The thought just crossed my mind that all of this current hot international interest within the martial arts community worldwide re: Muay Thai and fighters like Buakaw and Khaoklai, is just another passing fad.
Like the kickboxing fad of the seventies, and the ninja craze of the seventies/eighties, and the kung fu craze in the seventies, and the numerous "hot flashes" I have seen come and go like rainwater, THIS (Muay Thai) TOO SHALL PASS! Only then will I be able to enjoy pure, un-westernized, Muay Thai as it was meant to be enjoyed prior to, say, 1995.
The "farangs are, as usual hard at work altering and reshaping Muay Thai into what THEY claim the western public wants it to be...the hell with what the Thais think. The hell with the art of Muay Thai and it's long evolutionary history. And the Thais are going along with the western shenanigans because they are being given a considerable (by their standards) amount of Baht to smile and go along with the prostitution of Thai martial arts. The entrepreneurs are selling Muay Thai to the western combat sports audience as if it were something that was created in the seventies and held under wraps by (western) wise men until the public was mentally prepared to see such "sportive brutality" on pay-per-view.
For a blatant example, just look at the odd and everchanging K1 organization in Japan. Even though K1 was inspired by Muay Thai, they have "fixed" (and continue to fix and re-fix) the rules of the sport so that the Thai fighters are essentially neutered (little clinching, no overemphasis on kneein exchanges, no elbows, etc). In this way the top honchos of K1 try to tilt the scales towards the Japanese shootboxers and kickboxers, or the European ones if the, uh, price is right? Can't let those lowly Thais force their ring brothers in the Land of The Rising Sun lose too much face too often, eh?
Right now two Muay Thai fighters from Thailand are the toast of the K1 circuit-Khaoklai and Buakaw Por Pramuk, but keep your eyes on the referees (and the rules dictums slyly added by the powers that run the show) and watch how those two superb Thai fighters start losing some incredibly odd points decisions (Buakaw got his in his 2005 K1 Max title match loss (???) to Andy Souwer. Souwer is an excellent fighter, and the match was close, but to my eye Buakaw won despite not being able to clince and knee very much. Ah, the sweet (???) smell of the fix.
I am sick already of all the clips of inept Muay Thai wannabes on the various video download sites like YOUTUBE and GROUPER. I am sick of all the websites that herald american Muay Thai schools (??) that make outrageous clams of "authenticity" because the head of the school sponsors seminars by this or that former Thai boxer. And I know for certain that I can live without the absolutely terrible displays of supposed female Muay Thai by female kickboxers who suddenly prefer the colorful Thai boxing trunks rather than the long legged or plain boxing trunks that are usually worn in western and european kickboxing matches ( I recently heard one female kickboxer asking a girlfriend where she could purchase a "color coordinated anklet / trunks / school t-shirt / armband outfit for her next "title fight". Nevermind that the young lady is as much a "Nak Muayz" (Thai boxing student) as I am a martian. Oh, lord!)
I almost threw up when I read one guy's video comment on YOUTUBE.COM which included something about his instructor considering using the Thai armbands as symbols of students ranking. I suppose both the simpleminded young man and his teacher know nothing about the armband being used to hold buddha and birthdate amulets for spiritual/magical purposes. Man, in the west its all about looking cool and colorful. What a crock of crap. Westerners have no interest in Wai Kru or Ram Muay whatsoever...all they want to do is get in the ring and go beserk with elbows, low kicks, high head kicks, spin kicks, and novice like boxing skills. And the public outside of asia buys that crap hook, line, and sinker. Screw the history, traditions, and people of Thailand...do "dirty fighting" (elbows, knees, etc) and wear those cool Thai trunks, armbands (like Stallone in RAMBO), and sometimes desecrate the mongkon. It is the way of the west over, and over, and over again.
I recall a series of conversations I had with an internationally known and financially successful midwest martial arts entrepreneur about FMA (in the mid-seventies) and Muay Thai (in the early eighties). I demonstrated elements of those arts for him, and let him see some private videotapes of Filipino stick and blade training and Muay Thai championship matches. I told him that I thought they were superb martial arts systems that they would be even more popular (and much, much, more practical for real world self defence)than the atypical karate, tae kwon do, kung fu, sport kickboxing, and "streetfighting" classes that he was at that time foisting upon an ignorant public. Ha, the BIG NAME always shrugged off my comments as meaningless because he thought FMA (Inosanto style at that) was just "stick waving," and Muay Thai was too full of injury prone techniques to be taught to the average pupil (this from a dude who always stressed all out full contact boxing and kickboxing to his higher ranking pupils...what a hypocrite). In other words, he saw no way at that time to make a quick buck off of the public via those arts. I gave up trying to educate tha blockhead a long time ago, but the last time I saw his local yellow pages ad it included (along with a virtual encyclopedia of assorted other arts including Brazilian Ju Jitsu, Ninjitsu, etc.) FMA and Muay Thai classes prominently. And he now proudly considers himself to be a part of the JKD "family" as well. I guess he finally saw the light in the late eighties, stopped kowtowing to the propaganda about Bill Wallace, Chuck Norris, Benny Urquidez, Don Wilson, and Joe Lewis being the ultimate martial artists of all time, and he so, in the name of the almighty dollar, became a proselytizer for everything from JKD to Pentjak Silat to No Holds Barred Ju Jitsu and beyond. Now he is really raking in the bucks, but you can bet your bottom dollar that what he actually gives his students is more chop suey than "fine cuisine."
The comments by Hapkido, Tae Kwon Do ignoramuses in response to Muay Thai video clips on YOUTUBE.COM show how stupid most Korean style martial artists are when it comes to evaluating what the world outside their "dojangs" is up to in terms of fighting arts. Hell, a half-witted TKD or Hapkido student is smart enough not to tangle with a Korean (or Japanese, or European, or North American, or South American) judoka, but they will shout out for all the world to hear that their arts are more effective than Muay Thai, and that they have "beaten" Muay Thai students on the street and in the ring!? Huh? Where? When? How?
I get the same crap from classical Japanese karateka budoka on occasion, but not to the degree that I do from Korean martial arts propagandists and trainees. Hey, I have all the respect in the world for ROK military martial black belts, and true Korean greats like He Il Cho who have come over here to the USA to both display their considerable skill AND compete on our sport karate / kung fu tournament circuits, but not for all of the arrogant TKD and Hapkido poseurs I see everywhere yapping about the superiority of TKD and Hapkido in comparison to Muay Thai...everywhere that is except in the ring with Muay Thai boxers in Bangkok. Lip service far exceeds their actual fighting prowess 99.9% of the time.
I really rolled my eyeballs a few months back when I saw an article in a Tae Kwon Do magazine that had photos of the instructor wearing Muay Thai trunks emblazoned with a TKD association patch. He was kicking on Thai pads and Thai "banana bags." Oh, boy?
Notice how fast the shootboxers, the kyokushinkai (Oyama) black belts, the free stylists, the classical Japanese karateka, the Kung fu clowns, and just about everybody else, go down for the count in short order when matched against skilled opponents with good Muay Thai skills in K1 and other freestyle international competitions (especially when pitted against someone like Anderson Silva who has an exquisitely unique blend of grappling skills and Muay Thai skills that set him apart in UFC competition)? I WONDER WHY THAT IS? I ALSO WONDER WHY THERE ARE NO TKD OR HAPKIDO STYLISTS IN K1 or UFC STYLE COMPETITIONS. I think I know why, and I think that you my friend knows why. You don't have to be a rocket scientest to figure this stuff out.
By the way, I, myself, earned a black belt in Chung Do Kwan Tae Kwon Do back in the early seventies. I enjoyed the training, and learned a lot of unique skills, but I always knew that Muay Thai was in another totally different fighting universe. So, I don't hate Korean martial arts or anything like that. I just wish the practitioners would just study their arts and keep their daydreaming mouths shut!
In regards to women in TKD or Hapkido; just how do you think any, ANY, female practitioner of those arts would fare against a Rijker, an Elmont, or a Randamie? The answer is quite simple. So simple that I am going to let you answer it in your head rather than write it down. Need I say more?
Enough of this rant...I have better things to write about on this blog. I will just bide my time while the western poseurs praise Muay Thai to the heavens (while at the same time raping and plundering the art in every way imaginable) for the next year or two, and then breathe a sigh of relief when the western vampires jump ship and make allegiance to some other "deadly fighting art du jour" in the near future. Then I can return to observing the Muay Thai fighting art that I have grown to know and love passionately over the past four decades, without having to wade through all the punks, poseuers, and human weasels who are sucking up to, and selling to the world, their version of Muay Thai today. It will happen. The fads all end up that way...the slick people and the con men have a genetic predisposition to milk something until it is dry, and then move on to the next confidence game don't they. Anyone out there interested in buying "rare dutch tulips?" That's a joke dear readers.
Herb A. - 11/30/06
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