Why is Muay Thai not as big as MMA (UFC, Bellator) or Boxing?

Wtf seriously how is kicking chicken shit?. It's almost the man most if not the most natural effective move for any species on the planet, your a fucking idiot my friend.
 
kuka45 may be extreme but he's pretty close to the truth.

The sport has potential but it's too boring because of the rulesets, tactics, limited weight classes etc.
I'm just casual fan. Don't be too serious about my opinion.
Probably guys you train this sport etc. It's beautiful combat sport, but when you know rules ( I know nothing about US rules, I'm not from US). I was really confused when I watched few first fights (with stadium rules I guess).
 
Mind boggles me that you have one sport that's limited to using just hands and the other extreme (multiple disciplines) can be so mainstream. While a sport like Muay Thai isn't.

Not sure if this has been discussed but is it more of a culture thing?

Kickboxing (and Glory style rules) is huge in Eurasia and more specifically the South east of Asia and eastern Asia and then key parts of Europe like the Netherlands and Russia.

Muay Thai is just big in the SE Asia. Id attribute that to its lack of pure practice by European kickboxers and the fact that giant kickboxing organizations like Glory or the late K1 do not and did not allow full Muay Thai rules (trips, elbows, unlimited clinching,). Glory and K1 rules is basically international kickboxing (all kicks and punches legal) with the addition of knees and limited use of clinching.

I'd also attribute it to the fact MMA advertising has eclipsed Muay Thai and kickboxing globally.


Boxing is dying fast and MMA vía the UFC namely will sooner than later obliterate boxing. And be the most popular combat sport.

Id imagine when that happens that kickboxing (puré striking) will grow as a more powerful niche for people who want only stand up fights. But make no mistake about it so many casual mma fans and UFC fans want to see pure stand up fights and dislike grappling especially when it pertains to a mma fight that is heavily grappling based.

What is needed is a power player like WME to promote kickboxing. Personally what I would do if I was WME is id buy Glory and change the name keep the rules or maybe add elbows and then promote Glory kickboxing fights during UFC shows.

The two can only help one another. No way does a more limited fighting sport eclipse MMA. But their is room for kickboxing.


As far as Thai boxing goes. I think we will just have to wait. For the time being and fotrseeable future it seems the big organizations find it more appealing to go with old K1 rules. Excessive clinching can be boring to casual fans and elbows can be messy/cause cuts.
 
Just to quantify some of these general discussion points:

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Interesting that Latvia, Azerbajan, Moldova, and Tunisia prefer kickboxing to MMA and boxing. Seems odd that the Dutch and the Thais search about boxing more than kickboxing or muay thai. Laos the one country that searches MT more than anything else. I wouldnt be surprised if there were some complications which have skewed the data.

This has to be wrong

kuka45 may be extreme but he's pretty close to the truth.

The sport has potential but it's too boring because of the rulesets, tactics, limited weight classes etc.

what? Muay Thai has too many weight classes.

Glory and K1 have and had the right approach.

Wtf seriously how is kicking chicken shit?. It's almost the man most if not the most natural effective move for any species on the planet, your a fucking idiot my friend.

The teep kick is like one of the best tactics in a street fight. The only kick you should use, just aiming lower towards the center body rather than high. Elbows are also the bomb as are knees.
 
I've read reports that Verhoeven, Levin and Holzken have networths in the 1-3 million dollar range. Maybe that's wrong. If they do have that of wealth, given that the sport is not yet particularly big in America, it means someone in Europe and Asia is watching and getting on board. Those kind of earnings can be massive incentives for future waves of top tier talent in kickboxing, whether it be Muay Thai in its purist form or a Euro hybrid. Particularly since lower socio economic classes in Russia, the Netherlands and elsewhere are often poorer, and in Russia, WAY poorer, than lower class Americans.
 
This has to be wrong



what? Muay Thai has too many weight classes.

Glory and K1 have and had the right approach.



The teep kick is like one of the best tactics in a street fight. The only kick you should use, just aiming lower towards the center body rather than high. Elbows are also the bomb as are knees.

What I meant was it's mostly smaller guys competing in Muay Thai, that's where all the talent is. They need equally great LHW's and HW's in order for this sport to grow.
 
Kickboxing (and Glory style rules) is huge in Eurasia and more specifically the South east of Asia and eastern Asia and then key parts of Europe like the Netherlands and Russia.

Muay Thai is just big in the SE Asia. Id attribute that to its lack of pure practice by European kickboxers and the fact that giant kickboxing organizations like Glory or the late K1 do not and did not allow full Muay Thai rules (trips, elbows, unlimited clinching,). Glory and K1 rules is basically international kickboxing (all kicks and punches legal) with the addition of knees and limited use of clinching.

I'd also attribute it to the fact MMA advertising has eclipsed Muay Thai and kickboxing globally.


Boxing is dying fast and MMA vía the UFC namely will sooner than later obliterate boxing. And be the most popular combat sport.

Id imagine when that happens that kickboxing (puré striking) will grow as a more powerful niche for people who want only stand up fights. But make no mistake about it so many casual mma fans and UFC fans want to see pure stand up fights and dislike grappling especially when it pertains to a mma fight that is heavily grappling based.

What is needed is a power player like WME to promote kickboxing. Personally what I would do if I was WME is id buy Glory and change the name keep the rules or maybe add elbows and then promote Glory kickboxing fights during UFC shows.

The two can only help one another. No way does a more limited fighting sport eclipse MMA. But their is room for kickboxing.


As far as Thai boxing goes. I think we will just have to wait. For the time being and fotrseeable future it seems the big organizations find it more appealing to go with old K1 rules. Excessive clinching can be boring to casual fans and elbows can be messy/cause cuts.
I'm a bigger MMA and kickboxing fan but I also watch boxing. Boxing is in no way shape or form dying. Big boxing events and fighter purses dwarf MMA & kickboxing events and fighter purses and there is a ton of boxing all over tv and the internet on an almost daily basis. The biggest combat sports event ever is about to take place this month and that's a boxing card.
 
Culture, MMA douchebag culture, cause like they are wearing small gloves bro. I dont train, but I never lost a street fight bro. training "UFC" is just like a street fight broOoOo. He bro, lets go get some more beers, hook me up with a cig, sweet tapout shirt.
 
Boxing will still be around, naturally, but after Floyd and Manny are done with fighting, including any time of cross promotional or one time coming out of retirement type of fights, who does boxing have left whose anywhere near as recognizable to those who don't closely follow boxing? Currently, someone who doesn't specifically look to boxing sites and talk/coverage shows is not for the life of them going to be able to name the top 10 p4p pro boxers. And may not be able to name any active pro boxers other than Floyd or Manny; Wlad Klitschko and Anthony Joshua maybe but that's about it.

So I think pro kickboxing is going to have some serious challenges down the line but they will be universal to every combat sport in the near future. I think for various possible reasons there's gonna be a rigid ceiling on public interest for any professional activity consisting of fighting in an arena until one guy isn't able to fight or gets beat after a time limit.
 
Boxing will still be around, naturally, but after Floyd and Manny are done with fighting, including any time of cross promotional or one time coming out of retirement type of fights, who does boxing have left whose anywhere near as recognizable to those who don't closely follow boxing? Currently, someone who doesn't specifically look to boxing sites and talk/coverage shows is not for the life of them going to be able to name the top 10 p4p pro boxers. And may not be able to name any active pro boxers other than Floyd or Manny; Wlad Klitschko and Anthony Joshua maybe but that's about it.

So I think pro kickboxing is going to have some serious challenges down the line but they will be universal to every combat sport in the near future. I think for various possible reasons there's gonna be a rigid ceiling on public interest for any professional activity consisting of fighting in an arena until one guy isn't able to fight or gets beat after a time limit.
Boxing is doing fine and doesn't need Floyd and Pac. Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua are two new interesting HWs, Andre Ward is bigger than ever, the winner of Canelo vs GGG will become a superstar, Crawford and Lomachenko both have awesome careers ahead of them.
 
That's a complete misrepresentation, and regardless Muay Thai in the US isn't scored like the stadiums anyways...
For sure, muay thai over here is just Kickboxing with elbows let's face it. I doubt that the scoring has shit to do with its popularity, trends fluctuate for no apparent reason here, it's more or less by luck that mma became popular, two rich cats bought a redneck fight club and took a gamble on making a reality show. As luck would have it reality tv shows were all the rage, that is why we still have the ufc. You never know kickboxing and muaythai can break through, the fact it's still on TV here and more and more cards are going on is a good sign.
 
Kickboxing (and Glory style rules) is huge in Eurasia and more specifically the South east of Asia and eastern Asia and then key parts of Europe like the Netherlands and Russia.
I think you're grossly overestimating its popularity in those places by and large
 
1) MT is not marketed in the West
2) Stadium-rules MT is a niche combat sport with many, many idiosyncracies which are not intuitive to western combat sport fans
3) The "cosmetic" side will not appeal to the typical combat sport fan in the West. I am talking about the Wai Kru, the pink silk shorts, the ribbons on the arms, etc.

I personally like stadium MT just fine as it is, and would not want it to change for western fans. But as it is, stadium MT would never, ever be popular in the West.

EDIT : just wanted to add that the best bet would be to tilt Glory towards MT with unlimited clinching and elbows, while keeping the scoring system intact in its philosophy.

But stadium-rules MT will never, ever in 1,000 years be popular in the West.
 
Boxing is Western Boxing, so culturally its established. Its also awesome.

Boxing is much more popular in the UK now than it was when I started watching in the early 00s. i hear it was bigger in the 80s and 90s due to terrestrial television, but Arenas are regularly sold out here for boxing cards.

UFC is also big, and will sell out easily. Outside of the UFC though im not sure how popular MMA is. Both are cult sports in comparison with Football, Cricket, Rugby etc.
 
Muay Thai is as cool as it gets to practice but I don't think is the best martial art to watch on TV.

Also, the music...
 
The reason that stick out to me is lack of famous us pratitioners No one to teach meaning no one can learn it and the only place I can really think of to learn it are Vegas California and maybe New York area any where else it's going to be a weird mma/ kickboxing style striking called muay thai at best .
 
MMA is the #1 fight sport in terms of entertainment. It's a lot more fun to watch than any other fight sports. Also MMA is the most effective in a hand-to-hand street fight.
 
MMA is the #1 fight sport in terms of entertainment. It's a lot more fun to watch than any other fight sports. Also MMA is the most effective in a hand-to-hand street fight.
That's completely subjective and the whole street fighting angle is a moot point and debatable in circumstances. I doubt anybody is concerned about street fighting other than shitty thread making Sherdog posters...
 
MMA is the #1 fight sport in terms of entertainment. It's a lot more fun to watch than any other fight sports. Also MMA is the most effective in a hand-to-hand street fight.
Bullshit. WWE and boxing piss all over MMA in entertainment. It may be your number 1 (it's mine) but it isn't collectively. Ratings, merchandise and money.
 
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