So who is Master Thong? For years we have seen this mysterious little Asian man in the corners of Joseph Benavidez and Urijah Faber. Is he part ninja? Is he part Asian kung fu superstar? I’ll recount my first memory of the mysterious Asian master. It was at WEC 26. Dominick Cruz had just come out to jeers in a arena that was packed full of Urijah fans. The music of Tupac shortly filled the arena and people jumped out of their seats. Low and behold out comes the then untouchable WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber. With a stone face expression and swagger to make a NY city pimp run for his cheddah, Urijah triumphantly came out.
“WTF, who is that little Asian guy,” I remember saying to my roommate.
Walking out behind Urijah was a man with a cut off sleeve shirt and a smile the size of the big apple. The smile was so big its as if Master Thong were just given free citizenship. I looked over to my roommate,
“Dude, he looks like your dad man.”
My roommate responded, ” No way this guys looks like he’s some sorta Hong Kong film star.”
The legend of Master Thong was born. Every Urijah Faber fight I watched, he was there in all his sleeveless glory. I searched everywhere, but I could never find information on the man other than he was Urijah’s trainer. What an odd couple right? But yea, no background story, absolutely nothing. As I started getting more and more involved with writing and then interviewing I told myself if I ever had the chance to speak to Urjiah I was going to ask. Ask for the thousands of other people that probably had the same question as I, “Who the hell is this guy? and how the hell did you two guys meet!”
Then last week it happened. After a failed attempt at the Fit Expo in LA (Urijah was mobbed) I had a chance to speak to him at the grand opening of Mark Munoz’s gym in Lake Forrest CA. I got there about a hour early to avoid the mob scene and I was rewarded. Chilling next to the cage was Urijah all by his lonesome. It was the equivalent of seeing a panda getting busy, a sight the public never sees to often.
“Hey Urijah you up for a interview?”
“Yea man lets do it!”
Easy as one, two, three. Looking back, the interview was great, my camera guy on the other hand was not. The only usable footage was oddly enough, the segment on how Urijah met Master Thong.
So who is Master Thong? Well, rather than I spill the beans I’ll have Urijah tell you…..
