Once upon a time, Thai boxing was not a common choice of art and was only practiced by those people wanting to compete (and they were mostly men).
Not much was known about it when it first arrived on our shores and the public were still pretty much in the kung fu grip of Bruce Lee.
Thai Boxing and Other Martial Arts
There were small homages paid to Thai Boxing during the eighties in the Van-Dame film Bloodsport (one of the contestants Paco was a Thai Boxer) and the film Kickboxer was based in Bangkok. But on the whole, it was a little-known sport dwarfed by the popular martial arts of Karate, Kung-fu, and taekwondo. Only in its homeland of Thailand, was Muay Thai a thriving spectator sport and in Thailand at this time, it was unheard of for women to participate in Muay Thai.
Times are a-changing however and the last ten years has seen a massive increase both in the number of Thai boxing gyms opening in the UK and the number of female participants.
Recent Growth in Thai Boxing
Much of the recent growth in Thai Boxing is thanks, in part, to the success of the UFC (ultimate fighting championships) where competitors fight in mixed martial arts and the stand-up art of choice is Muay Thai. Ironically, since the emergence of Muay Thai’s supremecy as a stand-up art around the rest of the world, the number of young Thai’s in Thailand learning Muay Thai has actually declined, with football becoming more popular there.
