Tom Munro: Douglas County’s muay thai guy and would-be champ won’t be lazy

BY DARRYL MAXIE, Sentinel Sports Editor

Tom Munro has won six of seven pro fights and will take on Shawn Yarborough for the WBC U.S. national light heavyweight title on April 17 in Primm, Nev.

By day, Tom Munro sells commercial heating and air equipment. It’s a tricky thing when he shows up to a meeting with a black eye.

Tricky, but not uncommon. That’s because of what he does when he takes off his salesman cap.

Munro, 28, is Douglas County’s muay thai guy, and if that seems a simplistic way to view who he his, what he does and what he is trying to do, it might not be by next week.

He is about to fight Shawn Yarborough for the WBC Muay Thai U.S. national title April 17 in Primm, Nev., almost 40 miles south of Las Vegas, and about a stone’s throw from the California state line.

Muay thai (pronounced MU-WHY TIE) is a form of martial arts that originated in Thailand. Perhaps a comparison to the other forms of ringed competition will best describe it.

Boxing uses two hands. Kick boxing uses hands and feet. Mixed martial arts uses hands, feet and wrestling maneuvers, a bout often ending when the loser is choked or grounded and pounded.

There’s no wrestling or grounding and pounding in muay thai. But a fighter in that sport will go after his opponent with everything but the kitchen sink. It is referred to as the “science of eight limbs,” because you will get hit with two hands, two feet, two elbows and two knees. As any fighter will attest, eight is enough.

“Muay thai is a brutal sport,” Munro said Thursday. “It’s who can take the most pain. If you watch some of the knockouts on youtube, it’s nasty.”

Munro, a 2000 graduate of Douglas County High School, trains relentlessly — and has been doing so since January.

“You get lazy in training, you’re going to lose,” he said.

Munro has changed his fighting style recently. He used to be willing to take a hard punch if it meant he got to deliver two. Now, however, he’s more focused on avoiding punishment in favor of dishing it out. Being the deliverer of punishment instead of the recipient is what got him into the sport in the first place.

“I was 16 and I saw David Schumacher sparring,” Munro said, referring to a Carrollton chiropractor who also practices the sport. “I thought it looked cool. This was when all the Chuck Norris and [Jean-Claude] Van Damme movies were coming out. For about three months, he beat me up, left me with black eyes, bruises … I couldn’t hardly walk.”

But, Munro added, “It was better than football.”

Such sentiments about football might lead some to question Munro’s Southern credentials, but he paid the price for his beliefs. Being raised on a farm taught him the work ethic that has helped make him who he is.

Work ethic didn’t do it alone, however. To progress in a sport like muay thai, you have to learn from the best.

Schumacher introduced Munro to his trainers, through whom Munro met Manu Ntoh, whose Web site boasts of him as a four-time world champion. And steadily, Munro began climbing the ranks.

He has won six of his seven professional fights, and though he’s considered an underdog against Yarborough, it’s clearly a position he relishes.

“Anyone who says he’s the best is lying — there’s always someone who can beat you,” Munro said. “Regardless of how good I am, there’s always someone to beat me — and I want to find that guy.”

That guy may be Yarborough (6-1-1). If it’s not, though, Munro will return to Douglas County with a championship.

“For me, it would make me feel like I’m on top,” Munro said. “It’s been a rough last year and a half, so for me to bring home a championship, it would show my coaches that it wasn’t useless, the time they spent training me.”

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