I received a surprise last night when I was told that there was a Muay Thai boxing competition involving the local people from Ao Yon and Ao Makham and it was taking place at the Deep Sea Port.
The word muay derives from the Sanskrit mavya which means "to bind together". Muay thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" or the "Science of Eight Limbs" because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact", as opposed to "two points" (fists) in boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in other more regulated combat sports, such as kickboxing, boxing, and savate.
text from wikipedia
Muay Thai boxing is a sport which I know that many people come to Thailand and ask to see. I understand that there are a plethora of places to visit in Phuket but there are some fights which are 'shows' for the tourist so if you are interested pick carefully.
Near our home there is a training gym for the local people and they fight in a stadium in Chalong and their boss was there in an official capacity so it was going to be an interesting night..
Traditionally all the fight nights start with young boys and then the fighters get older and clearly more violent, fight one had a lot of supporters and fight two began to be more professional - I did not stay long...
I do not know how young the children were whom I saw in the ring but I do wonder how young the children in Thailand are who begin Muay Thai boxing?
