| ** RAY STARING Interview ** by Kai |
 A
fighter with a unique Style, Speed & alot power... yeah we are talking
about Raymond staring. Ray staring was borned in Zeddam but raised in
Groessen. He started with kickboxing / Muay thai on the age of 16 and he
have a fightrecord of 37 fights - 28 wins- 17 KO`s - 6 losses & 3 draww`s.
His sensei is the famous ex- mejiro gym fighter Fred Royers. He have also the W.F.C.A Dutch title and won over Fadir Merza on points(14-11-2004) for the W.F.C.A World title. We hear more and more from Ray staring, He Ko`d Rogier van de Heyden ( a famous Mejiro gym fighter with 45 fights and never been KO`d before) and Ray fought in the k-1 MAX holland tournement. In the quater finals he won from chris van venrooj (medical intervention round 3) but ray lost the fight (semi finals) against Rayen simson after 1 extra round. Couple of weeks ago he also won the fight against Drago in the Amsterdam arena (k-1 GP Amsterdam)! Should Ray staring have a chance in the K-1 MAX GP? Here an intervieuw with Ray Staring. Hello Ray how are you doing? Taking some rest now after your victory against Drago? I’m doing ok, just a little bit tired and ‘empty’. But it’s quite normal for me to feel like that for a short period after a fight. It’s a logical process after such an important goal is achieved. I’m still training, but at a much lower intensity because I have no fights scheduled until October. Nevertheless, off course I am very satisfied with my victory in the Amsterdam Arena. It was great to fight for such a big crowd, and it was priceless to win there in such an obvious way! Can you tell us about the beginning of the sport, why did you start with kickboxing/muay thai? I was bored playing soccer, and after doing some fitness for a while a friend of me convinced me to try a kickboxing lesson for a change. I found it very challenging and I loved the hard work. Furthermore I had lots of grief inside of me because of the loss of my sister. The training was ideal to get rid of all my frustration and anger. Because of this burning fire inside of me I trained harder than the rest and so I got better and better. After a while the trainer saw there was not much challenge anymore for me in that group. So he took me to his own Sensei, Fred Royers (kickboxing Arnhem) where I’m training now for more than seven years. You have a very nice record, what was your toughest fight in your whole career? The toughest fight for me was in the C-class against Dennis Sharoykin (de Rus) of Gym Alkmaar. He was far more experienced than me at that time. He came from Russia and was only training in Holland for a short period. Therefore his trainer was not sure of hiss skill level and wanted to test him in a C-class fight. This guy had fought lots of full-contact and amateur boxing fights in Russia and I had only fought four fights. He was far too strong for me so the whole fight was a true survival to stay on my feet. I got knocked down after 30 seconds but thanks to the excellent coaching of my sensei en my will to go on I managed to fight with him all the way. I lost on points, but it felt like a moral victory. How does it feels to be a pro fighter? was that your dream since your young years? It feels unreal. I am still a fan of all great fighters and I find it difficult to believe that I am sharing the ring with the best fighters of the world. It was never my dream to get this far. At one point I just wanted to do just one fight. Just to know what it feels like and to do something only I few people dare. But then you get infected with the ‘ring-virus’ and you want to show yourself that you can become a C-class fighter. When you have accomplished that, you think: “If I could become a B-class fighter, then I would mean something…” So this process keeps on continuing until you’ve become a Dutch champion and even World champion. Then you feel proud and satisfied for a while, but still the hunger for more comes back… The desire to work hard for your goals and to get the kick of achieving something you’ve worked very hard for is like an addiction. So I guess I am like a sort of kickbox-junky haha! What do you think about K-1 MAX? and the K-1 MAX fighters? The K-1 MAX is the playground of the very best fighters of the world. There is no bigger, larger or better competition. The skill level of these guys is incredible high. Experienced fighters of this level like Masato, Kraus, Sauer and Pramuk are very hard to beat because they exactly know how everything works in Japan. At this level, very small differences in style and aggression have big consequences in the judge’s decisions. Beside the hard training do you have other daily activities? Yes, I have I fulltime job. I work as a Facility Manager for a big school. What about the fans? Do you like the fans? It’s great to have fans who follow your achievements and who yell for you and want to see you win. I feel responsible towards my fans to fulfil their expectations. I have noticed that lots of people are interested in a fighters development and the story behind the scenes. That’s why I started writing down all my experiences. So you can find my whole story on my website: www.raystaring.nl (By the way, I am looking for someone who wants to translate all the Dutch text in English for me, so that the site can be read all over the world. Maybe someone on the K-1 Fans forum wants to do me that favour?) 
You`ve won the W.F.C.A World title in the fight against Fadi Merza, How was that fight? Much easier than I expected. I think that Merza thought much to light about me and that he was surprised of my skills. It surprised me that I could hit him so many and that I could manage to neutralize him so quickly. In the past you`ve also fought Drago before, you lost the fight on decision but a lot people there said it was a draw... Anyway, how was that fight in your opinion? A draw was the least that I should have got that night. I’ve got the whole fight on video to show it to everyone. It feels very fucked up when something you’ve worked so hard for (winning) gets stolen from you. I think it’s sad that there are fights were you can only win when you knock the guy out. It feels like his winning that day was like a sort of loan. It pissed me off and it gave me fire to train hard for my second fight against him where I had my chance to settle the score. In the Arena it was payback time. And now I’m satisfied. How close is your relationship with sensei Fred Royers? Very close. He is the one who gave me the knowledge, the advice and the tools to become a good fighter. I enjoy our partnership very much and I am very proud of the way the two us work together and understand each other. Without Fred, I would never be able to reach this level. He knows exactly what my strong and my weak points are and he always has a new technique or movement to keep me fresh and sharp. Thanks to his great skills, variety and fantasy I’ve become a very complete fighter. Do you have any names that you want to fight? No, never had. I’m just very glad with every chance I get to test my skills. It’s an honour for me when people choose to match me up against the well known champions. Do you like MMA? Is there a possibility to see Ray Staring fighting a MMA fight? I’ve never trained the ground fight, so I don’t know if I like it. We don’t train MMA in our gym and I don’t know any good gyms nearby. But that’s no problem. I am far too busy Thai boxing to pick up another fighting career. Someday, when I stop as an active ring fighter I want to do all sorts of other fightsports like the grappling stuff. Do you have any special things to do before fighting like wai kru or a pray? I always make ‘contact’ in myself with my diseased sister to ask her for spirit and to receive her blessings. What do you think/feel before entering the ring? “You’ve worked so hard for this, you want this so bad. Listen to Fred, follow the plan, make sure you stay in control and show them what you’re capable of!” And also: “Live life to the max!” Fighting makes me feel alive, and that’s the best feeling to have. In my opinion, you can’t feel more alive then when you’re fighting to stay alive. 
Do you want to thank someone/persons that helped you a lot in your career? Fred for all his time and effort to get the best out of me. My partner Rebecca for her unconditional love and understanding. My sister Yvonne for keeping my spirit high and showing me the right choices. My trainings partners for all their help. My parents for the character they helped build and all my friends for their understanding. What can we expect from Ray staring over a couple of years? Don’t know. As I told earlier, I don’t make long term plans or long distance goals regarding my sport. I’m just enjoying the preparations for every next event and we’ll see where it brings me. If I keep on going like the last years it’s quite likely that I will get my chances in Japan. Is there something you want to say to the fans? Thanks for all the attention and all the support. I will do my very best to achieve what seems impossible! Oh, and check my website regularly for news, hopefully you all can read my stories their soon in English! Thanks for the interview Ray staring and I wish u good luck in your career. |
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