling, chanting anti- police chants, it was so cute. The fights were all phenomenal, everyone did such a great job with their fights. Unfortunately, one person did get injured, thankfully our wonderful medical person was able to help them out. All in all, the event went better than expected, it was amazing. Afterwards, we cleaned up and left no trace that we were there.

To get a different angle on the fight, we had people write their perspectives on the smoker as attendees from outta town, fighters, members of Balagoon Boxing Gym, organizers and observers. These quotes are inspiring and speak to the energy at the event as well as broader theoretical and practical considerations for anarchists.

Some Perspectives on the Smoker

“The smoker was probably the highest energy I’ve felt at an anarchist event that wasn’t a protest or riot. I came away with a new sense of what it means to respect someone in a competitive setting. It was refreshing to switch things up after so many bookfairs. I was surprised at how nervous I initially felt waiting to fight. I’m looking forward to whenever the next one is!” – S, Philly

“The smoker was easily the highlight of bb weekend for me. As a fighter, it’s rare to get to be in martial arts or combat spaces where I don’t have to question my safety, and it was such a joy to be sharing that space with other people. Since lockdown, I’ve been grieving a specific category of social space– being alone with other people in dark spaces (think: live music, movie theaters, etc). The smoker was that space at its very best: here was a group of fucking freaks and weirdos expressing and appreciating aggression together, from the fighters giving their all on the mats or folks hootin’ and hollerin’ out from the very packed, standing-room-only crowd. It was beautiful to get to witness and celebrate other fighters that night. You could see how much work and consideration had gone into things to cultivate that night– you could see it in the boxing bell and the walk-on music and the extremely sick shirt designs, but also in the on-call medics, and the pride and care the fighters had for each other. You could see the hours spent building relationships with each other, you could hear the hard conversations folks had on consent and conflict, you could smell the sweat getting cleaned off the mats and gear and bags after every practice session. As an anarchist, these are the kinds of disciplines and commitments and socialities we need to be practicing all the time, and the smoker was such a fucking fun way to remember how to do it.” – m, chi

“The smoker was incredibly rewarding for me. Both because the event was a huge success in itself but also because it felt like the culmination of over a decade of growth in the radical fight training community in Philly. There was a time when @ fight training was 2 or 3 people in a park or lava with some gloves and maybe a set of pads. It was irregular and unfocused and that was reflected in our capacity (or lack thereof) in the streets. Now in Philly there are several independent clubs and training crews and of course our gym and that feels amazing. Hope that momentum continues here and in other places” – T, Philly

“I thought that the Philly smoker was incredibly invigorating. The night ended with an immeasurable high, and I’m glad I took part in it. I hadn’t intended to; when the event was announced, I considered it, but didn’t feel that my year of training was enough to feel confident in taking a fight with such a spectacle around it. But when someone canceled day-of, I decided to take a fight anyway. I’m not a boxer, and my sparse Muay Thai training, while strike-dominant, did not prepare me for a boxing match. Some of the technical skills of Muay Thai actually put me at a disadvantage for a boxing fight.

I’ve been training consistently about 2 days a week for a year, in a similar type of gym space as the Philly boxing club. I had tried in spurts in the past to train at a commercial gym, and with comrades, but it was inconsistent and short-lived. The commercial gym was far too expensive, and I rarely had the energy to attend consistently enough to make it worth it, as I was doing a lot of manual/domestic labor for work at the time. I think this is one of many reasons why a comrade gym is so important: most of us are broke and/or busy with a lot of other projects. But if we can eliminate the cost of maintaining a gym membership, it opens up a lot of space. Contributing to a comrade gym does take a lot of time and energy, but it can be a lot more rewarding than throwing money at or spending a lot of your time in a commercial gym that, at its best, can still be full of a lot of toxicity

I chose to fight last minute because I wanted to contribute to an event that friends/comrades had put a lot of work into-I wanted it to be as brimming as possible. It felt ridiculous and scary-I knew I was not going to ‘win’ by any measure of the word, and that it would be mostly a game of trying to leave the fight without a horrible concussion. I also chose to do it for personal reasons, mostly that an intense perfectionist mindset kept me from training martial arts for years before I started. I think that being visible being bad at something is a deep challenge for a lot of people, and something that is especially ripe in anarchist spaces. But we only learn by doing! And I think that confronting fear, anxiety and an uncertainty about one’s capabilities is an important skill and experience to expose ourselves to. I also think that egos really negatively impact radical spaces, and it’s important to constantly tamp down on our egos getting out of control. It’s good to take ourselves seriously a lot of the time, to understand the stakes of what we’re up against in this world, and the weight of it all, and also it’s sometimes useful to not take ourselves too seriously, to be able to laugh at ourselves and not be too beholden to maintaining a image or mystique of seriousness, militancy, whatever.

Learning to fight together is a great way to build friendships, trust, and potentially relationships of affinity. It’s definitely different to fight people you care about, because you have to learn a lot of control and calm to walk the line of proficiency and skill while also not going ham trying to destroy your friend. I definitely found myself having some chaotic preservation moments where I forgot my striking skills and was instead just trying to get my opponent the fuck away from me. And that happens sometimes in sparring but it went a lot more sloppy in the public fight (cool). It’s always way different than a street fight where anything goes; you have rules and the vibe isn’t destruction but skillfulness.

I’ve found that it’s actually way more difficult to be bad at things in front of my friends than it is total strangers. For that reason, a commercial gym is slightly appealing, but that appeal disintegrates when I’m exposed to the fat phobia, ableism and toxic masculinity of many commercial gyms. I like to create spaces where we can learn our limits and take breaks, but also try and push our limits a bit. Everyone is different, has different bodies and things that come up with exercise, fighting, social spaces, etc so I think it’s important to try to make a space that is as open as possible to being different. Sometimes we have to get over our own shit and just do the thing if we want to, or not. Not everyone is going to train and I think that’s totally fine. But it’s cool to open up the option as much a possible and it is a very important skill as this hell world grows worse. And sometimes it’s worth inspecting our internal world and seeing if it’s ego, fear or social anxiety that is keeping us from training, because hopefully that’s something we could try to work through a bit more. I think finding out what staying ‘fit’ or active means for our own bodies is worthwhile, and I think that exercise can be a generally positive way to manage difficult mental health struggles. Also, as a zine recently asserted, the downtime during waves of intensity can be really strange to navigate and keeping ourselves sharp and our relationships with one another connected as much as we can, is really wise.

For the most part the audience was very enthusiastic and supportive. People recognized that this is a very challenging thing to get up in front of people and do. And I saw intention put into encouraging both fighters during the match. Some of the people that were jerks were challenged and I think that’s tight. Before you talk shit, ask yourself if you would get into the ring. Ultimately, we are trying to craft a very different space than mainstream fight sports, so we always have to carry that with us. Maybe getting fixated on ‘dominating’ a friend/acquaintance in a fight, or trying to knock them out is worth challenging, while also understanding this is meant to be a test of training, and that it’s better to know our weaknesses in friendly company rather than on the street with our enemies.

I hope people’s excitement around the event can bolster enthusiasm for gathering with intention. Socializing can be nice, but I also think that building relationships through projects and skill building is really vital. Maybe not everyone is trying to fight train, but this can be a moment to recognize the effort that goes into these types of projects, and that if this isn’t your jam, that’s cool, but perhaps thinking about what it would be like to self-organize and create the type of project or event you want to see happening. I’m also really proud of my friends for their consistency in building the gym space, and seeing people put a bunch of time and energy into training, and to watch them put up such competitive fights; it was beautiful and inspiring.” – Paint Huffer, Indiana

“I walked into the smoker with some ambivalence and walked out with hella hope in my heart. I hate talking about hope because it feels manufactured sometimes and also pacifist but the type of hope I felt after the smoker was one that felt embodied. Literally. The smoker was a dope way to encourage relationship to bodily defense for anarchist and other radicals in the crowd. More smokers in more cities please!” – twig, Harlem

“After training for several years without having the intention of taking a fight, I jumped at the chance to do a smoker with friends and comrades. It felt like a relatively safe opportunity with a low barrier to entry that increased the accessibility, much like the gym spaces we respectively (and collectively) run. It was another opportunity to level up and grow together, after putting in a lot of work to increase our skills, and therefore having more to share with our collectives. The event itself was exciting, challenging, and a lot of fun to be a part of — and I hope it inspires more anarchists to train in combat sports. Doing difficult and somewhat dangerous things together is intimidating, but we are usually better for it, forging further trust and strength together — in addition to the potential practical application learning to physically fight affords us.” – C, Bloomington

“I think I really enjoyed the smoker because I think it gave me a goal to train and push myself for. I was also able to show everyone how much I improved when I fought. I think it was an important moment for anarchists in the United States culturally because it was an event that largely was attended by people from philly who aren’t coming exclusively from a niche anarchist subculture. Martial arts are widely practiced and super popular so there’s no reasons anarchists shouldn’t be doing them. I think co-training and a culture of fighting in anarchist spaces can lead us to having more confidence when it comes to confronting the police or other enemies. I think a smoker attracts a different group of people than a punk show or a reading group (not that those things are bad) so as someone who comes to anarchy not through subculture but through political and ethical utility for black struggle, this event felt really good. One of the best anarchist community events I’ve ever been to…maybe the best honestly. Like amazing contagious energy. We need these everywhere.” – A, West Philly

“I started doing muay thai with the boxing club in late summer of 2023; coinciding with witnessing the most documented genocide(s) of my lifetime and my exposure to insurrectionary anarchist spaces in Philly.

The potential for catatonic overwhelm and dissociation during this time is ripe; it’s become crucial for me to stay as grounded and responsive as capable. Over the past 9 months, my mentality towards strength and self defense has shifted significantly, along with the self-awareness to scale the intensity of my training while also knowing my limits. Though daunting at first, I’ve found a groove that works for me and have noticed many parallels between co-training in muay thai and insurrectionary anarchism.

Taking immediate action, practicing autonomy by defining my objectives, using unpredictable strategies while finding and creating openings in my opponent not only prepare me for a smoker, but also a potential conflict with an enemy. I’m grateful for the big nerds I’ve had a pleasure training with and proud of how well the smoker showcased what we have going on. S/O to all the hot trans fighters on gay tuesday ;)” – ~~~ philadelphia

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the smoker and what it means for anarchy/radical world, and while it was extremely beautiful to see everyone’s skills come to the front and to be able to showcase them, what really struck me was the way people threw down to make the actual event happen and how excited everyone was, in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. Like friends jumping in to make signs, be timekeeper with no experience, grab ice from the corner store, corner and making sure fighters were safe, take care of injuries with medic skills, help clean up after, make zines and tshirts to drop at the same time as the fight, etc. etc.. The excitement about doing something together was so palpable and makes me think a lot about how martial arts – while extremely transformative to learn as an art and practice on a personal level – can be so much more powerful as a social and interconnected activity that teaches us to look out for each other and also move/attack together. To me that deeply separates what we’re doing from a type of training that prioritizes a hyper-individualistic regimen of gains or individual strength or clout or whatever the fuck people train for. We’re learning to swarm dangerously.” – Temporary Muay Thai Autonomous Zone, Lenapehoking/Philly

“Attending the smoker was inspiring on multiple fronts. It was great seeing the fruits of years of peoples labor running the gym, training, and building with the local community. It’s rare to witness such tangible representations of people’s dedication and hard work and this was one of those moments. This felt especially important in light of the principles of the project. An anarchist project grounded in self defense and training up is necessary for the work we want to do and one that also prioritizes queer and trans people is all the better. The project itself is incredible replicable and the zine they had available made this even more true.

Walking into the space felt like getting an instant snapshot into some of the amazing work happening in Philly. The energy at the actual smoker was electric. It was more high energy than some actions I’ve attended. There were chants in between rounds. The crowd was living for the fights. It felt like an honor to be there. It revealed something special about the capacity for anarchist social life.” – sangria, chicago

“The anarchist Muay Thai smoker in Philadelphia felt unprecedented. The energy in the room was electric, unlike any anarchist event I’ve personally been too in the States. People were chanting, cheering, absolutely overwhelmed with excitement. I’ve been to other radical fight gyms and combat sports events, I attended Friendly Fire Fight Club (FFFC) in Zurich, Switzerland. Despite there being twice as many people there than at the event in Philly, the Philly smoker had just as much of not more energy at times than in Zurich within the crowd. It’s relieving to see anarchists and community members enjoy each-other’s company and each-other’s violence. It’s a break from the monotony of endless workshops and seminars that accompany most regional anarchist assemblies, and a strong reminder of who we are by principle, fighters. I think these events are critical to further embrace a more physical practice within radical/militant spaces which I personally feel lack in their importance in the American context. Training is an absolute necessity (underline that shit!) and Philly demonstrated how it can bring us all together with more enthusiasm than endless and mostly useless conversations and semantics.” – Uzi, Raleigh North Carolina

“Between the pay to play model and the culture of gambling and placing bets on fighters, underground Muay Thai culture is usually heavily influenced by money. The underground space for the sport is historically so illegal bets can take place. On the other hand, sanctioned fights here in the West are unfamiliar territory to a lot of people. The training is long, fight camps and weight cuts are exhausting, and the amount of money you have to spend just to fight almost makes it not worth it.

There’s plenty of people who train Muay Thai here in Philly, whether at a “legit” gym or at Balagoon, who would have either never had the opportunity to fight, or wouldn’t want to put in the dedication needed for that experience. A lot of the anarchists here don’t train because of a love for the sport, they train for a variety of reasons that mostly have to do with just being more skilled at it than the Nazis and other white supremacists. (Not a hard task) – As one of the organizers and as the ref, I’m extremely impressed with all of the fighters, especially those who have only ever trained at Balagoon, which is just a bunch of anarchists getting together and sharing knowledge and experience, drilling and sparring. It’s proof that you can learn a combat sport outside of the coach to student model. Hosting a free smoker that felt that legit, and was that highly attended, I am so floored by. I saw so many faces I didn’t expect to see, that didn’t just come from the niche subculture of agro queer anarchists that were in town for Bash Back. This would have been a major success even if we didn’t host it on Bash Back weekend.
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The energy in that room was electric. Reffing what was impressively clean Muay Thai, in a room full of outside agitators screaming anti capitalist and fuck 12 chants, felt like a movie. This was by far one of my favorite memories to date. I’m excited for the next one we put on, and for the future of the Anarchist Muay Thai scene. In Philadelphia and elsewhere.” – Meadow, West Philly

“I’ve generally been skeptical of the resurgence of Bash Back!, both as a convergence and a tendency. The resurgence has seemed aesthetically performative in both communication and practice. My understanding of these convergences has been that they feed the scenes cannibalistic nature for drama and couple that with hangoutism and hedonism. Not knocking hanging out or hedonism, I just don’t understand why it needs to be linked to this largely performative politics. This just reproduces cliqueyness often brought up in critiques of insurrrectionary anarchism, rather than extending the Bash Back! Tendency into a meaningful space of practice. The cliqueyness wouldn’t be so egregious if the tendency was actually bashing back, but without the practice, the whole thing lands flat.

The smoker during the BB! convergence was in part a criticism by example. The event was explicitly not a part of Bash Back! As an insurrectionary gender glitch who trains Muay Thai, in part towards a capacity to do violence in the street, I was interested in a display of what that looks in contrast to the rhetorical performativity about it abound in the philly scene. If one is serious in their desire to act against civilization, the state, etc., from my perspective it is important to take appreciable steps toward being more prepared to do that. This could involve martial arts training, fire arms training, trauma medicine training, wilderness skills, etc. Training in these ways with people increases our collective ability to act against our enemies, building trust between comrades and trust in our own capabilities.

The smoker brought some insurrectionary queer violence to the weekend in spectacular fashion. It was incredibly satisfying to both bring an event like this into existence and to participate in it as a fighter. As an environment, we wanted the space to be what it was, a rowdy underground anarchist fight night, and it was just that in the most beautiful way. As a fighter, it was overwhelming, I basically went from running around setting up and cornering other fighters right into my fight without a warm up or anything. I was very pleased with my fight, my opponent was great and tough, it was a good skill match up and really pushed me to my limits. The energy of the event was really great, all of the other fighters did great, it was so nice to have seen people progress so much in their skills and have the confidence to display those skills in a very public way. Its an extraordinary pleasure to train with people at Balagoon, that space is one of the most consistent comfortable spaces in my life. We were hoping that more fighters from out of town would participate, those who did were friends from a gym Balagoon has a relationship with, which demonstrated the importance of our networks in making things happen. The event would not have been possible without our out of town friends. The energy in the space was amazing, the aesthetic plus the actual event came together in a really satisfying way. It was one of the most unique and satisfying anarchists events I have ever participated in or attended. I’ve fought in anarchist smokers elsewhere and the grittiness and aesthetic of the event here put on display what can be so novel and interesting in the anarchist space in Philly.

Unfortunately, I did not feel like I was able to appreciate the event as it was happening, doing all the other tasks during the event was distracting. However, it seems like people had a lot of fun and were really impressed by the event. The whole thing went way better than I could have expected and I can’t wait until the next one. I’m incredibly thankful towards everyone who made it happen.” – Anal Terror, Filthy

“The Muay Thai smoker was my most anticipated events from the Bash Back! weekend. The smoker was invigorating. The energy from the crowd, fighters, DJ, referee, and timekeeper was bouncing off the walls you could almost see it. It was one of the few events that weekend that felt like it had a strong projectality. Many events, workshops, and discussions at Bash Back! felt surface level and not grounded in the fact that anarchist should equip themselves with skills to be able to destroy empire and the state. With a spotlight on combat, the smoker pushed the idea that anarchism should involve a form of consistent collective training, whether that’s muay thai, boxing, jiu-jitsu, fire arms, medical, or intellectually. As someone who use to train muay thai consistently, it inspired me to work on a collective fighting project with comrades in my city. I’m excited about an anarchist future where combat is a shared political project in more cities in the u.s.” – Griot, The Dirty South

Closing

Culturally, we wanted to this event to be explicitly anarchist, so we did not invite fighters from a broader Muay Thai community to participate. Ideally, we would like more fighters from out of town to participate next time as well, events like this can add some flare to regional convergences or be ones in and of themselves. This event was really fun to put on in several ways. Training together and preparing each other for the fight was a great way to build comradery and trust amongst comrades. The mood of the space can be cultivated, we went with a squatted warehouse fight club aesthetic, the walk-ons were equal parts cute and hard, the announcing a mix of kayfabe kitschyness and stadium seriousness. The fights were real and serious. Such an event is amorphous, the shape it takes on is the sum of those putting it on and the directions in which they want to take it. Collective excitement has the potential to create moments and shift culture towards activity, hopefully this event will inspire more people to train in whatever skills they desire to have, whether that be martial arts or something else. Deviations from the reading group/skillshare/book fair ways that anarchists gather with each other can introduce new and interesting directions into the projectuality of anarchist culture.