Thailand Government Bans MMA

The Thais are a nationalist bunch. They can't even stand the idea of a foreign cook making the national dish Tom Yam Kung let alone Farang messing with Muay Thai the National sport. They tend to make serious knee jerk reactions when it comes to banning things and political decisions.

Don't take this ban to seriously ......Oh by the way prostitution, sex toys and pornos are also banned in Thailand. (Not joking that's the truth).

Flea is absolutely right the landscape of training in Thailand has totally changed over the last 10 years due to the rise of MMA, for the worst in my book where foreigners are involved with too many farang turning up and watering down the gyms, especially the MMA guys who aren't really up to proper Muay Thai in Thailand.

They have had MMA in BKK for some time BKK Fight Club was one of the first. However, it's basically been exclusivly for foreigners in both price, location and appeal. An old friend of mine a Thai called Phrathep Sor Thanikul is making a good living out of training foreigners on Koh Samui in Striiking related to MMA. Thais will never enjoy watching MMA they don't find it beautiful in the way they find boxing. The gambling can't accumulate and move so swiftly when guys are rolling around on the floor for big chunks of time. You will get Thais fighting cos there is money in it , but it'll never catch the imagination in Thailand.

Don't take the ban too seriously as Thailand is one giant grey area, it just means MMA fighters will still go there to train mainly in stiking but just won't fight there, no big deal. Seems pretty much how it is already.

 

Exactly. At the end of the day it will mean nothing - if it was not for the hard work of many westerners and a limited number of Thais then MT would still be a fringe sport confined to 2 minute novelty reports on crappy sports roundups.


Blinkered thinking like this has been the bane of Muay Thai IMO.

 

I kind of understand what you mean about Muay Thai being blinkered, but the truth is the Thais really don't care what goes on outside Thailand. It's all seen as inferior anyway to the Thais and I'm inclned to agree with them in terms of depth and purity.

 

Keep em ignorant and poor by restricting outside opportunities.

The only one this will hurt is Thailand. Anyone serious about MMA doesn't go to Thailand to train anyway.

 

It's not as simple as you make it sound, the "market" couldn't support the quantity of top level Thai Muay Thai fighters to fight interntionally in thier natural wieght classes, hence great fighters would fight less often and ultimately make less money than they do in Thailand.

Even if top Thais fought abroad more often they still wind up being handled by some pretty shady people who would have even more control due to language barriers etc.etc. so it doesn't mean they get richer fighting abroad, just look at the recent Buakaw story for example. You just can't compare the way western fighters work and operate to their Thai brothers. Freedom of choice just doesn't come into it.

I fail to see how this hurts Thailand as guys can still train there. Maybe the gyms lose a few bucks, but that money would never have filtered down to the fighters anyway. MMA is a side show to what the gyms are really about and is basically only practiced by westerners in Thailand.

About serious MMA guys not training in Thailand well I've noticed a massive change in the gyms out here since 2000 and MMA is definately haveing an impact interms of more forigners wanting to train for short periods of time.

And for what it's worth you couldn't have aimed the "keep them ignorant" thing at a more sypathetic guy who has witnessed some pretty dark attitudes in Thailand towards fighters and who has always always helped any Thai who I saw needed it, both in Thailand and abroad.

 

THE THAIS WILL NEVER LET A FARANG SPORT AFFECT THEIR CULTURE OF MUAY THAI!!! Also Muay Thai is the only legal place in thailand you can bet and its a huge industry.

 

ANd its ridiculous they dont, the standard way for an mma fighter to block a knee is to put their hands out :rofl:rofl they have absolutely NO understanding of the clinch or muay thai

 

I agree. :good

As I posted else where recently, the National sport is actually gambling and it's that giant industry for good or bad that is hand in hand with MT and keeps it alive.

 

:thumbsup

There are many good points in your post.

We have quite a number of Thai / Khmer trainers out here now and they seem to have settled well. There are fantastic opportunities for our Muay Thai brothers in other countries where they can break out of the constraints and make their own mark.

Imagine if Bukauw said "**** Por Pramuk, I am going to Australia!" He would have huge support here and an excellent living.

 

well they have many thai fighters at evolve MMA: http://evolve-mma.com/about-us/fight-team.html

yodsanan sityodtong(former western boxer), from evolve MMA will be fighting for the second time under One FC promotions on the 31st. Orono, anuwat, and namsaknoi are supposed to fight in MMA in the future.

Then we got Rambaa Somdet who has been fighting in mma for years (Dec 2001) and is probably the most successful former Thai boxer.

It was never realistic to think MMA would ever get a foothold in Thailand. Thais were always going to have to train elsewhere and fight internationally.

 

Sityodtong is probably the most experienced striker in MMA.

 

Yeah I really want to see him compete more in mma, and I dont have to wait long. Rambaa is pretty good. Too bad both are getting old (both are 37!)

 

Rambaa should be in the UFC now. Even at his age he'd be a valuable addition to the lower weight classes. Sityodtong has a lot to learn, but his background, training with Kru Yodtong who is arguably the greatest trainer in Muay Thai, and his boxing experience (as far as I know he was a hard worker but not all that gifted at Muay Thai but he had a big punch so he was converted to international boxing) should see him be a decent lower level fighter at least, and he certainly has the Trappists to work with in Singapore, so even at his age he might give himself half a chance yet.

Don't forget gents, ONE FC streams free, on YouTube, tomorrow. GMT 14:00 :good

 

upto you thailand.

 

I'm glad wee agree on some stuff. :good

I'm glad to hear mutiple Thais are thriving as triainers outside Thailand, I helped a guy going to Canada years ago. The thing is they only seem to be realesed to go once they are all used up in Thailand and not a valuable to someone anymore.

I'td be great if it was that simple for Buakaw to do that, but these are lifelong debts that get called in time and time again unfortunately. These guys have little control until they are "released". Maybe as MMA increases in size this may change and MMA becomes a bit of a saviour for these guys outside Thailand, but I guess I'm just too much of a cynic.

Hey guys, Yaca and Flea could you post a vid of what you consider the best Thai MMA guy as I've never seen a Thai fight MMA and that'd really interset me.:good