[b]Finally Proof That MuayThai is the Dominant Art.[/b]

MuayThai Fighter · March 8, 2003

In several of my previous threads I brought up MuayThai being the best stand up art and eventually had thread closed,because too many people disagreed and would argue that,which cause many fights and insults in the threads and everyone claiming their art to be the better one.

Infact I wouldn't doubt it if people eventually got sick of my claim,because they were either in denial,truly believed their art to be the best or just didn't have enough proof for them to realize the truth of muay thai.

Well now here is some proof I found on the web,read it,enjoy it,and weap if you have to.LOL.

But don't get mad.

Please read what I've pasted and then give your opinion.

Muay Thai is a style of "kickboxing" which utilizes hands, elbows, kicks, knees, and stand-up grappling known as clinching. It is the oldest style of "kickboxing" and undisputedly the most brutal. It originated in Thailand (formerly known as Siam) long ago and today it is a sport practiced at the global level. In the Western hemisphere, "kickboxing" was first influenced by Far Eastern Arts such as Karate and Tae Kwon Do from Japan and Korea respectively. However, in the 1970s and 1980s, through competition with Thai fighters, it was consistently proven that Muay Thai was the dominant style in the ring. Consistent means much more than one or two matches. The kicks of Muay Thai were harder and the impact of the knees, elbows, and clinching were devastating to the other styles of "kickboxing". As a result, kickboxers began to replace the karate and tae kwon do techniques with the techniques of Muay Thai. Today, one can see that kickboxers will most often kick with their rear leg using the shin as the striking surface. That is the powerful Muay Thai kick that kickboxers now consistently use as a dominant weapon in the ring. When such transition took place, the West divided into two major groups which confused the heck out of today's kickboxing fans. The Europeans basically adopted the name Muay Thai, especially in France and Holland. Their kickboxers now practice Muay Thai - there was little or no confusion in Europe. The United States and Japan however, adopted Muay Thai techniques but kept the generic name "kickboxing". In my first article, Muay Thai - The Belt is in the Ring, I go into more details as to why this was so. Because of this, it was never clearly defined that kickboxers were now replacing karate and tae kwon do techniques with Muay Thai techniques, especially the kicks. Therefore, today you will see some U.S. kickboxers throw almost exclusively Thai kicks, wear Thai shorts, yet incorrectly say that kickboxing is the combination of boxing and karate. This is wrong. Kickboxing as practiced today mainly has techniques from only two arts: (1) Western Boxing for hands, and (2) Muay Thai for kicks (and knees, elbows, and clinching where the rules permit). By now many fighters realize this and it is the purpose of this site to complete the imparting of this information to the remaining kickboxing fans who may still be confused. The fans of today are not to be blamed for their confusion; it was the way that the name "Muay Thai" was not accepted into the U.S. kickboxing community in the past that caused this confusion.

To confuse the fans even more, they now define "RULES" in terms of "Kickboxing" and "Muay Thai". So now the terms "Kickboxing" and "Muay Thai" apply not only to "TECHNIQUES" but also to "RULES"! So let's straighten this out. In terms of techniques, Muay Thai is now the main influence on today's kickboxers. It long replaced the techniques of karate and tae kwon do. In terms of rules, kickboxing rules do not allow anything beyond kicking and punching (keep in mind that in terms of techniques the kicks of today's kickboxers are primarily from Muay Thai regardless of rules). In contrast, the rules of Muay Thai allows all Muay Thai techniques to be used including knees, elbows, and clinching. In many countries, elbows are still the only weapon not allowed because of its potential to cause massive cuts.