JON BARWELL: Nice ambitious idea and although it would be great to have an overall governing body for UK Muay Thai I believe that this is what the UKMF are aiming to achieve. IBMTO has simple aims as seen in our mission statement above:

1. Monitoring, interpreting and applying the rules of Muay Thai consistently, fairly and in keeping with the spirit of the sport.

2. Supporting the training, assessment and welfare of Muay Thai officials.

3. Supplying quality Muay Thai officials to promoters and organisations.

4. Educating all stakeholders (including fighters, coaches, promoters and spectators) on the rules of Muay Thai and their application.

SPIRIT MUAY THAI:
We will be running accredited IBMTO Judging & Refereeing courses and annual assessments for all IBMTO qualified Judges & referees.

JOE TOE: Membership to the IBMTO is as an official and the above courses need to be passed to qualify.
We are looking into a course on 'How to score in Muay Thai'. This will be a non-certified course aimed at increasing understanding and knowledge in Muay Thai scoring so it certainly could be open to fight fans so that hey can have a better understanding of the sport and increase their viewing experience.

SANDY:
IBMTO says what it is on the tin. We are a board of independent Judges & Referees who will work together with promoters and governing bodies to facilitate the development of Muay Thai.Changing the name and adding 'control' or removing 'officials' would imply we were something different.

We do have a lot of work ahead of us but the foundations are already there. That is why we were capable of launching earlier than planned. Promoters & organisations are already booking us up for their shows so this has been a great start.

SHAUN

SHAUN