muay thai future

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i read on fairtex.com that some muay thai authority and the wbc ( world boxing council) have reasched an agreement on muay thai, that i guess means that it will start being like boxing fight nights and that thai boxing will be seen by many.
i also read that mike tyson will become a thai boxer and in my opinion is wrong as he is a no one in this business..
thirdly i saw that they are thinking of making it a olympic sport? WTF

now is there anyone who sees this a bad thing like me. true say it will be in the limelight but i dont want it to end up being criticised as hard as karate and tae kwan do. the respect will go and the whole art will be abused.

as for mike tyson i dont understand why he is allowed to do this and say he gets one luicky punch and hes apponent gets knocked out, stupid people will say hes boxing training put him in that position and it is therefore better and besides the last thing we need is confusion between muay thai and boxing. I see a dark future any one else agree

[bdipab]

No, I'd have to say I don't agree. It could go either way, but even if olympic muay thai is watered down like olympic boxing is - real muay thai won't die out in thailand or at you're local training center. Tyson would only be good for the sport as it does need a world recognized name for it to become mainstream, but that doesn't mean that it will be watered down. Tyson is a brutal and talented fighter as is needed to compete and do even half way decent in muay thai. If he get's dropped gives much weight to the style, and if he wins well that's because he is a skilled/accurate puncher with a lot of power. Also if Tyson is training in muay thai (if he isn't he's a moron and will probably not do as well) that garners more respect for the art as well - let's not forget that he still has a large enough of a fan base that he could generate a lot of positive results for the art (I'd pay to see another Tyson bout).

[swisscom]

I cant say I agree either.
If muaythai turns into an olympic sport, im assuming that more people will join?
The more the merrier! As for what you stated first, about the whole "muay thai fight nights" I think that will be interesting. The only problem is, well... I think it's a problem~~ is that there would end up being the greedy group of ppl who want uber amounts of money, and would give a bad name to the sport.

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whats good about going mainstream apart from money. so were going to sacrifice the art for money. people died in this sport if they heard its in the olympics theyll turn over in their graves. all the mainstream arts are disrespected and if these baboons continue muay thai will join the list. even kung fu is being criticised and they have all the "big names" muay thai wont have a chance. i know if muay thai enters the olympics i wouldent be as proud to say i practise it.

[swisscom]

Well if you think of it this way.
The only difference about it being in the olympics as oppose to how it is now. People won't really know what's going on. All they will see is a fight. Some people will be skeptical and say "ohh that doesn't look hard, i could kick the shit out of that kid" really now, bring it. You cant look down on someone who is in the olympics. It's the best of the best. Some people I know have said to me, "Josh, why the hell do you do muay thai?, not like it's going to do you any good."
I would be more proud to say, one day you'll be watching me on tv. I'll be fighting in front of millions while you sit at home on your couch. Rather than saying "yeah... well... im going to do some tournaments later on."

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the muay thai will be diluted down if you know what i mean the rules will change and the techniques and attitudes will change with it i dont see good

[chalambok]

I think what you read may already be behind the curve. At least 3 Olympics ago muay Thai was being considered but TaeKwonDo won out, and will probably remain the kickboxing art for Olympics, and boxing remain the hand-striking art. Demonstration sports are usually staged by the host country before they become accepted to the Olympics, although sometimes other sports are invited, such as takraw and rhythmic gymnastics. It was implied to me that because of the heavy gambling and organized crime influence in professional muay Thai, amateur muay Thai is very much on the backburner of the Acceptance Committee. This is too bad, especially when I think of the TaeKwonDo medal match I saw where the two 'fighters', and I use this very loosely, lunged at each other, missed, and would up back to back in the center of the ring. Good kiais, though. I was frightened

[Tom Yum]

I hope olympic muay thai will displace olympic TKD. No offense to tkd-ers, but TKD athletes can be trained into a nice hybrid muay thai fighter. Check out Manson Gibson. He fought full contact in Thailand and won with spinning back kicks, spinning wheel kicks and spinning back fists. Of course, he had to learn the muay thai base.

Tyson could knock out muay thai fighters who lack good punching defense and experience boxing. If he gets into punching range, it is probably over for most, except the better muay thai fighters. He could probably KO Lebanner, Abidi, and maybe even Hoost (if Hoost tries to go toe to toe like he did Sap).

I think he'd have trouble against Cro-cop, Bonjasky and even the Overeem bros (since they are rather tall and long legged).

[swisscom]

the muay thai will be diluted down if you know what i mean the rules will change and the techniques and attitudes will change with it i dont see good

Well, no matter how much it changes, there will always be the practioners who keep it the same. Even if it gets watered down in the olympics... a true fighter could go in and destroy people. Therefor I dont believe it will get that bad. There is also only so far you could water down muay thai before it turns into another style.

[bdipab]

the muay thai will be diluted down if you know what i mean the rules will change and the techniques and attitudes will change with it i dont see good

not necessarily true, it all depends - but I hope it won't end up like olympic boxing - hissy fit fights for points. Then again a roundhouse is a roundhouse - point or no point - when a good one connects you will have a) a fight and b) pain. MT fighters are a hard breed and I haven't come across a teacher that pussifies his students so I see less of the negative side of this. The training and fighting won't change and the caliber of fighter won't go down because the punks won't last long.

[Muay Siam]

thirdly i saw that they are thinking of making it a olympic sport? WTF

now is there anyone who sees this a bad thing like me. true say it will be in the limelight but i dont want it to end up being criticised as hard as karate and tae kwan do. the respect will go and the whole art will be abused.

my man, the whole art HAS ALREADY BEEN abused. the muay thai you have seen has greatly crippled from it's war-going times. some moves are banned from the ring, thus, erasing many from the majority pratitioners(ring fighters)
heck, some muaythai fighters don't even know basics, do you know that some of the schools don't even know how to punch the muaythai punch, they used boxing punches!! damn it!! most places i've investigated don't even know how to HOLD THEIR FISTS CORRECTLY!!!

by the way, the competition won't be on the olympics yet, it would be in the sea games some time this year, it will be called MUAY (burma, laos, cambodia opposed the name muaythai because they also have their own muay, to make the competition more compatible to these guys we had to call it MUAY)
the competition would allow, ring muaythai/burmese,laos,khmer muay/ muay boran(ancient muaythai), the points will be counted for 50=wai kru, 50=style, and fighting.

[john888]

Muay Thai has gone through a lot of changes since its beginnings. This is because of political correctioness and the changing views of society that are imposed on so many things in life. Bear in mind that this art was used for the battlefield and it was a case of do or die. Things have changed since then and Muay Thai is now practised by the majority for keep fit and self defence, as well as ring competition. The techniques that were used in the old days were intended to take the opponent out. For Example, if your enemy went to the floor you would follow up. This is not acceptable nowadays in ring competition.

The biggest change came in the 1930s when the Queensberry rules were introduced. This saw the introduction of weight catagories and rounds. It also saw a restriction on some of the techniques that could be used. There can be a lot of debate of wheather or not this was a good thing. In my view its a double edged sword. It made the sport safer but it also saw the lost of some traditional techniques.

In my view, restrictions are going to progressively applied to Muay Thai with the viewpoint of making it a "safer" sport. There is nothing we can really do about that in terms of ring competition. However we can keep Muay Boran alive by practising it in our gyms.

The problem we have in the UK at the moment is that we are not recognised by the British sports council. This results in lows quality shows being hosted, mis-matches and unqualified medical supervision. There was a show recently held in the UK that was just done on mats. There was no ring and no medical supervision on standby. This is very dangerous, as someone could of being seriously injuried or killed, which would of had serious reprecussion on the progression of Muay Thai as a sport in the UK. It is important to realise that regulation is the only way to take Muay Thai forward with respect to ring competition. To do this it will take the unification of Muay Thai clubs in the UK.

John