History UsefulNotes / MuayThai

** In 1988, undefeated Kickboxing World Champion Rick Roufus challenged Muay Thai champion Changpuek Kiatsongrit to a non-title match, in other to prove Kickboxing was the greatest. Despite elbows and knees begin not allowed and having his jaw broken in the first round, Kiatsongrit just kept doing leg kicks until Rofus wasn't able to walk by the fifth round. After the match, Rofus went to train Muay Thai with Kiatsongrit.

In our modern popular culture, muay thai became known mainly thanks to the rise of professional UsefulNotes/{{Kickboxing}} and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts, in which it soon established itself as the crown jewel of striking styles due to its flexibility, efficiency and physical preparation. However, you may possibly know it thanks to film star and notable exponent Tony Jaa, who gave us films like ''Film/OngBak''.

Muay Thai has cousins throughout Southeast Asia in the form of other stand-up, kickboxing styles with clinching and knee/elbow strikes, with similar but distinct techniques and rules. These include Tomoi from Malaysia, Muay Lao [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin from Laos]], Pradal Serey from Cambodia and Lethwei from UsefulNotes/ThatSouthEastAsianCountry, all of which appear to be related to Musti Yuddha, or ancient Indian boxing. The heritage and development of these related but unique styles are subjects of heated debate and national pride to some, but Muay Thai is indisputably the dominant style internationally.

* DanceBattler: Thai fighters are expected to perform a ritual dance named ''wai kru ram muay'' before fighting. Also, ritual music is played during the fight itself, which gives to the match a dance feel (a really violent dance, that is).

[[caption-width-right:350:TIGER KNEE!]]

** Brazilian Muay Thai is more wild and aggressive than the traditional variant from Thailand thanks to being influenced by the near rule-free "Vale Tudo" competitions of Brazil. Brazilian nak muay favor a constant offense with a focus on taking the clinch position to knee opponents into submission, a habit brought about by mixing Muay Thai with the native "Luta Livre" grappling styles of Brazil. Many of the instructors of Chute Boxe, the premier Muay Thai training center of Brazil, had also been Taekwondo blackbelts before falling in love with Thai boxing. As a result many Brazilian nak muay pick up [[HurricaneKick complicated spinning kicks]] alongside the normal MT repertoire. While these kicks are [[AwesomeButImpractical normally low percentage moves]] Brazilian nak muay still manage to frequently land them by combining them with the more linear but practical tactics of Muay Thai [[DifficultButAwesome often leading to spectacular K.O.s]].

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/muay_thai.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:A thick head can do as much damage as a hard heart.]]

There is sometimes the misconception that Muay Thai is a martial art in the sense that Karate, Kung Fu and Kali are martial arts, when it is more of a combat sport in the vein of boxing or wrestling, albeit more tradional and ritualistic. There are innumerable self defense benefits to the conditioning from training and the appllication of techniques, but like boxing and wrestling, it is not optimised or designed for complete self defense and has no intention to be such a style. There is no throwing, groundfighting, or training to fight with or against weapons, though these did exist in Muay Boran prior to the establishment of Muay Thai. The focus is to be victorious within the rules and arenas of Muay Thai, and its applications in self defense are potent but purely incidental. There are other descendents of Muay Boran, such as Muay Chaiya from Southern Thailand, that have the mindset of being more traditional, complete martial arts, but some of these styles have faded into obscurity with the rise of Muay Thai. There is also Muay Lerdrit, a system developed by combining Muay Thai with other Muay styles and [[CombatPragmatist realistic combat application]] to create a modern military martial art, which is currently used to train the Royal Armed Forces.

There is sometimes the misconception that Muay Thai is a martial art in the sense that Karate, Kung Fu and Kali are martial arts, when it is more of a combat sport in the vein of boxing or wrestling, albeit more tradional and ritualistic. There are innumerable self defense benefits to the conditioning from training and the appllication of techniques, but like boxing and wrestling, it is not optimised or designed for complete self defense and has no intention to be such a style. There is no throwing, groundfighting, or training to fight with or against weapons, though these did exist in Muay Boran prior to the establishment of Muay Thai. The focus is to be victorious within the rules and arenas of Muay Thai, and its applications in self defense are potent but purely incidental. There are other descendents of Muay Boran, such as Muay Chaiya from Southern Thailand, that have the mindset of being more traditional, complete martial arts, but some of these styles have faded into obscurity with the rise of Muay Thai. There is also Muay Lerdrit, a system developed by combining Muay Thai with other Muay styles and [[CombatPragmatist realistic combat application]] to create a modern military martial art, which is currently used to train the RoyalArmedForces.

Muay Thai has cousins throughout Southeast Asia in the form of other stand-up, kickboxing styles with clinching and knee/elbow strikes, with similar but distinct techniques and rules. These include Tomoi from Malaysia, Muay Lao [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin from Laos]], Pradal Serey from Cambodia and Lethwei from UsefulNotes/ThatSouthEastAsianCountry, all of which appear to be related to Musti Yuddha, or ancient Indian boxing. The heritage and development of these related but unique styles is a subject of heated debate and national pride to some, but Muay Thai is indisputably the dominant style internationally.

There is sometimes the misconception that Muay Thai is a martial art in the sense that Karate, Kung Fu and Kali are martial arts, when it is more of a combat sport in the vein of boxing or wrestling, albeit more tradional and ritualistic. There are innumerable self defense benefits to the conditioning from training and the appllication of techniques, but like boxing and wrestling, it is not optimised or designed for complete self defense and has no intention to be such a style. There is no throwing, groundfighting, or training to fight with or against weapons, though these did exist in Muay Boran prior to the establishment of Muay Thai. The focus is to be victorious within the rules and arenas of Muay Thai, and its applications in self defense are potent but purely incidental. There are other descendents of Muay Boran, such as Muay Chaiya from Southern Thailand, that have the mindset of being more traditional, complete martial arts, but some of these styles have faded into obscurity with the rise of Muay Thai. There is also Muay Lerdrit, a system developed by combining Muay Thai with other Muay styles and [[((CombatPragmatist)) realistic combat application]] to create a modern military martial art, which is currently used to train the Thai military.

Muay Thai has cousins throughout Southeast Asia in the form of other stand-up, kickboxing styles with clinching and knee/elbow strikes, with similar but distinct techniques and rules. These include Tomoi from Malaysia, Muay Lao [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin from Laos]], Pradal Serey from Cambodia and Lethwei from ThatSouthEastAsianCountry, all of which appear to be related tl Musti Yuddha, or ancient Indian boxing. The heritage and development of these related but unique styles is a subject of heated debate and national pride to some, but Muay Thai is indisputably the dominant style internationally.

In our modern popular culture, muay thai became known mainly thanks to the rise of professional kickboxing and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts, in which it soon established itself as the crown jewel of striking styles due to its flexibility, efficiency and physical preparation. However, you may possibly know it thanks to film star and notable exponent Tony Jaa, who gave us films like ''Film/OngBak''.

* ArrogantKungFuGuy: Actually encouraged to some point by Thai culture. In a muay thai match, it’s correct and sometimes obliged to celebrate immediately after scoring a dump or a knockdown, as it eases scoring count by separating intentional techniques from accidental falls. It doesn’t extend to the Buddhist ceremonial performed before the matches, however.

Note that "muay thai" and "kickboxing" are often used interchangeably, but reality is much more complicated. While muay thai is a form of kickboxing, technically speaking, it contains a set of moves, rules and cultural practices that are tied solely to the style practiced in Thailand. The rising popularity of the art caused that many forms of Western kickboxing are called by this name, which adds confusion when said forms are dissimilar and/or unrelated at all to the Thai source (good examples are the Dutch and Japanese schools).

* AttackAttackAttack: Muay thai (at least its classic, true Thai style) is a heavily committed style based on maximizing every attack. They twist the entire body to kick, step in when throwing knees, and whip around their elbows to strike; their usual course of action is plodding forward and exchanging blows to the very end.
** The "Brazilian" style (Or ''Chute Boxe'' style, named after one of the most influential MT gyms in Brazil) is known for this. Aggressive, beserker, brawling style, with wild punch combinations and somewhat unsophisticated clinch game focusing on taking the ‘double collar tie’ position in order to smash a knee into the opponents’ face. Mostly used in UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts and used mostly by fighters such as Wanderlei Silva.

* HandwrapsOfAwesome: The traditional hand protection of the sport was the ''kaad chuek'', a rope bound around the hand in the shape of a glove, which served both to protect the knuckles and to lacerate further the opponent. It has been largely replaced by regular boxing gloves nowadays, but Tony Jaa has made them a trademark on his ''Ong-Bak'' film series.
* HonorBeforeReason: In Thailand it’s believed that moving backwards, side-to-side or simply to evade an attack is contrary to the spirit of muay thai; the "right" strategy is charge forward and absorb all the enemy hits that cannot be blocked or checked.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Foreign schools of muay thai often added influences from the native martial arts of their countries resulting in related but distinct types of muay thai. This is most clearly seen in it's two largest derivatives, the Dutch and Japanese schools. Dutch muay thai is characterized by carrying heavy influences from European boxing and Kyokushin karate, and it places a huge emphasis on footwork and punching combinations. Japanese muay thai takes the heaviest influence from Kyokushin and other forms of karate and favors flashier kicks and longer combinations than what a traditional nak muay would consider practical. Both shy away from clinch, elbow, and knee techniques, often because the governing bodies of kickboxing in their countries don't allow them.

** The "Brazilian" style (Or ''Chute Boxe'' style, named after one of the most influential MT gyms in Brazil) is known for this. Aggressive, Beserker, brawling style, Wild punch combinations and somewhat Unsophisticated clinch game focusing on taking the ‘double collar tie’ position in order to smash a knee into the opponents’ face. Mostly used in UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts and used mostly by fighters such as Wanderlei Silva.

Its origin can be traced to the ancient Siamese jungles, where a style called ''Muay Boran'' ("ancient boxing") was created for ceremonial purposes and self-defense. It was first highlighted in legendary battles against the nearby kingdom of Burma. The sport of muay thai as we know it came to be at the beginning of 19th century, when kings Rama V and VII codified its rules, introducing gloves and rings like British boxing. By this way, muay thai became a very popular and culturally-tied form of prizefighting, and built its center on Bangkok, where its violent and bloody matches started taking place on the now famed Lumpinee Stadium.

In our modern popular culture, muay thai became known mainly thanks to the rise of professional kickboxing and UsefulNotes/MixedMartialArts, where it soon established itself as the crown jewel of striking styles due to its flexibility, efficiency and physical preparation, but you may possibly know it thanks to film star and notable exponent Tony Jaa, who gave us films like ''Film/OngBak''.

Note that "muay thai" and "kickboxing" are often used interchangeably, but reality is much more complicated. While muay thai is a form of kickboxing, technically speaking, it contains a set of moves, rules and cultural practices which are tied solely to the style practiced in Thailand. The rising popularity of the art caused that many forms of Western kickboxing were called by this name, which adds confusion when said forms are dissimilar and/or unrelated at all to the Thai source, most notably the Dutch and Japanese schools.

* ArrogantKungFuGuy: Actually encouraged to some point by Thai culture. In a muay thai match, it’s correct and sometimes obliged to celebrate immediately after scoring a dump or a knockdown. It doesn’t extend to the Buddhist ceremonial performed before the matches, however.
* AttackAttackAttack: Muay thai (at least its classic, true Thai style) is a heavily committed style, based on maximizing every attack. They twist the entire body to kick, step in when throwing knees, and whip around their elbows to strike, and their usual course of action is plodding forward and exchanging blows to the very end.
* BoringButPractical: The ''teep'' or pushing front kick is a basic technique, but instrumental to control the range and set up attacks.
** The Low kick is, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a low kick that targets the opponents legs.]] It's not the prettiest or most impressive move but it's relatively easy to perform, easy to regain balance from should one miss, difficult to properly counter, and hits like a ton of bricks when done properly. The damage it does to an opponents legs will cut down their mobility and severely decrease their punching power. Of all the different [[RoundhouseKick kinds]] of [[HurricaneKick kicks]] out there it's the one with the best risk-reward ratio. Whole fights have been won with nothing but proper Low Kicks.
* ChallengeSeeker: Challenges to other striking disciplines were common in the 1970s when the muay thai community was internationalized. Specially notable were the challenge matches between Thai boxers and Chinese kung fu practitioners, in which the latter group ended up being wrecked in minutes.
* CombatPragmatist: Played with. Nak muay are expected to overpower their opponents in an orthodox way, with things like evasive movement and even leg kicks being considered dishonorable, but on the other hand, they are taught to capitalize on every opening to land a devastating blow.

* GoodOldFisticuffs: Inverted. Punches are the least scoring kind of strike in Thailand, which is why Thai fighters usually don't put much emphasis on training their Western boxing; they focus their handfighting on the inside of the clinch, where it is more useful.

* HonorBeforeReason: In Thailand it’s believed that moving backwards, side-to-side or simply to evade an attack is contrary to the spirit of muay thai; the "right" strategy is charge forward and absorb all the enemy hits which cannot be blocked or checked.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: Foreign schools of Muay Thai often added influences from the native Martial Arts of their countries resulting in related but distinct types of Muay Thai. This is most clearly seen in it's two largest derivatives, the Dutch and Japanese schools. Dutch Muay Thai is characterized by heavy influence from European boxing and Kyokushin Karate and often places more emphasis on footwork and punching combinations. Japanese Muay Thai takes the heaviest influence from Kyokushin and other forms of Karate and favors flashier kicks and longer combinations than what a traditional Nak Muay would consider practical. Both shy away from clinch, elbow, and knee techniques; often because the governing bodies of kickboxing in their countries don't allow it.
* MadeOfIron: Fighting in muay thai requires a solid conditioning, a very high pain tolerance and specially being tough as freaking nails.

* TykeBomb: Thai boxers usually learn muay thai from a very young age, in most cases in order to avoid poverty and secure an income. Many of them debut in rings with gloves and full contact rules when they have just learned walking, and some have ''hundreds'' of pro fights before they are teenage.

Practitioners of the sport are called ''Nak Muay''. The uniform consists solely of shorts, gloves and sometimes footwraps.

** The Low kick is, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin a low kick that targets the opponents legs.]] It's not the prettiest or most impressive move but it's relatively easy to perform, easy to regain balance from should one miss, difficult to properly counter, and hits like a ton of bricks when done properly. The damage it does to an opponents legs will cut down their mobility and severely decrease their punching power. Whole fights have been won with nothing but proper Low Kicks.

** The Low kick is, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTina low kick that targets the opponents legs.]] It's not the prettiest or most impressive move but it's relatively easy to perform, easy to regain balance from should one miss, difficult to properly counter, and hits like a ton of bricks when done properly. The damage it does to an opponents legs will cut down their mobility and severely decrease their punching power. Whole fights have been won with nothing but proper Low Kicks.

** The Low kick is, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin]a low kick that targets the opponents legs.]] It's not the prettiest or most impressive move but it's relatively easy to perform, easy to regain balance from should one miss, difficult to properly counter, and hits like a ton of bricks when done properly. The damage it does to an opponents legs will cut down their mobility and severely decrease their punching power. Whole fights have been won with nothing but proper Low Kicks.

* InNameOnly: As said above, sportsmen in Europe often call "muay thai" to their own developed styles of liberal rules kickboxing, but it doesn’t come originally from it. What is called the Dutch school of muay thai, quite popular in K-1 and MMA, is actually a smart mixture of Kyokushin Karate and Western boxing created with Thai boxing in mind.

* AttackAttackAttack: Muay thai (at least its classic, true Thai style) is a heavily committed style, based on maximizing every attack. They twist the entire body to kick, step in when throwing knees, and whip around their elbows to strike; the course of action is plodding forward and exchanging blows until the very end.

‘’’Muay Thai’’’ (translated as "Thai boxing") is a Thai martial art and combat sport. Also known as "the art of eight limbs", it stands out as an aggressive style of striking based on the usage of fists, elbows, knees and shins/feet, complete with some throws and sweeps.