If you haven’t heard all of the back and forth trash talking going on between American Muay Thai buzzsaw Joe Schilling and Canadian “Bad Bwoy” Simon Marcus in the lead up to their much anticipated clash on February 25th in Las Vegas, then I have to wonder what you are even doing calling yourself a Muay Thai fan. These two guys have gone out full force to rile each other up, even going as far as putting their full fight purses on the line in an effort to make this fight even more attractive to the fans. It is a definite winner takes all bout where the victor not only takes the win, the bragging rights, and the respect, but also walks away with all the dough. While some people may not be the biggest fans of trash talking and feel that Muay Thai in the U.S. should emulate the respect and camaraderie shown in Thailand, there are others who see nothing wrong with a little back and forth banter before the fight in order to make things a little more interesting.

In my opinion, both of these guys have kept things relatively civil. And as Simon Marcus will tell you in MTiL’s exclusive phone interview with him about the fight, it’s really all about two stand up guys feeling confident enough in their abilities to lay it all out in the ring. Neither Joe or Simon are taking this fight lightly and they both realize that the next possible step after this very important bout could be a shot at the man with the belt and the title of WBC World Champion, Artem “The Lion” Levin. I would say we should expect to see fireworks on Feb. 25th in Las Vegas but that would be an understatement. When both of these titans collide at Lion Fight Promotions’ “Battle in the Desert 5″ expect that those in attendance will gasp so violently in excitement during the bout, that the arena will become a black hole like vacuum that will cause Las Vegas and the entire state of Nevada to collapse unto itself. I for one am so excited for this bout that my heart may not be able to withstand the sheer awesomeness of this bout. So if on February 26th, you hear that Eric Rivera from Muay Thai is Life is no longer with us, than you can be sure the cause was “death by an overdose of Muay Thai badassery”

Below is our exclusive interview with Simon!