Wtf is the minimum age to become a Thai prizefighter???

Presenting it as an either/or binary is disingenuous, first of all. You're purposefully omitting going down the path of, say, a beggar, a thief, a "guide" for tourists, a busker, or an unskilled laborer - all of which are heartbreaking fates in their own respect for the children in countries facing extreme poverty, but all vastly preferable to being exploited in a high-stakes and possibly fatal bloodsport, hence inconvenient to your "this is literally the ONLY way to not starve or be used as sextoys!!!!" narrative, hence going unmentioned. All those options exist in a country that is poverty-stricken and yet riddled 24/7 with tourists from the West.

 

That doesn't make it magically okay for rich fat old Thai dudes to sign them onto prizefighting contracts, viewing then as commodities and not giving two shits about their welfare.

 

No, but it's a shovelfull of shit that unscrupulous promoters and commissions don't have to - and indeed should not - shovel onto the already existing pile. I'm not saying I blame the kids themselves for making uninformed decisions (and by necessity, no matter how book and/or street-smart or precocious they are, decisions about contracts made with adults must be considered uninformed and bad, as they are KIDS) that seem like a good "way out", I'm blaming the grown-ups that directly prey upon them and the bystanders that help foster a culture where that is normalized.

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Aye, but there's zero evidence their successes & riches would have been any less available for them given their levels of talent had they waited and joined in the festivities 2-3 years on. Cream rises, and they both would've starting at 17 or 18 as easily as 15. Nothing about their careers that I can see is necessarily predicated upon them having to have turned pro that young. That it didn't backfire when both of them did is a lucky blessing, not proof that such practice is or ever ought to be okay.

 

Wouldn't be a bad thing.

And yes I fully realize that our alarm regarding the situation in Thailand is zero percent likely to have any direct effect (I could start a petition on change.org and get literally a million signatures, then email it to Supanat Chapram - the POS who signed off to allow Yoohanngoh vs. Sinam today - and he would just chortle between chomps on his big fat cigar while allotting it to his "spam" folder) but forum threads seem like a maybe appropriate venue for venting about things which are clearly wrong but which those of us in remote parts of the world and from different civilizations are (individually or even collectively, really) powerless to influence. And who knows, if enough Americans/Brits/whatever bombard his inbox with complaints, he might just cave and either curtail the practice of signing extreme youths or at least wait another year or two before jamming them into the unforgiving gears of the system. If he ever Chapram's name is ever connected to a big international fight the negative press could be something they don't want the hassle of.

Alternately, if the issue picks up traction, it could be made a pet issue of people in Washington looking to exert some foreign-policy muscle on a weak, easy target. In this case, I wouldn't mind Uncle Sam bullying the Rattanakosin kingdom a bit.

 

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I've got to say, I was curious to see where on this you landed; glad it was on the right side. Even if you had disagreed with the premise of being against situations like Yoohanngoh's on principle, though (or simply taken umbrage with the fact that I made a none too flattering remark about you in the midst of things catching you in the shrapnel zone and decided to come down against me on the sole basis of that, although I know you're mature enough to shrug things like that off), I know that you would have come a hell of a lot more correct (with a well-reasoned explanation as to why rooted in some concrete and sincerely held conviction) than somebody like Russell with their weak ass "you're not allowed to question the self-determination of a non-Western culture! You're not in touch! You don't understaaaand! Waaaah!" just thinly disguising the fact that he only chose to be on that side of the argument because he wants to alleviate his personal guilt and be able to sleep at night while still relishing the consumption of videos of boys as little as prepubescence tearing each other to shreds for the amusement of adults in MT and pro boxing.

And yes, the left is getting loonier with each passing year - and I say that as someone that's (despite leaning in the libertarian direction myself on many topics) way the fuck left of you, and you're in turn honestly what passed for center-left not all that long ago.

 

That's all just systemically wrong, and ought to be changed. Loads of countries have poverty, many afflicted even worse per capita than people in Thailand. It has a reputation that stands alone in the developing world for having corporate fat cats bleed dry the lowest classes, and particularly the young & vulnerable, in combat sports. That reputation didn't come from nowhere. It wasn't made up by a secret cabal of rabid haters of everything Thai...nor do you see it mirrored (again, in the combat sports context specifically) in any of their neighbors on the GDP or quality of life indexes, or if so here and there, not to anywhere near the same degree.