Rawai Muay Thai Camp

[obsessed]

Just bored so I"m surfing the web, and I came across a camp that trains you for 6+ hours a day in Thailand. They advertise professional fighter quality in a few months (well, obviously it varies).

On their site they say on average, a fighter in thailand will have 50 professional fights under his belt by the time he is 18. My question is, how do these guys compare with fighters in this country?

If they are pro at 18, that must mean they train as children. When they get to their prime, how do they compare to others around the world? There's not much muscle on them either, so how much power can they generate?

Here's the site: thailandmuaythai.com

Obsessed

[ReactNeverCalml]

It common knowledge that the Thai fighters are the best at Muay Thai. Considering it is their national sport and is a way of life and survival for many Thais its not suprising. Thailand is the mecca of Muay Thai and many fighters around the globe travel to Thailand to train and fight. I don't know what country your from but basically there is no comparison between training in Thailand to training Muay Thai anywhere else in the world. I highly reccommend it.

[obsessed]

But you didn't answer my question: how do these guys compare to the fighters we have in our country?

I'm not too familiar with fighting in general, since I'm just starting, but how do people who become champions in this country compare to those trained in Muay Thai in Thailand?

[Khun Kao]

To answer your questions, Thailand has & still does produce some of the best champions in the world, both in MuayThai and in Boxing.

Buakaw has completely DOMINATED the K-1 Kickboxing world since he debuted in 2004...

Yodsanklai Fairtex won the 1st WBC MuayThai world title...

Plus Thailand has produced some of the worlds best boxers (in the lower weights, of course). Such as Samart, Kaosoi, Samson, Nanfa, Somluk....

Their fighters are aguably superior to ours. I honestly don't feel that its because the individuals are better fighters, but because they have superior training. The best trainers are in Thailand. The Thai culture supports there being what I refer to as a MuayThai "Farm-system". Many children literally grow up within a MuayThai camp... They train for a few hours early in the day, then they go to school (or work), then they train for a few hours again in the evening. They do this 6 days a week!

Here, we simply don't have a system in place to support it. Even though I truly believe we have some phenomenal MuayThai coaches, they aren't the elite trainers that are in Thailands professional camps. There simply aren't the opportunities for competition, which is where a fighters skills are really refined.

As said, in Thailand fighters average approx. 50 fights by the time they are 18 but here in the States you'd be lucky to have 50 fights in a lifetime. I was a fighter over the course of 12 years and I only was able to get 15 fights total.

TO CLARIFY: I fought in 1993-1994, then was 'forced' into retirement after my 8th fight because there was simply no one left for me to fight.

I tried (in vain) to get fights for the next 4-5 years, finally giving up after having to compete in some Full-Contact Kickboxing events just to get ringtime (I did poorly in FC because I could never get over my urge to clinch and lowkick, LOL). There simply weren't any Thai fights to be had anywhere that had fighters of my experience. Coaches would not let me fight their novices.

Then I stopped training for a few years until I noticed that the fight scene had FINALLY started back up (around 1999-2000). I slowly worked myself back into the gym and fight training, finally returning to the ring in 2004. I had a busy year. I actually competed in 5 events though I had been scheduled in 8 events. The last 3 events fell through for various reasons. One event came up on too short of notice for me to get the time off of work to participate, and in the other 2 events my opponents backed out (one specifically decided to "retire" rather than fight me).

Of the 5 events I did participate in, the last 3 were total debacles! Two of them were total weight mismatches (I gave up 20 lbs in one, 40 lbs in another), and in my last one my opponent injured himself while warming up and couldn't fight, so the promoter LITERALLY found someone in the audience to get in the ring and act as a sacrificial lamb.

After that, I was too old (35 y.o.) and too banged up to keep putting myself through the fight training regimen for more debacles and mismatches, so I hung up the gloves for good.

Sorry for the LOOOOOOONG tangent, but I really wanted to illustrate why its so difficult for a North American fighter to get adequate (quality) ringtime and experience to be competitive on a National or International level. There are some great fighters who have been able to succeed, but they are the exception to the rule.

[sportmuaythai]

To summarize:

There simply aren't the opportunities for competition, which is where a fighters skills are really refined.

TO CLARIFY: the fight scene had FINALLY started back up (around 1999-2000). I slowly worked myself back into the gym and fight training, finally returning to the ring in 2004. I had a busy year. I actually competed in 5 events

There must be frequent fight opportunity, and the fight must pay sustainable purse. Eventually, you'll have elite trainers of your own. They need not be Thais. Just coach with good eyes and brain, and experienced pad man and clinchers (not the bike tyres lol).

[thailand]

fighting

It is normal of many fighting time in Thailand .
Because almost of Thai fighters have trained muay thai since 8 - 15 years old.
Then someone have more 100 time of fighting when he is just 16 year . This is normal case in Thailand . Because this is national sport . It is same as other sport as Tennis or football , the good player is possible to 16 -19 years old .
Because in Thailand have fighting program every day in many provinced .
So some Thail fighters when he stop or retire he have 200 time of fighting , that is possible .
At suwit camp , some fighters they fight more 100 times .
web site : http://www.BestMuayThai.com

the problem is almost Thai people is not big . If we have big weight , you will see good fighters from Thailand in K-1 or heavy western boxing . Because in boxing Olympic we have gold medals , but just small weight .