Mr Smith, no one is calling for the abolition of the Ram Muay or ritual music, this is what makes Muay Thai unique, and i have only promoted Muay Thai shows
for 20 years, no other styles. Nevertheless, I do feel that on Novice and C class bouts that fighters should seal the ring instead of doing 5 minute Ram Muays, and that Ram Muays should be for 5 round fights only, in my view, otherwise we have been at shows where at least 2 hours are spent on Ram Muays.Like I said the novice fighters could seal the ring to the Ritual music, and then the fights commence. I tried this for the first time on July 30th at my show in Southampton, and not one gym complained about this, and we sailed through 16 fights in 4 hours. Muay Thai is the ultimate stand up art in the world and is recognised the whole world over, evidence of this is shown by most MMA fighters studying Muay Thai as their stand up, and some of the best fighters in MMA are Thai Fighters, Melvin Manhoeff, Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva.
Neal Holden posted a superb post regarding the Stadium or sport style Muay Thai, and I think all of the questions that have been asked were answered right there. I believe that Dan Green's excellent show last week was a sports Muay Thai event, and very good it was too, with the Thais coming to fight, which is refreshing to see, as some thai's who come to this country seem to mess about and just want to get plenty of work while they are in the UK.
This has been a very enlightening debate and i don't think it has been negative at all, we are all allowed to voice our opinions, because we are passionate about the game. UK Thai boxing is in a fantastic position at the moment with World class fighters coming through at all weights, Steven Wakeling, Kieren Keddle, David Paquette, Liam Harrison, Richard Cadden, Michael showers, Andy Howson, Richard Fenwick, Peter Crooke, Kevin Harper, Dale White, Paaolo Da Silva, damien Trainor, Frankie Hudders,Michael Dicks, Julie Kitchen, Nicky Carter, Lisa Houghton Smith, Rachel Jones,Hilary Mack, Mellisa Ray, Rebecca Donnelly,Karen Ousey. by the way these fighters are in no particular order of importance, just to remind us all of what talent we have in this country, and they could give anyone a hard fight anywhere in the world, including Thailand.