The lady is a BOKATOR FIGHTER
29 June 2018

Success is a simple, easy word. But a successful person knows that it requires perseverance, patience and rising up from challenges to be called such – things most of us are scared of. But it’s different for Oum Sam Tharoth. She has overcome punches and kicks to make herself worthy to be called a Bokator fighter, the first woman Bokator fighter at that. The 27-year-old Bokator and martial arts stalwart reveals her story to Say Tola...
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50506074/t ... r-fighter/

Sweet Savage’: Long Beach MMA fighter reconnects with her Cambodian heritage
Crystal Niebla
Feb 21 9:00 am

Long before she was schooled in the art of knocking someone out, Sovannahry Em was taught to take life as it comes; bullying, domestic conflict, didn’t matter. She was to handle situations, to never be sad or angry, never be anything but well-mannered.

But not now. Not when she’s home in California and certainly not recently when she found herself in a cage in Singapore. Now, Sovannahry Em fights.

They call her the “Sweet Savage”—every professional fighter needs a nickname—and the latter half of the moniker was definitely on display in Singapore, on Jan. 29. She cut down her taller, heavier South Korean opponent, Choi Jeung Yun, a skilled kickboxer, pinned her torso and right arm to the mat and pummeled her face with left hooks that were equal parts precise and ferocious until the referee had no choice but to declare Em, 28, the winner by technical knockout.

Surrounded by empty seats, he raised the arm of the Cambodian American from Long Beach, declaring her the winner of this ONE Championship match—ONE being the largest Asian combat sport organization in the world.

“Man,” she said, catching her breath and flashing the smile that accounts for the “Sweet” of her nickname, “that was a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be.”

She could say the same about life. Though this match marked her second victory for the organization on her journey to become a World ONE Champion, she says her main goal remains to reconnect with her Cambodian heritage while becoming a role model for girls and women, particularly those living in Cambodia, who might not feel confident enough to stand up for themselves.

“There’s too much of a culture of women being quiet,” Em said. “We live in such a society that violence toward women is not so uncommon.”

Her remedy, she says, is simple: Every woman should know how to fight.

She is not talking about marching or calling your member of Congress; she believes every woman should know how to curl up her fist and defend herself.
https://lbpost.com/sports/sweet-savage- ... n-heritage