Taking on the guys

Article is taken from http://www.star-ecentral.com/news/story.asp?file=/2008/1/16/tvnradio/19973360&sec=tvnradio

TV host Jaymee Ong stands out in a crowd of Muay Thai kick boxers, in more ways than one.

SHE may be the odd one out but Australian-born TV host Jaymee Ong can hold her own in a roomful of aspiring kick boxers. Ong is the co-host of the new reality TV series, The Contender Asia, the Asian version of the American reality boxing series, The Contender. Ong, along with host Stefan Fox – a former Muay Thai boxing champion – will be there every step of the way, introducing the 16 fighters and checking out the fights.

The 28-year-old beauty was naturally excited when she landed the job hosting the show although she had some doubts initially.

“I am the first female host. I was extremely excited! I love Muay Thai but I was a bit concerned about being in a testosterone-filled room and not being taken seriously. So I ended up taking up Muay Thai myself since I had a passion for the sport. And the guys (the contenders) respected me for that. It was a really amazing experience. I want to do it all over again,” said Ong in a telephone interview from Singapore.

Jaymee Ong: ‘I ended up taking up Muay Thai myself since I had a passion for the sport. And the guys (the contenders) respected me for that.’
Ong, who is based in Singapore where has been working for the past three years, started modelling at the age of 15 when she was discovered in her home country of Australia. Her striking Asian features made her well known throughout Asia and she even caught the eye Hong Kong film legend Jackie Chan.

This led Ong to a career in acting; she landed a role in the 1999 action movie Gen-X Cops which stars Nicholas Tse and Daniel Wu.

Shortly after, Ong landed a cameo role in the 2001 Hollywood blockbuster Pearl Harbor and moved to Hollywood to pursue her film career. She stayed there for eight years and landed small roles in film and television, most notably the TV series Entourage and Las Vegas, before going to Singapore and working as the host of AXN’s EBuzz.

“I never thought I would end up in Singapore while I was in Hollywood,” said Ong about her transition from Hollywood to Singapore. “The experience of living in Hollywood was invaluable. I was there from 18 or 19 to 25. I went through so many things, you know, working and having money, to not working and not having money.... looking back, I had no plans to come back to Asia.”

One thing she does miss is acting.

“Hopefully I can go back into it soon. I have received some offers and I’m going through them now but I’ve been keeping myself busy.”

It was this acting experience that prompted her to take up Muay Thai when she landed the co-hosting job on The Contender Asia.

Ong was impressed by the group of fighters after working with them for almost two months during the shoot of The Contender Asia last August.

“The people in the show are not doing it just for the money or fame. Some of them started training when they were really young and now they’re here to reach this whole new level ... so this is much more interesting than people clamouring for fame and money.”

Besides the fighters, the sport itself is worth watching on The Contender Asia, Ong notes.

“It’s such a beautiful sport. The fights are gruelling and difficult but it’s steeped in hundreds of years of tradition and you can see how the fighters pay their respects the way it’s originally done, so it’s a very visual spectacle.”