SEA boxing?

[oddball]

SEA meaning southeast asian boxing (I debated for a moment to put it in this forum or the one right above).

So far I've found: Pradal Serey (Cambodian), Ling Lom (Laotian), and Lethwei (Burmese). Are these all Muay Thai equivalents? Will the same techniques and ideas be used (with Lethwei adding in headbutting); are there similar training methods, are they all from the same origin (possibly the Khmer empire)? Why if they are all the same is it called Muay Thai when taught/marketed (is this like TKD being "Korean Karate")? Are the Thai the most common teachers of SEA boxing techniques and other countries are not teaching outside their borders (making it more obscure)?
Thanks for any info

 

[jks9199]

SEA meaning southeast asian boxing (I debated for a moment to put it in this forum or the one right above).

So far I've found: Pradal Serey (Cambodian), Ling Lom (Laotian), and Lethwei (Burmese). Are these all Muay Thai equivalents? Will the same techniques and ideas be used (with Lethwei adding in headbutting); are there similar training methods, are they all from the same origin (possibly the Khmer empire)? Why if they are all the same is it called Muay Thai when taught/marketed (is this like TKD being "Korean Karate")? Are the Thai the most common teachers of SEA boxing techniques and other countries are not teaching outside their borders (making it more obscure)?
Thanks for any info

My personal feelings, based on what I've been taught, are that each art is probably indigenous to its own people (Bama lethwei is Burmese, Muay Thai is from Thialand, etc) -- but reflects the others. For example, we know that Burmese and Thai fighters fought each other; it's only reasonable to assume that they picked some things up from each other along the way. After all, there aren't but so many ways you can throw a punch or a kick with the human body. I don't think that they're all just "local flavors" of the same thing beyond that, however.

As to the extent of common knowledge... I think a lot of that is just marketing. Thai Boxing got marketed well; Burmese boxing was largely kept to one organization in the US, and "became" kickboxing outside that group. Another way to say this would be that when people trained in Muay Thai began competing in kickboxing events, they adhered to their traditional name while others just "kickboxed."