WALKER REVITALIZES MUAY THAI ON GUAM

By Robert Balajadia

Guam’s muay thai scene has gotten a kick start revival in recent years thanks to the arrival of 24-year-old muay thai ace Brogan Walker.

Walker has lived on Guam for the past two years after deciding to relocate from Southern California with boyfriend, and brown belt jiu-jitsu specialist, Mike Sanchez when the opportunity presented itself. What Walker didn’t anticipate was being a catalyst for muay thai given the small community that exists on Guam.

“One of my first jobs at 13 years old was to work at a karate studio. One of the instructors there was a muay thai instructor and he got me started with just a seminar and I fell in love from there. I’ve been training for 11 years and have never quit,” said Walker on where her muay thai career started.

Brogan Walker displays her muay thai skills during her time with Tiger Muay Thai in Thailand. (courtesy photo)

Right now, Walker teaches muay thai at the Chalan Pago community center every Tuesday and Thursday out of the Elite Muay Thai gym and has a large group of youths. She is a teacher by nature so the opportunity to teach students who were willing to learn was exciting for her.

“Seeing my students and their progress makes me believe they’re going to do big things. I have a 5-year-old student who has been training for over a year and just seeing her commitment and dedication makes me see the sport growing and that’s been my goal,” said Walker on teaching the youth.

Aside from MMA, Walker is taking courses at UOG to become a teacher, which falls directly in line with what she has been doing for majority of her life.

While keeping busy in her muay thai activities, Walker is also a committed jiu-jiu practitioner as well rolling out of Purebred. She has competed and won medals in both the Marianas Open and Copa de Marianas. She has become a fan favorite on island in her short time and she is grateful.

“Everyone here has treated me like family from day one. Having people there for me like family, not just when you’re doing good or winning, but also to be there when you need that extra push or just not feeling motivated is priceless and I couldn’t be happier,” said Walker.

She recently helped jiu-jitsu brown belt Eric Sian in his first ever muay thai fight against Ryan Perez in March where Sian won by unanimous decision.

Walker was in Sian’s corner and admitted Sian did not have enough time to train for the fight after accepting it on short notice. Sian is Walker’s wrestling coach and after seeing Mike Sanchez train, Sian became interested in learning the art where Brogan was happy to help.

Tiger Muay Thai Scholarship

Walker’s biggest personal accomplishment was achieved earlier in April when she was given the opportunity to compete in Thailand as part of Tiger Muay Thai for a muay thai scholarship. In being the only girl, Walker was part of 25 martial artist from all around the world who went through six days of intense training regiments in hopes to get one of the offered scholarships.

(courtesy photo)

“I went through hell and back,” stated Walker on her experience of the training. “I didn’t think I would make it. I got an email from them and I didn’t read it initially since it sounded like an apology. I had read the email a week later and they told me I had been accepted! I didn’t get one of the main scholarships but they offered me a scholarship anyway.”

Walker was put to work on the first day with intense conditioning in the morning. She had to carry guys over 160 lbs. and then had to finish the day working on muay thai drills and ju-jitsu skills.

During the last day of competition, Walker competed in a no-gi tournament where she won gold.

Walker is now on a mission to improve her MMA career and is hoping to get on fight events to test her ability.

PHOTO GALLERY:

After a long day of training, the participants were given time to cool off in the pool. (courtesy photo)

Walker warms up for the jiu-jitsu portion of the training with Tiger Muay Thai. (courtesy photo)