Just read this on the fightersonly.com website.

Bit surprising, given the fact a combat sport is pretty much embraced as being their national sport, but there it is.

http://t.co/4mv5jdpC

At least the camps can still train mma, which I guess remains beneficial for foreigners spending time there to up there skills.

But basically puts a halt to any would-be promotions and potential bouts to be had whilst training there.

One might have thought that mma promotions would have served to provide even further career/money making opportunities for upcoming fighters, which given their whole 3rd world condition situation could only be a good thing.

Shame.

its so it doesnt effect the popularity of Muay Thai, or that it steals the best fighters. They said in the article that its "too brutal" but Muay Thai is easily more brutal imo

Crazy. I was looking forward to the DARE Fight Sports also. Mental how they say it's too brutal/violent yet they allow minors to do full thai rules??

What's the Thai word for IRONY?

its a bit like the word for goldy or silvery

I'm somewhat conflicted as to whether this should be on the main forum. This story is related to Muay Thai as it is the Thai Government trying to protect Muay Thai from a competing sport in MMA.

I've always said that MMA pushes Muay Thai/Kickboxing forward whether those in the MT/KB community want to acknowledge it or not. It is because of MMA that the average fight fan now knows how devastating elbows/knees/leg kicks are. Unfortunately, it brings this exposure through a different sport under different rules.

Look at the best MMA fighters today. Most MMA champions are using Muay Thai techniques. The UFC now has lower weight classes. Thailand has a great opportunity to develop a generation of MMA fighters that represent Thailand and demonstrate great Muay Thai technique. A smart promoter would be able to catapult Muay Thai events using MMA as a spring board. There is sure to be a large percentage of the MMA audience that prefers stand-up battles.

Imagine a UFC event in Thailand. Imagine Thai MMA fighters becoming millionaires through MMA. Imagine all of the money that MMA could bring to Thailand. Imagine how much exposure Muay Thai would receive through all of that.

"""Mental how they say it's too brutal/violent yet they allow minors to do full thai ""2

I agree, the irony isn't lost on anyone.

Protecting their own interests. They've seen the meteoric rise of MMA and fear it may become entrenched in Thailand, diluting the popularity of Muay Thai!!

This is all about protecting Thai tradition. Let in MMA and in the long term, which is how the governmant are thinking, and Thai will not be the same.

Elite Fighters will move over to MMA, so commercially this could impact Thai. More MMA gyms will open in Thai, which could be ran by westerners employing the odd Thai coach to teach an adaptation of the Thai style, which will impact local Thai only gyms. Students will dilute the style in it's entirety, its not just about MMA fighters learning how to throw knee's and elbows. The Thai style may change with MMA in mind for people dabling in both or going to Thailand to learn e.g. widen the Thai stance, hunch over more, which will be to accomodate the take down element of MMA. Over 5-10 years you would see the impact of this decision if it was allowing MMA in.

I think it's a good move by the governmant to protect Thailand and it's culture, i do however think it's a shame as it would be good seeing some Thai's make a transition to MMA.

It is a good move by the government to achieve it's goal of protecting muay thai in Thailand, but it is restricting a lot of Thai fighters from moving to other disciplines. Then again we may see MMA exploding in neighbouring countries because of this; Malaysia, Vietname, etc.

Jimbob writes:

"""I think it's a good move by the governmant to protect Thailand and it's culture, i do however think it's a shame as it would be good seeing some Thai's make a transition to MMA.""

That's an absurd thing to say, how would you feel if we banned Muay Thai in England and only allowed Boxing; in order to protect England and it's culture???

Look at the meteoric rise in popularity of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu over the last few years. This is primarily down to the exposure it gets through MMA. Brazil has recently hosted a UFC event and the sport of BJJ is healthier than ever because of it.

Huge own goal by the Thais if you ask me. This could bring the popularity of Thai Boxing up in Thailand to levels never seen before.

MMA makes all its individual discipline more popular. Yes there will be people cross training in different arts and adapting them to suit MMA but the important thing is that Muay thai will get more exposure. Not everyone that watches MMA decides that they want to do MMA. Many many people actually just want to do one of the disciplines involved and that means more people than ever will begin to train in the art of Muay Thai

isnt prostitution and gambling illegal in thailand as well?

I created a thread on here years ago saying will mma help mt or hinder it? Think that was thread title. If muay Thai adapted appropriately it will help it, with the right promoters etc. mma is still a confused sport as 99% of the audience want to see boxing and mt wars I.e stand up fights.
This is the thing mma an mainly the UFC has been promoted so well that nowadays most of the cards are shit with a lot if booing from te crowds but it still generates crazy money. it's not the product it's the marketing that brings the crowds. (in the ultimate fighter you see rookies trying their luck, in their contender it was all decent fighters) I am a huge fight fan and I have struggled and channel flicked through every UFC I have ever watched.

My point is I think these Thai stadium fighters are being held back. they are a fighting breed and if taught correct ground work they could take over the lower weight categories of the mma promotions and earn money.

maybe the Thais are scared of this happening and losing their sport but I'm sure someone like Bulaway or sanchai or Saiyok could adapt easily in maximum a couple years to take on the mma world. and in a way I think their talent and fighting spirit is wasted when they could earn a shitload more money.

And why shouldn't they go for their money when they are essentially putting their life on the line.

also if you don't get what I'm saying look at the early fights of a televised UFC card and tell me the top Thais are not tenthold more talented than these guys. Even though the UFC fighter will be earning shit loads more

Possibly a result of lobbying from muay thai stadium promoters?

One would definitely imagine it's not an entirely honest agenda, given all the positives mma promotion and participation could bring to fighters there, both thai and foreigner.

Who cares? Thailand has it's own MMA called Muay Boran.

do you actually put thought into your posts??? obviously the people who have posted in this thread care

Buakaw would be good in the octagon, would like to see him take on some UFC tough guys. He would whoop the likes of gsp I rekon

I Wasn't trying to hurt anyone's feelings, Just pointing out the obvious.
High ups in the Thai government have been trying for years to bring Muay Boran out of the dark ages and make it an international sport. Those in the Thai government who want to promote might see Gracie MMA and both an insult and a threat.

Don't shoot me, I'm just bringing up why the Thai government would ban MMA in their country. I have no evidence to back up my claim, just common knowledge.

My opinion is they should ban mma from thailand and keep it strictly thaiboxing! Thaiboxing is amazing as it is! Leave it where it belongs and how it has always been!

Dave Jackson
Posted: 2012-03-30 15:45:09

..."Look at the meteoric rise in popularity of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu over the last few years. This is primarily down to the exposure it gets through MMA. Brazil has recently hosted a UFC event and the sport of BJJ is healthier than ever because of it.

Huge own goal by the Thais if you ask me. This could bring the popularity of Thai Boxing up in Thailand to levels never seen before"...

---

Hi Paul, everyone has their own point of view. I see what you are saying - and in some situations I personally advocate 'protectionism'.

However, on this one I totally agree with Dave!

I think it would be premature to say that the thais could suddenly switch to the ground game and dominate;american colegiate and greco-roman wrestling is a huge high school and uni sport and they have been doing it really well for decades and in the olympics.
Conversely , Send 90% of the UFC guys in for a stand up only against the top thais and they woudlnt last a round. There will be the occasional exception.

Basically the cage fight style started off because people wanted to see what REAL fights do ie in the street, 90% of the fights end up on the ground within a few punches being thrown . MMA as a spectator sport kind of appeals to the more base desires of the mob who want to see what they can see outside their local kebab shop on a friday night , albeit 2 sober, skilled and evenly matched athletes.

Its a bit like Readers Wives/Girl Next Door kind of porn lol.

typical self serving thai governement, if they think that something will upset the status quo they want to ban it. they tried to ban youtube because of some videos making fun of the king ffs!
sandy, or as you like to be known as now, joetoe, muay boran has got nothing to do with the ban in thailand, they are scared that muay thai will no longer be the number one fight sport in thailand

@Dave Jackson I hadn't thought of it like that but it is true, I wouldn't have heard of BJJ if it wasn't for the UFC

@JoeToe Eh Muay Thai is the sport derived from Muay Boran(as far as I was aware, I may be wrong) so how would they make Muay Boran an international sport??

Also wtf is "Gracie MMA"?

@Trainor, its like normal Jiu Jitsu but they shave your balls

Lol

Berneung Sakhomsin has been fighting MMA for a few years now, out of Tiger MMA in Phuket. He is doing well in the stand up exchanges but no one is standing up and they are taking it straight to the floor. I dare say no one would stand toe-2-toe with Buakow.

Just went to One FC in Singapore and I do like any type of combat sport but as soon as it got on the ground I switched to watching the ring girls. I have tried BJJ and fully appreciate the skills and athletic levels of the people who train in it but just didnt like the idea of rolling around with some guy.
But as to the ability for Thai Muay Thai guys switching to MMA. My question is why??? I say this after seeing Yodsanan Sityodthong lose in the cage to a rear naked choke.
He rocked the guy with an uppercut but once he got taken to the ground he really didnt have any answers and he trains with world bjj champions in the evolve fight team.I just wish we could have seen him boxing or doing Muay Thai and I hear that Orono Vor Petchpun will be following suit and doing MMA. It not as easy just to covert the skillset across, from your stance to the way you approach the fight.The reason they move is the money, so the Thai government should look at addressing that and getting bigger events in Muay Thai rather than attack MMA. I just wish we had a K1 or the likes to lift the profile of Muay Thai and Kickboxing so these guys dont have to waste their time moving to MMA which is a completely different game. As they say 80% or is 90% of fights end up of the ground, that has to be the base of your skill ie BJJ or Wrestling skill base.

TK - how was the show? I didnt go in the end, i dont understand the no contest verdict with Manhoef's cut shin?

and first 4 fights ended in a round or so?

Attached the pic of his shin as you can see it was not pretty. But the Japanese fighter also had a deep cut on his shin/knee it was a shin to shin kick and hence the ref called it a NC. Funny thing was that Manhoef was bouncing a round asking the ref to let the fight continue as was the Japanese fighter.

It was a good show, these One FC guys are really doing a god job with the production.

Yes, the first four fights were all undercard hence the fighters I guess did not have the same level of experience.

Interesting Show but I thought the the best fighter of the night was a guy called Eddie Ng said he was from HK but when they interviewed him out came his Geordie Accent. Since then I have found out he came from the UK. He really looked the business.

Just to keep it back to the topic, here's an article on Orono moving to MMA.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/3/31/2912660/muay-thai-legend-orono-discusses-move-to-mma#97175672

Great interview with Orono there.

"MMA is a different game and it requires a different technical IQ to succeed" - real honesty there, especially seems as it's coming from a strictly muay thai fighter.


It'd be a great thing for the mma world to see if there were to be a steady stream of mma competent fighters coming from thailand, where they already have that world class striking base.

We've already seen how successful dutch kickboxers were in mma, even with relatively shallow quantity of ground skills, because of their advantage in the striking field over their opponents.

Perhaps when one or two thai based fighters really begin to make a name for themselves in the mma world, a greater quantity of thai's transitioning to mma would be basically inevitable.

@AndyC

You can't compare the relationship between Thaiboxing and Thailand to Boxing and England. Boxing is not part of our culture, Thaiboxing on the other hand is part of the Thai culture. You just have to walk around Thailand to see how it's ingrained in the lives of the Thai. You couldn't make that comparison in the UK and boxing.

I was merely stating that from a government perspective, it's a good decision IMO and will keep the tradition in place and prevent long term dilution issues to the style. Therefore a positive decision from a cultural perspective.

this is to crazy!