The men both spent more than half their lives practicing the martial art, shuffling back and forth between Thailand and Singapore during their teenage years. “After training, you need to eat. And in Thailand, you’ll always have rice. You just need something to go with it,” says Spencer, who’s rather soft-spoken for someone with 32 professional fights under his belt.
In Thailand, he stayed with the husband-and-wife owners of Eminent Air Thai Boxing Gym (the name refers to their sponsor – an air-conditioner manufacturer). It was the wife who managed the gym, and whom Spencer refers to as “his godmother”. “She taught me most of the recipes we’re cooking now,” he says.
Since then, he returned to Singapore to serve his National Service before meeting Lai Hock, who’s equally mild-mannered despite having had 12 bouts in the ring. With his godmother’s blessing, the pair (along with Spencer’s bro) opened their gym Eminent Air Muay Thai Singapore four years ago.