This past Saturday, January 29th in Sterling, VA marked the start of a new MuayThai Fight Series, "THAI CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING". The event featured 34 amateur fighters in 17 action-packed MuayThai matches! The arena was sold out... standing room only! The crowd was loud as hell, with everyone cheering on their fighters enthusiastically!
This event, being a "smoker" (unsanctioned event), used modified MuayThai rules. In this instance, no elbows permitted to the head, though knee strikes to the head were permitted. The officiating followed genuine Thai scoring criteria as used in Thailand. All in all, the event was really well received and the fighters, coaches, and crowd seemed to really enjoy the experience.
As one of the event organizers, I am calling upon the MuayThai community to do their part in helping this, and other, local MuayThai event series grow! Though this event was a sell-out, there were many notable faces missing from the crowd whom one would hope would have come to support the event.
Believe me, I understand! When your own fighters, friends, or training partners are not competing in an event, you are much less motivated to spend the time and money to see others fight...
...BUT...
I implore all of you to see the bigger picture! The more support you give by attending your local fight promotions, the more often these events are able to be scheduled. This in turn gives the local fighters more (and better!) opportunities to compete and advance in not only the local rankings, but regional and national rankings as well!
One of the most important features of supporting your local MuayThai community is the fact that we are making a concerted effort to promote MuayThai the way it is actually fought in Thailand! We offer full Thai rules matches for amateurs, whereas many jurisdictions don't even permit professional fighters to compete that way! We apply the actual Thai scoring procedures, judging in favor of fighters who show the genuine Thai style of fighting rather than rewarding a fighter who kickboxes using Thai techniques.
Despite the groundwork we have laid out, this is still a work in progress. Our officials, though having received formal training in proper MuayThai scoring and officiating, still lack experience. This experience can only come from continued practice judging real events. Also, I was frequently stopped by members of the audience and asked to explain judges decisions... why did a particular fighter win rather than his opponent? I did my best to explain how MuayThai is scored, and believe that they left with a better understanding of our sport.
We have an opportunity here for the local fighters and fans to grow in the sport together. This is why we need the continued support of everyone in the MuayThai community. Please come to the events, support your local fighters, and learn as much as you can about the genuine Thai-style of fighting.
Together, we can make this one of the strongest MuayThai fight scenes in all of North America!
As always, it was a pleasure to fight and have fighters at your event. Even though I performed horribly, it was a great experience. Piankhi was also stoked
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