Female Fighter at Sumalee Boxing Gym: Marcela Soto (Baitong)
Marcela Soto is from Costa Rica and started Muay Thai training in 2006. She has a Masters Degree in Sports Nutrition and has always been interested in health and fitness. In Muay Thai she found a sport which satisfied her extremely competitive drive. The more she achieved, the more she wanted to achieve.
She joined Sutai Gym in San Jose, Costa Rica in 2006. Her coach Mauricio identified considerable potential in her and within a year she had her first fight. She has the Number 1 ranking in Costa Rica and has never lost a fight there. In 2010, Marcela won the Gold Medal in the South American Championship held in Uraguay. This gave her a passport to the WMC IFMA Championship held in Bangkok. After this she and her coach Mau decided to stay in Thailand to pursue her dream of fighting professionally and to gain the experience necessary to take part in major tournaments and championships all over the world.
Marcela has fought in Cost Rica, Paraguay, Uraguay, USA and Thailand. She has fought in three world championships, two in the United States and one in Thailand. It was when she came to Thailand in 2010 that she acquired her fighting name ‘Baitong’. This is the Thai word for banana leaf and was given to her by a previous trainer because of her love of the colour green.
Since being in Thailand Marcela has had eighteen fights, and has fought some of the top female Thai fights from Southern Thailand. She also fought in the Kings Cup at the MBK Stadium in Bangkok in 2011 where she narrowly lost on points to Petcharya Kiatponpetch. In total, she has had 31 fights with 22 wins, 10 by KO.
Marcela moved to Sumalee Boxing Gym because she feels it has a lot to offer, especially the drive and enthusiasm of the newly formed team. She feels that the environment and ambience at the gym will help her to achieve her goals. She has found the standard of training excellent and particularly values the input and efforts of Peng. Peng is the trainer at Sumalee Boxing Gym responsible for fight preparation and conditioning. She says she has had excellent trainers in the past but that Peng offers a new dimension and just ‘gives and gives’.
Marcela is very ambitious and at only 26 years old is certain to achieve her goals given the amount of effort she puts in. She wants to fight outside Thailand again and in WMC and WPMF championships.
Sumalee Boxing Gym welcomes the challenge of helping Marcela achieve her goals and welcomes her and her coach warm heartedly to the gym.
