Amateur Muay Thai in Thailand?

[El Presidente]

Was looking at the results for the last few Amateur World Championships in Thailand... when I noticed that several Thais had won medals.

Though Im not too clued up on the ins-and-outs of the fight scene in Thailand I was always under the impression that Thai fighters start their careers as Pro by default. Ive never seen a Thai fight in the protective gear that most Western amateur thaiboxers are accustomed to.

That poses the question - is there an regular on-going amateur circuit in Thailand when there is not a World Championship being held?

Thanks to anyone that can clear this up.

cheers

[Sudoraba]

I guess you gotta learn to walk before you can run

[unicorn]

There were 2 organizations (IAMTF and IFMA) competing (and as usual triying to slice-throat eachother) to build an amateur circuit in Thailand. IAMTF has had some big names competing in amateur format although already fighting pro - Serghei Gur for an example. IFMA has (if my info is correct) better relationship with WMC and managed to gather more serious national organizations, point at which they had a war about who's who this year. Apparently IFMA obtained more of recognition and IAMTF was ill-regarded for trying to sneak on IFMA territory and aggressively promote themseves as already recognized by the Thai authorities. But the business is still evolving. The format is far from being something useful for a MT practitioner of Thailand - helmets, chest shields, shinguards - they look a bit like sanshou amateurs and of course the Thais frown at such an "armour". But ok, a lot of guys who could not afford to turn pro had a bunch of experience competing at lower risks in such format and some of them did good as pro later. Needs to grow up and also to settle to allow one to know who's who.

[El Presidente]

There were 2 organizations (IAMTF and IFMA) competing (and as usual triying to slice-throat eachother) to build an amateur circuit in Thailand. IAMTF has had some big names competing in amateur format although already fighting pro - Serghei Gur for an example. IFMA has (if my info is correct) better relationship with WMC and managed to gather more serious national organizations, point at which they had a war about who's who this year. Apparently IFMA obtained more of recognition and IAMTF was ill-regarded for trying to sneak on IFMA territory and aggressively promote themseves as already recognized by the Thai authorities. But the business is still evolving. The format is far from being something useful for a MT practitioner of Thailand - helmets, chest shields, shinguards - they look a bit like sanshou amateurs and of course the Thais frown at such an "armour". But ok, a lot of guys who could not afford to turn pro had a bunch of experience competing at lower risks in such format and some of them did good as pro later. Needs to grow up and also to settle to allow one to know who's who.

THanks man. That's what I wanted to know.

[unicorn]

There's on man-magazine a nice interview with Steven Fox (sorry if miss-spelled) president of IFMA making some statements about this affair but it's in the old issue of man-magazine and I didn't find the link.

After my info WMC is still the single authority recognized by the Muay Thai governing body of Thailand enabled to sanction pro MT internationally. Now it appears that an innitial solution to the dispute - to allow WMF (a newcoming body) to mediate among IAMTF and IFMA is pretty dead as intended originally and people are reconsidering what to do. Hopefully it will not result in other members of an endless alphabet-soup :)

[El Presidente]

So how regularly can one compete under 'Amateur' conditions in Thailand? Trying to do some fishing around for my friend thats staying there next year.

To be honest Id feel pretty foolish fighting in all that armour in Thailand of all places. Thai kids start fighting with no such thing.

[unicorn]

Errm that's beyond my knowledge range. But if you do a search for the organizations they must have somewhere on the net their info.

[RaviChopra]

Well I guess not everyone wants to go pro. Just cuse your from Thailand doesnt mean you have to fight for a living.

[RobinG]

Besides, they say that most of the thais that train and compeete in muay thai are finished (in the sport) at the age of 21 mainly because their bodies have taken too much damage under a crucial part of their growth

[Arne]

Got any of the results here?
or a link?

[Amron]

allright, the following link gives you the results of the World Amateur Championship this November in Thailand. Its in french, but actually everyone should understand it:

"en moins de ...kg" is indicating the weightclasses above the results

"Médaille d’or" equal to Gold
"Médaille d’argent" equal to Silver
"Médaille de bronze" equal to Bronze

The Names with the Countries the Fighters represent should be easy to understand...

just my words: note the many fighters from former SovietUnion Countries being in the rankings. over the last 5 years those regions have made a major stepup, and could/will be a very dominant force in MT in the very near future...

Link: http://www.samouraitv.com/article/fiche.php?s_code=breve_54



BTW: ElPres, i dont think your friend will have any trouble to find a fight, another guy i know is currently training at a Gym in BKK for his first MT fight, his experience being only 6 Boxing bouts. Important is to get into a Gym, they will organize everything for you after they have seen you train some time.
A bigger problem is the actual weightclass your friend is fighting in, the heavier he is, the more difficult it will be to find an opponent...

[Amron]

Hey ELPresi

if you are interested to do some 'deepsea fishing', then check out this site and the forum: http://www.chokemuay.com/

its MT hardcore only, no MMA/OffTopic/ or other shit, a tiny bit of K-1, with lots of posters directly from Thailand or with connections to the places there. They could help you out with tons of infos...just keep the Board clean from stupid shit (will you get banned in no-time), but considering your average serious posts, me mentioning this wasnt really necessary i hope...

greets and hope to see you there soon

Amron

[Arne]

Thanks... alot...

[Amron]

Here is a link to a IFMA statment: http://www.man-magazine.nl/MAN2.1/?showstory=506&issue=15

And here is a very interesiting interview with Stephan Fox http://www.man-magazine.nl/MAN2.1/?showstory=493&issue=15

[Amron]

Hey ELPresi

if you are interested to do some 'deepsea fishing', then check out this site and the forum: http://www.chokemuay.com/

of course any other poster is invited to check it out, too!!!!

[El Presidente]

- En moins de 54 kg :
Médaille d’or : MANA Klahal (Thaïlande)

This is what puzzles me. This is an AMATEUR tournament with headgear, shin pads etc. Strange that a born and bred Thai competes in this sort of thing.

Thanks for the heads-up on that site Amron. Will behave myself there... no Nong-Tum jokes. ;)

[Amron]

http://www.wmtc.nu/images/wmc04_111104f2.jpg

about 69 countries took part with over 700 fighters...

The potential team champions are from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Thailand...

lots of Thais were fighting there...the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand held the openign ceremony...

http://www.wmtc.nu/images/wmc04_111104-3.jpg
http://www.wmtc.nu/images/wmc04_111104-5.jpg
http://www.wmtc.nu/images/wmc04_111104-8.jpg
http://www.wmtc.nu/images/wmc04_111104-10.jpg
http://www.wmtc.nu/images/wmc04_111104-11.jpg

[Razor Bump]

They need to make tapes of this event.... The world Muay Thai council could clean up if promoted right.... I would buy that's for sure and I keep looking to find a web site that has them.

[El Presidente]

LOTS of ex-Russian states on the circuit...

Im not sure if the majority of the fighters were from that region or that they were just better than most - but they sure as hell cleaned up the medals.