By Ian Ewing
“It legitimizes my training. It proves to me that all the training that I’ve done throughout my life has been working.”
That’s the reason martial artist Fred Stonehouse gives for taking his second sanctioned Muay Thai fight, at Throwdown Gatineau on June 16. The Ottawa Academy of Martial Arts product enjoys the challenge of competing, but he especially likes knowing that his training is effective.
“The things I’ve learned – if I can do it against somebody who’s also been training and who knows what I’m doing and knows how to defend it, then I should be OK if something were to happen on the street, against somebody who doesn’t know.”
Not that he’s expecting to find himself in street brawls. In addition to training there, Stonehouse has built himself a life at OAMA working and instructing. The credibility he hopes to earn in the ring isn’t just for himself – it’s for his students, who he calls his biggest fans.
“I’ve known since a young age that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I love teaching,” he adds.
The 23-year-old athlete has been involved in martial arts since the age of three, but has only been doing Muay Thai, or Thai kickboxing, for a little over two years. Prior to that, he was involved in taekwondo, karate, boxing, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
It was almost an accident that the up-and-comer tried out Muay Thai. He came to OAMA from a karate gym, feeling like he’d reached the limit of what he could learn there.
He jumped into BJJ, a mixed martial arts favourite, as quickly as he could. Stonehouse began training with some of the big names in Ottawa MMA, including Mark ‘Boots’ Holst and ‘Relentless’ Randy Turner. But when nobody showed up for BJJ for a few days, another instructor, Kru Jeff Harrison, told him to grab his gear. Without explaining, they began sparring.
“We started off with boxing,” Stonehouse smiles. “I was like, ‘OK, I can do this.’ And then he kicked me in the leg!
“I didn’t know anything, at all, about leg kicks. I got beat up, over and over, day after day, until I learned how to check a kick.”
Eventually having figured that out, he was next subjected to the clinch, and still without warning, knees to the head.
“That was my introduction to Muay Thai,” Stonehouse recalls.
Acknowledging that some people might be discouraged by such an unforgiving approach, the Algonquin College business administration graduate claims he found it refreshing.
“I had done 10 years of solid striking before that. Then I come here, and it tells me, really, I’d only just started learning about striking.”
Getting beaten up so soundly lit a fire in his belly, and he resolved to keep coming back until he learned how to defend this new style of attack.
He’s a quick study. Stonehouse won his first sanctioned amateur Muay Thai event in February, defeating Ronin MMA fighter Armin Eshtabi. He describes feeling more relaxed heading into this match, where he’ll face Team Bushido’s Andre Aitken – one of around 15 fights on the upcoming Casino du Lac Leamy card. The OAMA fighter doesn’t know anything about his opponent, but believes his hard work training with experienced teammates prepared him well.
Regardless of how the fight turns out, Stonehouse plans to stay involved in martial arts for a long time. “If they want me to, I would teach (martial arts) for the rest of my life,” he says.
The best compliment Stonehouse has ever received, he adds, came from a student who ran up to him after a fight. “This combo you showed me worked!” exclaimed the excited student.
“I’d taught him that three or four months earlier,” the instructor says. “He still remembered it and appreciated it enough that he put it into his fight. It’s amazing to see what you teach get passed on.”