Has MT Stagnated In Thailand?

[wullie]

I could be completely wrong (it's happened once before ) but it seems that while the rest of the kickboxing world competes against each other and evolves accordingly MT in Thailand appears to have stagnated, by this I mean that it no longer holds up as well against the rest of the worlds kickboxers where as it used to be the top dog.

If I were a youngster again I would be heading to Holland to learn Muay Thai rather than Thailand.

[curlbroscience]

Maybe the rest of the world is catching up to the talent level in Thailand MT? I know that in my neck of the woods we have been blessed by a couple of transplants with international fight stage experience. This was not the case even 2 years ago and the amount of events hosted now is so much greater. I can only imagine 5 years from now the level of MT.

If I were a youngster I would still go to Thailand, but would also go to Holland as well. Sort of like going to Japan for Tokyo and Okinawa.

D.) All of the above on my bucket list.

[wullie]

I don't know about just catching up with the talent level, it's more that whereas MT say in Holland has evolved and taken onboard things from other styles in Thailand they are left behind

[meguro]

Is it that holland, or other places, are taking better advantage of the rules? Or are competition rules changing elsewhere but not in Thailand? Are physical training methods better than in Thailand? I don't know enough about the sport.

[wullie]

Oct 26, 2013 6:57:45 GMT -5 meguro said:

Is it that holland, or other places, are taking better advantage of the rules? Or are competition rules changing elsewhere but not in Thailand? Are physical training methods better than in Thailand? I don't know enough about the sport.

IMO it's that other places are taking better advantage of the rules as the international rules haven't changed much

[Tay]

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I thought I'd share an interesting video on the topic.
It's an interview of one of the legends of Muay Thai about the current state of Muay Thai:


Also, in my opinion Thai fighters are still the best at Muay Thai and clearly a level above the rest of the world. The top of the divisions are still massively dominated by the Thais, unless we're talking about heavier weight classes where the talent pool is lesser and where there are typically less Thais. (the Thais usually fight at lower weight classes)

If we're talking about K-1 rules, then the Dutch have been dominating the sport for the last 20 years and are still dominating today. It's mostly because their style is heavily based on Muay Thai but with great use of Western Boxing and combinations which fits perfectly to the agressive style needed for a 3 rounds fight (K-1 rules) compared to a 5 rounds fight where clinching is allowed (Thai rules).

If we generalise, the Dutch fighters tend to have better boxing and use more combinations compared to the Thais who usually have better clinch, strikes from the clinch, and throws.