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In amongst the bickering, much of the point has been lost.
Alan Keddles earlier comments reference Thailand judging and betting etc was spot on.
This is an evolving world. Some of you want to become more and more obscure and traditional, yet at the same time feel that the sport deserves better recognition. Are you speaking authentically or globally?
Tony et al. I totally respect your view point and stand point but unfortunatly this will not take Muay Thai to the next level. Sure it will make it totally authentic but in turn will alienate the sport from the masses.
We are not preaching to the converted. In order to move forward we are trying to attract new followers and whether you people like it or not the reality is this.
Joe public wants to see a fight. They do not want to see 30 Ram Muays that pad out a 15 fight show to about 7 hours.
They also don't want to think too hard. They will try to understand a few things about it like knees scoring higher than punches etc etc, but by and large they want a fight with an obvious winner, or they will get confused. Our job is not to educate them too heavily. They will surely lose interest too soon. Jesus, educated people are argueing the toss about judging on here so what chance has Joe public got of understanding.
The average punter has a very short attention span. If they turn on the TV and see Thai boxers doing nothing for the first two rounds you will lose them forever. Much better for them to switch over to UFC where the fight rarely goes two rounds.
This "arthouse" style judging, whilst being authentic is fairly irrelevent to any other country in the world other than Thailand and it would appear England at the moment.
If you fought in France, Holland, Australia, USA etc etc fights would generally be judged in a western manner with Thai variations. Why? Because the audience we are trying to attract in order to move forward understand what is going on.
Sorry guys but if you really want to move this sport forward you are going to have to compromise. Gone are the days when Muay Thai was a Thai based sport. It is now global and as such will have to bend a bit in order to appeal to that global audience.
Why do you think that MMA has eclipsed Muay Thai in few short years???
Modern thinking - a new sport that is not disappearing up it's own authentic ass. You can knock it all you like for the boring groundwork etc. But it's fairly easy to understand, no one is argueing about decisions and it is basking in global acclaim.
In reality Muay Thai is potentially more exciting than MMA due to the fact that fights will generally go on longer and can produce more action. Very exciting......except the audience figures don't reflect that, and the more authentic you get (with the judging) the more you will turn the audience off.
Please, I'm not here for a row with anyone. I wasn't there at the weekend and I don't care about the decisions.
I am a businessman who has been involved in Muay Thai for twenty odd years. I'm just trying to look at the bigger picture. If you don't bend and evolve, you will remain in the minority division moaning about how you should be recognised forever.
Sorry, it's the truth!