Luther gets a kick out of tough regime

AS I walk through the wooden doors of Barnstaple Boxing Club, I am greeted with an eerie silence.

Aged floorboards creak beneath my feet and heavy leather punchbags sway gently in a room adorned with vintage images of very tough men staring aggressively at me from all corners.

I have come to meet 23-year-old Barnstaple fighter Kris Luther who, according to his friend and trainer Martin Sage, will be the next big thing in Muay Thai boxing — having convincingly smashed his way to victory in his first eight fights in Thailand.

Walking up the stairs, I can hear grunts of pain, energetic yelps and the sound of something hitting a plastic pad extremely hard.

I emerge at the top expecting to find a huge, brutish slugger of a man, covered in scars and beating the living daylights out of a punchbag — but when I see where the noise is coming from, I am slightly relieved.

Far from a bruising six-footer, Luther is average height, normal build and very softly spoken — not quite the brute who had beaten a Thai champion with 48 wins under his belt that I had expected.

However, don't let appearances fool you. Luther has spent the past year at a training camp in Thailand where his punishing regime consisted of waking up at 5.30am every day for a 10km run followed by seven hours of gruelling pad work and sparring.

He said: "Thailand was tough — the trainers were like drill sergeants.

"This is their national sport and they take it very seriously. Some kids start at five years old and have 200 fights under their belt by the time they're 20."

Luther had never left the country before he was 22 but after falling in love with Muay Thai boxing decided to spend all the money he had saved for a car on a training pilgrimage to the sport's homeland.

Luther moved to North Devon in the mid-1990s, attending Park Community School and then North Devon College, and first started kickboxing at the local leisure centre.

He said: "I soon realised I was pretty good at it and started training with Martin at Barnstaple Boxing Club.

"I'd only had two amateur fights in the UK before going to Thailand but won them both.

"I had a further six fights in Thailand — these were proper fights though, no pads and extremely good opponents.

"So far I have an unbeaten record. The last fight I had was against a national Thai boxing hero who had featured on TV over there. He had won all 48 of his previous fights but I still managed to beat him narrowly on points — although the fight did leave me with 10 stitches in my head from an elbow blow."

Luther has returned home to Barnstaple briefly for a family birthday party and plans to resume his training in Thailand soon.

However, since arriving in the UK, plans are afoot for a British title fight in Manchester in October — something his trainer, 49-year-old Sage, believes is well within Luther's grasp.

He said: "Kris is a very special and unique guy — he picks things up incredibly quickly.

"For a guy from Barnstaple to have achieved what he has at such a young age is fantastic and youngsters at the boxing club can look to him as a strong role model.

"I truly believe Kris has what it takes to be a champion.

"I just hope he gets the chance in October."