Farang Thai Boxers

[Mark L.]

Bar fights are a whole different story to fights at Lumpinee, Ratch, or even Temple fights and fairs etc

Generally if its at a bar its 'past it' Thais who aren't training. If two Thais are 'fighting' do NOT bet with a Thai cause they know it ain't real.

Now when a drunk farung wants a go then they do fight. But the whole concept is a show..come on its a bar!!

My bro Kong Essan and I were gonna do one (soi 4). I was to ko him in the 3rd I think and of course all the betting would go on. It never happened (years back now).

So don't bet on fights at a bar. If you're not at a bar good luck.

Any how, don't let a single (or awhole bunch) of farung give the rest of us a bad name.

[Tingnongnoi]

There is a dilemma with regards to getting Muay Thai into the Olympics: The name of a sport cannot contain the name of its country. This causes all sorts of debates, particularly among SEA countries which all claim that they invented Muay Thai. Burma, Cambodia and Laos all practice their own forms of Muay and hold fights regularly. Thailand is the only country which has really commercialized this martial art. Kickboxing on the other hand is NOT Muay Thai as it doesn't allow for the same techniques (especially elbow strikes) during contests. Perhaps those in charge of implementing Olympic sports will need to come up with a name for Muay Thai which distinguishes the art but at the same time does not contain "Thai" in the name.

How about American Football (is it even Olympic ??)

the nameis just one small issue regarding the Olympics. What will be harder to overcome is all the political infighting between the two amatuer Muiaythai bodys that has been going on for many years now. Until both sides ditch their politics and egos and decide to work together I can never see it coming even close to being an Olympic sport

[Mark L.]

Totally agree.

Also I'm not so sure I want it in the Olympics... Look at am boxing in Olympics. Its horrible.

Maybe it will build the sports name..

I htink a big reason the powers that be want in is the prestige it will give Thailand and of course the Thais will do well in it (even with the scoring). A Thai winning in the Olympics is HUGE and is set for life which reflects thier views and what it means to them IMO.

But then again maybe its good. Maybe it would help the sport grow and become more excepted.

I don't know...its just hard to like all the padding and the scoring..

[g00dgirl]

Muay Thai has been a very popular and highly regarded martial art in many Western countries for many years. It is considered the most successful martial art for stand-up fighting in competitions such as K-1, where fighters from different martial arts compete against each other.

There are many Muay Thai gyms in other countries and there are many tourists who come to Thailand to train in the land of origin of the sport and to have fights in the stadiums here against Thai fighters who have been training since they were little boys. It's a steep learning experience that a gym in your homecountry can rarely offer.

At a Muay Thai gym in Thailand you can train twice a day, 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, Monday to Saturday, just like the Thai fighters do, hardly any gym back home can offer that.

No doubt, the male tourists do take advantage of the partying possibilities but most serious Muay Thai students, especially if they are training for a fight would not go overboard with it.

I can well imagine some guys who did not know Muay Thai and who try to get into it and fight in Thailand without having trained at home just to show how cool they are. It's in the nature of man to compete, fight, impress girls and everything that comes with it, if they make a fool of themselves or not, not only while they are here in Thailand. Back home these guys might race their cars or fight in a pub with other patrons.

[leftcross]

At a Muay Thai gym in Thailand you can train twice a day, 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, Monday to Saturday, just like the Thai fighters do, hardly any gym back home can offer that.

most gyms in the West offer the same service. just because a gym is in Thailand it doesnt make it automatically better - the boxer still has to be dedicated enough to put the work in.

[Tingnongnoi]

At a Muay Thai gym in Thailand you can train twice a day, 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, Monday to Saturday, just like the Thai fighters do, hardly any gym back home can offer that.

most gyms in the West offer the same service. just because a gym is in Thailand it doesnt make it automatically better - the boxer still has to be dedicated enough to put the work in.

Most international boxing gyms maybe, but most Muaythai gyms in the west dont offer that and if they did they would fall a fair way behind in terms of experience and knowledge of the sport.

[leftcross]

training is training is training is training wherever you are in the world. anyone competing in muay thai anywhere in the world will, more or less, follow exactly the same routine.

the only difference is not in the gyms you mention but in the training camps, where you live and train 24 hours a day. the west cannot rival that, but all you need to get fit to box is a bag, gloves, a list of cardio exercises and some running shoes.....

thai fighters aren't any fitter - or less fitter - than those in the west.

[Tingnongnoi]

training is training is training is training wherever you are in the world. anyone competing in muay thai anywhere in the world will, more or less, follow exactly the same routine.

the only difference is not in the gyms you mention but in the training camps, where you live and train 24 hours a day. the west cannot rival that, but all you need to get fit to box is a bag, gloves, a list of cardio exercises and some running shoes.....

thai fighters aren't any fitter - or less fitter - than those in the west.

does purely being fit win fights? What about the clinch game very important in Muaythai, when you will have many strong experienced fighters to clinch with here, how is a bag and a pair of gloves going to compensate for that?

[steveromagnino]

training is training is training is training wherever you are in the world. anyone competing in muay thai anywhere in the world will, more or less, follow exactly the same routine.

the only difference is not in the gyms you mention but in the training camps, where you live and train 24 hours a day. the west cannot rival that, but all you need to get fit to box is a bag, gloves, a list of cardio exercises and some running shoes.....

thai fighters aren't any fitter - or less fitter - than those in the west.

does purely being fit win fights? What about the clinch game very important in Muaythai, when you will have many strong experienced fighters to clinch with here, how is a bag and a pair of gloves going to compensate for that?

FItness is indeed something that people can develop anywhere. There isn't much magic to that.

However, you are only ever as good as your sparring partners and your trainers. And this is where certain gyms shine. Where i grew up we had 2 legendary Thai trainers, and a Kiwi guy who was probably more able than almost anyone else to figure out why things were done and explain that simply. Result was that gym (Leegar) churned out several world/regional/national champions (Sefo, Suttie, Vamoa, Ankachaz, etc) the highest paid person in the K1 (Ray Sefo), one of the only non Thais ranked at Lumpini (Choppa Chapman) and so on.

These guys weren't good just from the trainers (and many also trained in Thailand). But also because they had great people to spar with.

Now when you imagine that if you are in the middle of nowhere, and you are a great fighter, then if you don't have great opponents or great sparring partners, you won't get to be as good or develop as much as you could.

As a big man, maybe Holland, Austraila, NZ, Japan or Thailand. As a midium size person or smaller, then Thailand almost impossible to beat.

Almost all the great western fighters have trained in Thailand at some point.

As for the same routine...yes the routine is roughly the same, but having already trained in NZ's top gym from 10 years ago, I can tell you the intensity here is on a different level.

Also, I have had the privelege of training with great trainers, and very lucky for that too. However, I doubt most trainers could explain the subtleties of leg catches and counters as thoroughly as the trainer I had here just last weekend past.

If they can explain it, then I wonder why so many western muay Thai fights never use them, or don't use them any where close to right (especially any fighters from USA).