everyone on the planet calls football soccer bar us.... so the idea that if Muay Thai shrinks it will no longer be called Muay Thai is pretty foolish

Billards is not as popular as pool or snooker but do people call those games 'snooker' as its the most popular of these similar games?

does shiny pants kickboxing feel threatened as it too will and does lose its best to K1 rules and Queensbury?

fighters will follow the money and why shouldnt they - they can still prefer to fight under different rules? Nigel Benn said he used to love kickboxing and wished it paid .... if MMA was around he said he probably would have done that instead of boxing... I have a figher who fights Boxing right now because it pays way more than Thai even though he loves Muay Thai and if that paid the same would drop the boxing tommorrow...

I think K1 and indead MMA bar one or two examples kick in a thai style, use the 'thai clinch' and (in MMA) throw elbows (a thai weapon) - so its closest to Thai...

people can call it what they want...everyone knows it as K1 rules.... most people think Kickboxing means moon-boots and shiny pants - no disrespect but in the UK that is the perception... back when Buakow schooled everyone.... the rules allowed clinching - again a Thai specific form.....

so if we had a check list and the ring sports you can use them in

Clinching (thai)
Elbows (thai)
Thai Style kicking (thai)
Boxing (boxing, thai and kickboxing)
Knees (thai)
Sweeps (kickboxing) NOT ALLOWED
Sanda Throws/s-1 throws etc (NOT ALLOWED)
takedowns (NOT ALLOWED)
submissions (NOT ALLOWED)
padding i.e boots (NOT ALLOWED)

just a thought....

anyway who really cares

if K-1 pays then cool...if shiny pants was paying big money or holding 300k-500k tournaments I bet most would try that........