There’s a dish in Thailand called ‘Weeping Tiger Beef’ and just like the beef between Tiger Muay Thai and Phuket Top Team gym in Thailand, there are conflicting stories as to how the dish got it’s name. One legend states it is because the hot chillies in the recipe caused a tiger to cry when he ate it. The other story says that a tiger cried when a hunter stole and killed his cow. Seems there are always conflicting or different stories around everything.
This dish is an appropriate meal to serve up along side this article not only because there are conflicting stories as to the dish’s origins but the name of it itself-‘Weeping Tiger Beef” is a perfect title for this two sided disagreement. It seems Tiger Muay Thai is now saddened that their one time friends and training partners Roger Huerta and Mike Swick have seperated from Tiger Muay Thai and decided to open their own camp ‘150 meters down the road’ and in the meantime train with the rival gym, Phuket Top Team.
Since this beef started there have been lengthy and disgruntled message board postings, traitor accusations, police involvement, people being arrrested, illegal firearms possesion and even alleged death threats. This has all the key ingredients for a really kick ass Jason Statham movie. Instead of a car chase scene though, people would be trading gun fire and trying to run each other off the road just like Swick in those kitchen on wheel contraptions. Don’t try and steal my idea-I’m lining up meetings with movie producers now to pitch the idea. Until the movie comes out, here’s some of the background to this spicy beef with explanations from both sides of the plate.
August 20th: Ray Elbe of Tiger Muay Thai and Season 9 of The Ultimate Fighter posts a lengthy blog and video telling everyone his opinion about why Roger Huerta was no longer training with Tiger Muay Thai. You can read the entire post for yourself here. It basically tells from Ray’s perspective how Tiger Muay Thai opened their arms and hearts and gave Roger Huerta the ‘VIP treatment’ while he was with them and how he is disappointed that Roger no longer feels comfortable training with people who housed him for free for 12 months.
September 20th:Phuket Top Team announces a returning fight for Roger Huerta versus the one and only War Machine. The following day, Roger Huerta’s former training camp Tiger Muay Thai tweets an offer to train War Machine stating: ‘@warmachine170 do u have an email we can reach u at. #Huerta spent the last year training @tigermuaythai we would love to help u get ready’ War Machine responds wanting to know why TMT would want to train him after spending years training Huerta to which TMT tweets War Machine to facebook Ray Elbe for reasons why. Whoa.
About two weeks ago: KruThailand posts on an mma.tv forum that a few months ago Ray Elbe was arrested in Thailand for teaching without a permit and that there are rumors flying around Thailand that Phuket Top Team were the authorities informants even providing alleged video evidence to the police of Elbe bribing and paying off officials.
KruThailand also claims in this posting to have been at a TMT BBQ Beatdown in August when the Phuket Top Team owners arrived with “a groups of thugs with a gun in his pants”. A few days later the Phuket Top Team owners wife was arrested for illegal firearms possesion and ever since Ray Elbe has been alledgedly recieving death threats via facebook and twitter messages.
Two weeks ago: The owner of PPT posts on his facebook that none of the gun accusations are true and that they were in fact raided. PTT owner claims his gym was raided because someone from TMT told the police that were drugs there.
October 6th: Mike Swick pops up on the ever growing mma.tv thread to let everyone know there are two sides to every story and he intends to give the ‘Huerta Swick’ side shortly.
October 7th: Mike Swick posts a very long back story explaining his and Roger’s side of this disagreement. It basically states that Mike and Roger both did not take any advantage of TMT and gave many free seminars and training sessions and marketing videos all free of charge to TMT. He also states that TMT ‘set them up like a cloak and dagger’ when asking them to train there on the condition that they don’t try and steal their trainers, only to then turn around and publicly accuse them of doing that very thing’ You can read the entire detailed Swick explanation here.
Around 130AM this morning (October 8th): Tiger Muay Thai pops up on Swick’s explanation thread on mma.tv and gives a retort pretty much denying anyone at TMT ever had an issue with Swick or Huerta but that an ‘anonymous email from the USA’ discussing Roger Huerta’s involvement in stealing trainers from TMT- caused them to have hurt feelings and feel betrayed by the trust of ‘a friend’. TMT wishes Swick and Huerta well, but feels as though the two deciding to go and train with the one gym in the area who is a definite rival to TMT was malicious and harsh.
There you have it folks-all the makings for a really fantastic action movie. Whew, reading all of that was hardwork. I know you must be starving so here’s the recipe for that Weeping Tiger Beef so you can fill your empty belly. Yum.