DJColdfusion

Wai Kru banned in the State of Utah, USA.

The Wai Kru has been banned in Utah, home of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

At a recent MMA show known as The Ultimate Combat Experience, a Thai Boxer was preparing for his kickboxing match by performing the traditional Wai Kru. His opponent was a kickboxer from a boxing background. When the Thai Fighter attempted to enter his opponent's corner a scuffle broke out when the boxer's corner would not allow the Wai Kru to continue. The boxer's corner felt it was an insult for the Thai Fighter to even attempt to enter his fighter's corner.

Because of the incident the boxing friendly Utah State Athletic Commission (who are actually a group of decent guys who just don't understand Muay Thai and its traditions) has voted to ban any fighter in any sort of combative event from crossing the center of the ring before the commencement of the fight and thus the Wai Kru is now banned in the state of Utah.

I should point out that it was the boxer's corner that started the scuffle and that the Thai Fighter essentially just gave them "the stare" before returning to his corner. The Thai Fighter then proceeded to punish his opponent, with some of the nastiest leg kicks I have ever seen and several straight rights to the body that made his opponent curl up in pain, for the length of the 3 round fight to win a unaminous decision. It was an enjoyable outcome, but that was little consolation for the loss of the Wai Kru.

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Ikken Hisatsu

hmm..... while I dont think banning the wai kru is a very good thing to do, I can see where he is coming from. When I am in my corner preparing for the fight I wouldnt really want my opponent there, no matter what he was doing. really, they should let him do his wai kru before the opponent comes into the ring.

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Garland

What about the MTIK and (Cade's school/ Mikee Porritt) Seakson Janjira's camps that hold their own fights with an IKF sanction?
And certainly, if the rules were to be decided as a muay thai bout at the UCE, they would have to allow the ram muay.
On an interesting note, check the ucombat.com website in their forum, it seems like the Utah state Athletic commision may be changing rules, and everyone who has the paperwork to be considered a sports promoter had a say in what will come about....I'm crossing my fingers for full Muay Thai, San Shou, and Vale Tudo (bare knuckle, headbutts, elbows, and stomps or soccer kicks all gooooood, maybe a little small joint manipulation up there too. (just no fingers...that's just wrong.) rules to be admitted. (dogbrothers type fights on UCE is a pipedream...but )

silapathai

Not much of a point in doing a Wai Kru and/or a ram muay in the ring before your opponent is in the ring. Part of the Wai Kru is the "sealing off of the ring" when your opponent is in the ring. If an opponent ever disagreed with me doing my wai kru/ram muay or any of my past fighters than I would have told the fight promoter to find a different opponent; enough said.
Too bad that this idiot and his corner had to put up a fuss when someone is just following tradition...good times.

HtTKar

silapathai
By following their own tradition they were violating anothers.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Ikken Hisatsu

well exactly. if they were both thai fighters i doubt there would have been a problem. they aren't. a compromise should have been reached, maybe he could modify it so that he doesnt have to enter his opponents corner.

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DJColdfusion

Garland,

Cade and Mikee left MTI to open their own school. Then it went out of business. Mikee changed his last name to Janjira recently and had to drop out of a UCE kickboxing match due to a busted finger while performing abdominal crunches (no-kidding).

And yes the Ban will be in effect for all combat sports, Muay Thai or not.

The rules under consideration by the USAC are essentially the current UCE rules which reflect the NSAC rules in most areas except that you cannot strike a downed opponent unless you have atleast one knee down yourself.

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Garland

bad news bears man. Although I haven't seen Cade in a long time, I can always remember him being a kind and cool character...I hope that things turn around for them, cuz although I love Sakasem with all my heart, Craig deserves his come-uppins. The man's a foul human being. I would have loved to see MTIK get some fighting competition (they already have people on par with technique here...hint hint, but no one that fights Muay Thai)
Rules suck. I can only sit and hope that these people in charge of changing the rules come to their senses.

xnfx

Do you guys see other States banning it aswell, or only Utah?

DJColdfusion

xnfx,

The incident that caused the ban happened at what is normally a MMA show, although they do have a kickboxing division. The Utah State Athletic Commision is actually named after Pete Suazo, a deceased local boxing coach and state government official . . . so they have a strong connection to boxing.

While the commission is filled with good guys they are relatively undeducated when it comes to non-boxing contact sports like Muay Thai and MMA. So when a rukus happens and they look at it from their boxing background and say "what the heck is that guy doing in his opponent's corner?" So of course they would ban it.

And in my opinion the ban CAN, not will but can, happen elsewhere if promoters fail to educate their local commissions concerning the traditions of the different art. Now, I'm not saying that Mike Stidham made a mistake by not informing the promoters what Mikee was going to do and that it was traditionally acceptable (hell, in the last year Mike has not only managed to keep the commission from banning MMA outright he even went to bat when they wanted to ban any type of choke and from what I heard they proposed a motion to ban kicks to the head . . . which Mike helped overcome).

I honestly place the blame squarely on Jimmy, Chago's manager (Chago was the other fighter). Jimmy is a boxing coach of sorts and understandably enamored of his own traditions, but his reaction to Mikee was rediculous and damn near started a riot.

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DJColdfusion

Garland,

Did you know that Sakaesam is the national fight coordinator for Ajarn Chai's Thai Boxing Association?

As far as I know, there are two TBA schools in the state of Utah. Wil Bernales is at the Cove on the east side of SLC. And Brian YAmasaki has his school up in Bountiful off of 2600N.

I'm not a student of either school but there are some talented fighters (in the lighter weights) at both places. They don't have the numbers that MTIK has, both are small schools, but you can find good fighters at both places.

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Garland

I'm sure you know me man, I saw you at Chai's seminar didn't I? I train with Will, Brian, and Sem.
Didn't know Sem was TBA, thought he was WMTC and Vut affilliated, but everytime Chai comes to town he asks me how Sakasem is, I just thought they had muay (as in mucho not thai...pun intended) respect for each other.
Brian's fighters could do Thai, esp. Brandon and Mellissa...I'd like to see Dylan Freed fight, but I don't see him doing it...Anele could put on a show, but I think that's it for Will's school (@least at Olympus)...we need more people ugh! Will's too good to not have an excellent fighter base. I wanna fight, but I'm just trying to get through this semester with my GPA unscathed.

DJColdfusion

I don't think Sakaesan is TBA, he is just close to Ajarn.

I was at the Ajarn Chai seminar but I was on the sideline watching. I had my ACL repaired (patella graft & some meniscus work) a week and a half before the seminar and I was glad just to be able to walk in there without crutches.

Brandon can fight, but Melissa is scary!

And I heard Wil was planning a move to Los Angeles? What do you know about that?

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DJColdfusion

I've known Brian for a decade, we started a "sparring" group together, up at USU.

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Garland

I dunno what Will's doing. He might be going to LA, but, yet again, he might stay here for awhile and continue teaching out at Pedro's, but I haven't a clue what's up with the Cove situation, I heard that Brandon, because he lives here in the valley, might start filling in, but I haven't seen Will at Cove for a minute, I went to class Monday and nobody was there, but it happens every so often, so I don't know if he's gone or what.
I hope not, Will's da bomb! Definitely one of the best instructors this state is EVER going to see, and the probably the only one who'll give you the run down on techniques from the ground up, rather than let you free-for-all.
Seriously, another TBA and FMA guy, in this state? Not any time soon, and probably never as good as Will. Will will be on the cover of blackbelt or inside kung fu eventually...but not if he stays in Utah. I have mixed feelings about him going, on one hand, he's the best, and the arts as he teaches them have definitely become a great part of my life, and have helped me out and saved my life in more ways than just the obvious, but on the other hand, his student base here isn't too strong, so it couldn't be too lucrative, and he doesn't get the recognition he rightfully deserves. Maybe if he goes to California, he can do better for himself, I mean, Utah sucks.