Oh, excellent question! Some fighters ignore the opponent totally. Some kind of play along, catching arrows (imaginary psychic) shot at them and breaking them, or throwing down and stomping on them. I have seen fighters even let their opponent touch them and sort of lead them to a spot in the ring. I suspect sometimes they may have actually been friends, or perhaps trained together at one time or another but I really don't know. And I have seen fighters trade mongkols and wish each other luck. 'Course they then proceeded to kick the holy crap out of each other. I think the only thing really important to the Thai, other than a great fight with heart, is one in which the fighters respect each other, the art, and themselves; and it is, after all, just basic humanity anyway.
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