Rose’s perfectly-pencilled eyebrows, red lips and rosy cheeks are nothing unusual for a young ladyboy. With her delicate and feminine manner, she is only a few steps away from being completely female.
But don’t let her appearance fool you. Rose is no stereotypical ladyboy. She is a professional boxer who fights for a living. She’s as fierce as the legendary Buakaw — the man credited with bringing Muay Thai to legions of international fans — and she’s ready to defeat anyone who stands in her way.
“When I’m in the boxing ring I don’t see myself as male or female. I just see myself as a fighter with no choice but to win,” she said.
FAMILY VALUES
Somros Phoncharoen, 19, was born in Phimai district, Nakhon Ratchasima. Rose, then known as Ros, grew up with twin brother Somrak, and their older brother and sister. The pair were raised in a competitive environment from day one, since their uncles and older siblings were all boxers. The twins were named after Somros and Somrak Khamsing: the famous boxing brothers who won gold medals at the SEA Games in 1995, with Somrak becoming the country's first Olympic gold medallist in 1996.
At the age of eight, Ros was playing in the family’s training area one day when he became transfixed by his uncle, who was attacking the punching bag at full force. “Want to try?” his uncle asked.
Made for the ring: Rose puts all distractions aside when she steps into the ring.
Ros was small and inexperienced, but swung his little fist and punched the bag as best he could. It hurt his hands and he realised that becoming a boxer would be no easy feat. His uncle had a good laugh and promised to train Ros into an unbeatable fighter.
Ros spent the next two months learning to punch and kick before he entered a local muay wat, or temple boxing, match. Upcountry, temple fairs are the highlight of the social calendar, with all the best food, fairground games and rides, plus Muay Thai competitions.
The young boy was terrified and his contender had four public fights under his belt already, but he applied all of the technique he’d been taught, punching and kicking his opponent until the end of the match. When the result was announced, Ros tasted victory for the first time. He won 200 baht from the fight and spent every last satang on food and toys.
VILLAGE TIGER
After that first fight, Ros returned to training with his uncle. His brother Rak also joined in, realising he too might be able to make some pocket money. Ros dedicated himself to fighting and became a local star, bringing home plenty of victories and extra cash for the family, outshining his older brother and sister, who started fighting long before him.
He earned the stage name “Langsuan Payakcheewan”, or fierce tiger of the village. As Ros reached puberty, his fame began to attract girls. He had one girlfriend, but quickly realised it wasn’t something he wanted. Not long after, Ros became Rose.
“When I turned 13, I started to notice that I was more attracted to boys than girls,” Rose explained. “It wasn’t hard for me to recognise what I am.” Rose wasted no time in matching her appearance to her gender identity. She started hanging around with other girls and ladyboys, and began wearing white powder on her face.
She was happy to give up her old identity, but one thing she couldn’t get rid of was her passion for boxing. The delicate-looking ladyboy trains like she always did, but 10 times harder, to prove she is just as capable as any male fighter.
“My family and friends have no problem with me being a ladyboy. They still continue to support me and allow me to do what I love,” Rose said. “I’ve been insulted many times, but I don’t care because I have people who understand me and love me. That’s all that matters.”
BROTHERLY LOVE
Though Rak followed his brother in fighting at temple fairs in the early days, entering all of the same competitions, he stopped once he realised it was impossible for them both to win.
“If I won, I realised Rose would have to lose, and if Rose won then I would lose. So I decided to fight in separate competitions,” Rak explained.
Despite being identical twins, Rose and Rak are complete opposites. Rose is gentle when she’s not competing, but Rak is a fighter inside and outside the boxing ring. Rose grew up to be a ladyboy, but Rak is as straight as can be. He married two years ago and his first son was born last month.
When asked how he felt about his twin’s gender identity, Rak told Spectrum he was devastated when he first learned Rose was a katoey.
“I disapproved of her choice,” Rak confessed. “When she first came out to the family, I wanted to kick her and make her straight. I hated katoeys and didn’t expect my twin brother would ever become one.”
Rak said being a boxer and a katoey are generally incompatible. But he admitted Rose had proved her boxing skills are more than a match for the men she fights, after many years of success and multiple championships.
“I learned to accept Rose the way she is. At least she has stayed true to herself and never fails to win. Our parents are now OK with Rose being a katoey too,” Rak said.
Rak no longer enters major boxing matches, but spends most of the time in his home town taking care of his family. From time to time, he enters a local fight to brush up on his skills and earn some cash.
PROVING THEM WRONG
“I’ll kill myself before I let a katoey beat me”, “Sissy boys like you aren’t worth fighting” and “I’ll punch the katoey out of you” are just some of the comments Rose has heard time and again from her opponents in the ring.
Although she says she doesn’t care what people say, sometimes it does get to her.
“It’s sad that people don’t respect me for my skill, but judge me on my appearance,” Rose said. “But I turn the negative comments into the drive to fight and win. I can’t lose. The only option I have is to win.”
Instead of toning down her looks, Rose exaggerates her identity by wearing women’s clothes to fight. She puts on heavy makeup and is kitted out in her favourite colour, with pink boxing gloves, shorts and socks. Rose told Spectrum she started dressing as a woman for fights back when she was still competing at temple fairs. She and her ladyboy friends would go to the fairs to hang out, all dressed up for a girls’ night out. If the opportunity to fight came, Rose would enter the competition, then continue her girls’ night after the match.
“It became my character. People knew me as the boxer with heavy makeup, so I continued to do that,” Rose said.
Many people have made the mistake of underestimating Rose, but she has won almost all of her fights, fuelled by the determination to prove her critics wrong.
When Rose turned 14, she moved from her home town in Nakhon Ratchasima to Chachoengsao province. Her brother-in-law fights for Baan Charoensuk Camp and asked Rose to join him there. Rose accepted the invitation.
INTO THE RING
Every time she walks up to the ring before a fight, Rose is hit by a wave of excitement and stage jitters, no matter how big or how small the match. Her worst fear is that she will lose and allow her critics to get one up on her.
When she fought in Nakhon Ratchasima, local fights were fairly low-key. But matches in Bangkok are very different, with loud announcements made over a PA system, a spotlight following her approach to the stage, cheering crowds and video cameras. It is almost overwhelming.
But no matter how worked up she gets before the fight, it all melts away when she steps into the ring. Crossing that rope is “a kind of magic”.
“I become a different person,” Rose said. “I focus on the person I am fighting with and all the cheering sounds just fade away. It is my moment. I always do my best.”
When she looks at her opponent, she visualises the points she can score on each part of their body. She will do anything to hit those spots and earn the points she needs to win.
Once she knows she has enough points to win, she takes it slow and sways through the fight until it’s over. She wants to win but doesn’t want to hurt anyone seriously. “I try not to injure my opponents too much because I feel bad for them. I don’t want them to get hurt,” she said.
But if the scores are tied, Rose will show no mercy. Her secret weapons are her elbows and knees. Once she uses them, her opponents are easily knocked out, because those are her strongest assets.
Since Rose moved to her camp in Chachoengsao, she’s entered 12 professional matches and won them all. She knocked out her contenders in four of the wins.
“Winning is such a great feeling. When I go back to my home town these days, people who bullied me before don’t go near me. Winning has given me the confidence I lacked as a child.”
STRANGER SABOTAGE
Rose also knows what it’s like to lose. She lost many matches in her earlier years. One loss at the age of 15 hit her particularly hard, when she was back in Nakhon Ratchasima on a break from training in Chachoengsao.
As she waited to fight that day, a stranger offered her a bottle of water. She accepted the kind gesture, without knowing the man had put something in her drink. Rose got in the ring, but after the second round, she lost control of her body and her vision went blurry. She asked the judge to stop the fight, but he told her to carry on for one more round. In that final round, Rose could do nothing but allow her opponent to punch her in the face over and over again. Her nose was broken, her cheeks were bleeding and she lost the match.
She was too scared to seek medical treatment because she knew she would need stitches and has a fear of needles. Instead, she crawled home. It took her three months to fully recover and walk properly again.
Her family did manage to drag Rose to the doctor for a blood test during those first few hours of recovery. It confirmed she had been drugged with a diuretic. She didn’t report it to the police, but the male boxers in her family taught her opponent a lesson with their fighting skills and told him not to go near her again.
“My friends and family asked me to stop fighting because they didn’t want to see me get hurt. But I told them I wasn’t hurt too badly and would keep doing what I love,” she said.
HIGH EXPECTATIONS
As Rose continues to win increasingly bigger matches, the money and fame rolls in. A Japanese promoter recently offered her the chance to fight a boxer in Japan. She plans to go, if the deal is right. In many ways, Rose is at the pinnacle of her career, but she doesn’t dream of winning a world title like many Thai boxers. All she really wants is to pay for sex-change surgery with her winnings and go back into education.
“I want to become a complete woman because I feel like I’m trapped in the wrong body,” she explained. “All I can do today is dress up. I’m looking forward to the day I will finally see the real me as a woman looking back at me in the mirror.”
Asked if she has a boyfriend, Rose said she is single because she spends most of her time training at the camp. But some admirers come to visit her by the ringside and she is popular online, where many men want to know her.
“I like Western men,” she said. “One day, I want to have a farang husband and have a warm loving family with him.”
Rose doesn’t plan on being a fighter for the rest of her life. Once she has enough money, she wants to go back to college and study for a bachelor’s degree in physical education. She hopes to teach and support people like her twin brother Rak, who is also her personal trainer.
“I want to train other people who are interested in martial arts,” she said.
“With the experience I have and the knowledge I will get from studying, it will be a good career for life, even after I have my sex-change surgery.”
For now, Rose is spending a big chunk of her earnings on paying off her mother’s debts. She is saving slowly and surely to pursue her dreams, but it’s still a long way away.
Winning streak: As Rose continues to triumph in increasingly bigger matches, the money and fame rolls in. A Japanese promoter recently offered her the chance to fight a boxer in Japan.
Star of the show: Rose is single because she spends most of her time training, but admirers often visit her by the ringside, and she is popular with legions of male fans on the internet.
Unbeatable record: Since Rose moved to her camp in Chachoengsao, she’s entered 12 professional matches and won them all. Four were knock-outs.
Somros "Rose" Phoncharoen, better known by her stage name as Nongrose Bancharoensuk, is in the boxing ring at Big C Lat Phrao on Oct 10, 2015 for a rematch with Pepelek Tor Laksong. (Photos by Thanarak Khunton)