Although denied by many, there are infact two scoring systems for Muaythai.

Are you scoring ‘Sport’ Muaythai or ‘Stadium-style’ Muaythai?


Sport Muaythai:
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This is where the fighters are competing primarily for "honour".

Both fighters wish to win the contest outright. Each second of each round is important, each round in itself is important, as too is the final result - hence why the results from this weekend are so important!

An example of this, Dekkers vs Coban.

In two meetings there were 1st round K.O.’s. ( one apiece ) Neither fighter began the contest with the mindset that the first round would be an automatic 10-10.

Neither fighter went into the contest thinking that they only needed to apply pressure towards the end of the rounds and only in the rounds later in the contest in order to score more highly.


Both fought for individual and national honour and respect, looking to win each round, and looking to win the contest.

The rules for the Sport ( sport muaythai ) can be checked with the Muaythai Institute of Thailand, and indeed many other places.

The MT Institute states that each round is scored separately!

Also too, that there is ‘NO’ consideration taken into effect from other rounds as each round is scored individually.

In fact the MT institute state that rounds are not scored with a * Star .Dot or anything else except for clear numbers 10 or 9 or 8 or 7.

The Muaythai Institute also states that the winner of the most rounds ( 3 rounds from a five round contest ) is the winner.

If a fighter wins 3 rounds of a contest 10 – 9 by technique, yet takes a lot of punishment in round 4 and round 5. The winner of the 3 rounds wins the contest. If the losing fighter only scored 10 – 9 for each round that he won whilst delivering a lot of punishment, then he did not do enough as he needed scores of 10-8 or 10-7. Obviously he should have worked harder in the earlier rounds, or was stopped from being able to.

Wether the 3 rounds were close, and only just edged by the winner of the three rounds, makes no difference, should the score read

10-9
10-9
10-9
9-10
9-10

IF you are only going to find the decision for a winner from a contest by way of who was on top at the end of the contest, then why judge any rounds at all. You would just have one single score made at the end of the bout.



Stadium Style Muaythai
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This is where the fighters are competing with the aim of "earning as much money as possible from a fight career".

In many instances, it is better to let the first round play out in order to enhance their potential earnings from the gambling at ringside.

Likewise, should a fighter be trailing, he will concede defeat to his opponent going into the final round by not working as hard. The reason, why risk picking up injuries that could stop him from competing ( working – this is his livelihood ) the following week.

Also too, it maybe in his interests not to win a contest as it could earn him more money in the long run. Many fighters in the stadium will face each other several times anyway in a 200+ fight career.

None of the aforementioned come into play when competing for honour ( especially in the Thailand vs Holland – Coban vs Dekkers bouts ).


In the stadiums ( Stadium-Style ) not scoring opening rounds, later rounds weighted so that a winner of only 2 from 5 rounds (should they be rounds 4+5 that were won) selects the result of a contest etc… may work perfectly.

Applying the Stadium-Style scoring, when the fighters are competing in Sport Muaythai (for their honour and respect, as was the instances with the English fighters at the weekend ) is what is causing the problems.

Are the audiences at the shows there for the gambling, or wishing to spectate a sport?

Judging needs to reflect what type of MT is in play.