Few names carry more weight in the United Kingdom’s Muay Thai scene than Bad Company.
The legendary gym has produced some of the sport’s greatest stars, including three-time World Champion Liam Harrison – the fearsome “Hitman” who became a global superstar through his bone-crushing low kicks and relentless aggression.
Founded in 1992 by Richard Smith, Bad Company has weathered decades of change in combat sports. The gym has survived relocations, financial struggles, and the constant pressure of staying relevant in an increasingly competitive landscape.
The story of Bad Company is ultimately a tale of perseverance that helped shaped the nation’s Muay Thai scene over the past 33 years.
From Comic Books To Combat Sports: The Birth Of Bad Company
The gym’s distinctive name and identity came from an unlikely source. Smith’s love for science fiction comics would provide the perfect metaphor for what Bad Company would become.
Opening a Muay Thai gym in 1992 required a genuine pioneering spirit, as the sport was virtually unknown in the UK.
Smith told onefc.com:
“The name was from a comic book. It stems from the comic book ‘2000 AD.’ The main character was Judge Dredd.
“There was a story in that called Bad Company, which was about a group of intergalactic convicts that were given the chance to fight in a platoon of misfits on a set of missions they weren’t supposed to come back from.”
The parallels weren’t lost on Smith.
Like those fictional warriors, his fighters would be thrown into battles they weren’t expected to win. Yet they would consistently defy the odds through sheer determination and superior preparation.
Despite the challenges of introducing a sport, Smith said that he found success from the start:
“I finished my degree and moved to Leeds. There were no Muay Thai gyms then. I enjoyed teaching and knew a bit, so I thought I’d open my own gym while traveling over to Manchester (50 miles away) to continue training.
“I started looking around for a location and found a community hall on Roundhay Road in Leeds. I booked that out a couple of nights a week training people. From the first day I opened there, it was busy. It was something new in the area, so it went really well.”
The Harrison Era
Everything changed in 1998 when a young Liam Harrison came through the doors of the gym’s new location.
Smith initially saw just another eager teenager, but Harrison possessed something special that would elevate both himself and the gym to legendary status.
Smith remembered:
“In the process of moving into the old Star Cinema in 1998, Liam Harrison walked in, along with his cousin, Andy Howson. Pretty quickly, they became very keen and part of the furniture. It took me about six months to catch on to the potential of Liam and Andy.”
For Harrison, discovering Muay Thai was like finding his calling. The sport’s raw intensity and technical complexity captivated him from the very first training session, setting the stage for an iconic career.
Harrison described his first experience:
“As soon as I walked in the door and saw them all sparring and kicking pads, I was hooked straight away. It was such an unheard-of sport back then.
“It was so taboo, but Bad Company already had British and European Champions, so it was already a solid gym.”
Game-Changing Techniques
Under Smith’s guidance and with fighters like Harrison leading the charge, Bad Company began producing champions at an unprecedented rate.
The gym’s reputation spread far beyond the UK as their strikers competed and won on the biggest stages.
Smith recalled a pivotal moment:
“I remember once going to Thailand to train, and a Thai coach approached me, asking me how to throw our low kick that Liam had made famous.
“The Thai coach asked to see it, saying they called it ‘The Bad Company low kick’, and he wanted his team to learn how to do it.”
This moment represented the ultimate validation for Smith.
Having Thais – the originators of “the art of eight limbs” – seek to learn from Bad Company was something completely different:
“I was blown away. I thought, ‘I’ve got a Thai lad here asking me how to throw a kick.’ Because that low kick, and the way Liam throws it, we developed that from fighters like Andrei Kulebin. We developed that kick and the way to put yourself into place for it. There’s a bit of footwork and movement to it.
“It became so successful for Liam, and he’s very recognized for it. But that moment on the other side of the world, with us being known for a single kick, it was pivotal.”
Overcoming Tough Challenges
Behind the championship belts and global recognition lay the daily grind of running a combat sports gym.
For his part, Smith learned early and often that success brought its own unique pressures and responsibilities.
“The biggest challenge people don’t consider is exactly this – running a gym. It’s never that simple. It’s a bit like being a parent. Every day there’s a situation where I think, ‘How do I deal with this?'”
The responsibility for each fighter’s career kept Smith awake at night. He understood that every person who came to train at Bad Company was trusting him with their dreams and their limited time in the sport.
The burden of guiding those careers, he said, has always weighed heavily on him:
“With fighters, I see any fighter as a massive responsibility. Honestly, I lay awake at night wondering about making the most of someone’s career. It’s only short.
“If I get someone who moves here for me to coach them, I feel the weight of that. I have to make the most of every person who enters this building. If I don’t they have every right to leave. It’s a short window, you have to make the most of it. It’s hard work.”
The story of Bad Company Muay Thai is ultimately about more than just championships and recognition. It’s about two men who refused to compromise their vision despite decades of challenges.
From Smith’s initial leap of faith to Harrison’s meteoric rise, the gym has remained true to its core values of hard work, family atmosphere, and never backing down from a fight.
Today, as Bad Company operates from state-of-the-art facilities, the legacy continues. New generations of fighters train under the same principles that created legends.
Harrison added:
“We have been the gold standard for over 25 years. What separates us is that gyms come and go for four or five years, then fall apart. We’ve done it since I started in 1998. We’ve consistently made fighters. It’s the consistency that sets us from the rest.”