# The explosion of Muay Thai and kickboxing in the last 15 years...



## MTguy (Jun 20, 2022)

Suprisingly in the last 10-12 years, Muay Thai has even spread at a good level to Vietnam. I had trained and fought from the late 90's. yes I'm almost 49!! I think part of it is really the West travelling in droves to south east Asia, Thailand to Train. I went in 2000. A long time a go for a couple of months. It was before the invasion of us farang. I learned the basics. They only let me clinch with other foreigners though. Also, the promotion ONE broadcast on TV all over the world and heavily in Asia gives the best kickboxers in the world plenty of fights. All the best are there. Rodtang, Nong O, and several stadium champions. Superbon just KO'd Petrosyan. 

Really the man who ignited the world from 2004 was Buakaw. Not even a stadium champion, he was one of the larger Thais and was a replacement and the rest is history. Though clinching Muay Thai style he was able to develop and use all the weapons of muay thai except the elbow. He is almost 40 now and retired. he took on the best in the world and prevailed with his powerful kicks and even his boxing which wasn't bad, improved quite a bit. he had to get better to deal with the Dutch and Armenian and Russians who focus on boxing.

In my mind, Muay Thai is the most exciting stand up sport on the planet. I am so pleased to see it grow. I fought had my own gym and mma/kickboxing promotion but retired from everything in 2008 and walked away for personal reasons after 12 years of being in part of the first wave of MMA fighters as it came into the American conscious. i was lucky to have a fighter who fought all over the world and even fought Anderson Silva for a world title. 

I say all this because youtube has become like a drug with all the fights I missed over a decade. I come from a time where watching muay thai from thailand was only able to be done by online trading of tapes fom over seas, then having the tapes reformatted into NTSC format. I ahve a whole box of tapes. Youtube has thousands of fights and hundreds from the Golden Era , the 80s-90's before betting took over the stadiums and the fighters fought hard from the firs tround. The new format of three rounds like in most promotions except for championship fights really make guys push the pace.

Any other die hard fans herre?


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## kickillustrated (Jul 17, 2022)

Yeah, I remember times when I got NTSC tapes converted to PAL to watch American PKA fights. I spend like  150 bucks on a 90 min tape. Luckily I joined together with a couple of other guys so we were sharing the cost ..... that was in the early 80ies.


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## Jared Traveler (Aug 6, 2022)

I enjoy the fights in person. I'm working to understand the rules and judging better. My instructor does not speak English, so learning nuances in things like judging is difficult.


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## Jared Traveler (Sep 17, 2022)

toliktolik said:


> мое мнение, что взрыв кикбоксинга и тайского бокса был давно лет 15-20 назад, сейчас началось какое-то затухание(


What would you say is replacing it?


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## isshinryuronin (Sep 17, 2022)

toliktolik said:


> мое мнение, что взрыв кикбоксинга и тайского бокса был давно лет 15-20 назад, сейчас началось какое-то затухание(


I agreed with this post.  I have NO idea what it says, but I figured I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right.


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## Jared Traveler (Sep 17, 2022)

isshinryuronin said:


> I agreed with this post.  I have NO idea what it says, but I figured I had a 50/50 chance of getting it right.


Google translate.


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