Muay Thai or Thai Boxing is a well-known fighting style, and it is also used for health and wellness purposes.
People travel to Thailand to maintain their health and fitness by learning this art but many of newbies always aks if muay Thai is a brutal combat sport or not.
Is Muay Thai brutal?
Seem from an inexpert eye, muay thai may seem as brutal combat sports, but in reality, the fighters that make part of this fighting events are well trained and protected by the rules.
Since it is an art of 8 limbs, it needs full-body exercise that helps fighters stay in shape and good health.
How intense is Muay Thai?
Like every combat sport, Muay Thai fighters use rope skipping for warming them up, and it also strengthens the fighter’s ankles, knees, wrists, and feet, and makes those parts resilient to injury during a fight.
Then sparring sessions and gym practices, and shadowboxing strengthen those parts at the next level and bring the best version of a person out of them.
Kicking, punching, squats, sprints, etc, not only make a person physically well and strengthen their mental health and self-confidence. Thailand natives call Muay Thai more than a fighting discipline by calling it a lifestyle, as it is part of their cultural activities.
Due to staying active continuously, Muay Thai also helps one’s nerve and brain function, and overtime, fighter’s various body parts work harmoniously.
Can be dangerous learn Muay Thai?
After learning this art, people become more confident, and they easily handle any situation of a street fight or bullying by mobs or goons.
So here we came to know that Muay Thai is good for health and wellness along with Self-Defense.
To know how brutal sport it is, we need to learn about the History of Muay Thai and the purposes behind its creation, then we will see the fighting disciplines of it and then purposes of learning this sports.
Why Muay Thai is Brutal?
Muay Thai or Thai Boxing was used to train the army person and public to handle their enemies without any sort of weapon.
It was intended to keep the action going in situations where a soldier is unarmed due to any reason on a battlefield.
Nai Khanom Tom was the man who took Muay Thai to another level and used it as a lethal weapon during the fight of armies.
Khanom was a Thai soldier who became a war prisoner in Burma. He claimed his freedom after beating the soldiers of the Burmese army in a freestyle match without any weapon this tournament took place on the order of Burma’s king.
So the art that would be developed for war purposes where the target is to kill the opponents is how brutal that art would be? That would be the deadliest one. In short, since Muay Thai was developed for the wars, it is a brutal sport.
Let me tell you one more point, Sambo, a Russian native fighting discipline, was built on the same base; to train the Russian army personnel, and Sambo is one of the most dangerous combat sports in the world as well.
Reasons Why Muay Thai is A Brutal Comabat Sport
Muay Thai is a full-body contact fighting style where 8 limbs – Hands, Elbows, Feet, and Knees – are used as lethal weapons to injure the opponents during a bout, street fight, or war.
We see how dangerous a lever shot is; many fighters suffered rib injuries with a single lever shot like Gennady “GGG” Golovkin did to Mathew “The Knife” Macklin.
Is Muay Thai more Brutal than boxing?
Now, if we imagine a well-timed knee to the rib, that’s more painful and devastating than a boxing punch with gloves on. Holding an opponent and landing a knee to the ribs is at the next level and adds more brutality in Muay Thai.
While holding an opponent during a strike, one is forcing the other to absorb more pain. Because without holding, the intensity of a shot is reduced due to the torque or momentum after the impact.
Elbows Contribute To make Muay Thai Brutal
Furthermore, Muay Thai fighters throw elbows during a confrontation, and an elbow landed on a jaw can not only break it but due to head-snapping effects after the collision, it can break the neck bone of the opponent. That’s about using knees and elbows.
And injuries caused by kicks and punches can be verified by a boxing or kickboxing match. We are aware of the fighters dying during or after a bout, such as Ed Sanders, Benny Paret, Frankie Campbell, and many more.
In 1954, 22 boxers were killed due to boxing fights, and to date, there are just too many deaths, injuries, or damages caused by boxing.
Brutal Punches of Muay Thai
So those punches of boxing and kickboxing are also a part of Muay Thai, and bare-knuckles or less cushioned gloves make it worse and more dangerous.
The Brutal Kick Used In Muay Thai
Finally, about the Muay Thai kicks, let me share a verifiable fact with you, a well-timed and perfectly landed roundhouse Muay Thai kick causes as much pain as hitting someone with a baseball bat.
So that’s the level of brutality especially designed for a Muay Thai fighter or an old Thailand soldier.
In a recent indecent, a young Muay Thai fighter died after a taking blow that sent him into the ground during an exhibition bout in Samut Prakan, Thailand, on November 10, 2020.
It was a 41-pound weight fight, and Anucha Thasako was knocked out cold during the third round of the fight by his opponent. The fighter was taken to the Phra Pradaeng district hospital, but he could not survive.
So that’s about an exhibition match where there are some restrictions and limitations. How about a professional bout or a street fight or a war situation?
Can Muay Thai May Be used For Self Defense?
Along with offense, Muay Thai is the best for self-defense purposes where a person can easily handle goons, bullies, and or robbers.
It is about gaining rhythm by moving with great footwork to catch the momentum of a fight, and once he gains the rhythm, he can start throwing his flurries of different strikes where the opponents have no option other them going into the defensive mode. Hence, Muay Thai is action-packed with offense and defense.
Furthermore, Muay Thai is also learned for the purposes of health and fitness. People visit Thailand to master this art to gain a muscular body along with physical strength.
Now think about a strike landed by a weak person and one landed by a physically powerful man who has practiced well how to land a lethal blow to knock a person out.
Is Muay Thai more brutal than MMA?
We learned many things about muay thai; we saw how brutal it could be, thanks to hitting like elbow and knee. But as MMA is growing faster than muay thai, many of you may think what is the most brutal between MMA and muay thai.
Both martial arts are brutal as the striking rules are more or less the same; you can hit with elbows and knees in both.
CONCLUSION
Judo, Karate, and all the martial arts claim self-defense, but not all deliver well during a fight between inter-martial-art fights.
For example, a Muay Thai fighter broke the ribs of a Japanese Karate fighter, and then Kickboxing was developed as an answer to Muay Thai. So, saying that Muay Thai is one of the brutal sports on the earth, if not the most brutal in the combat sport.
Kickboxing is a subsidiary of Muay Thai, and it is also considered one of the cruelest fighting styles.
So where would the parent fighting style will be from which Kickboxing was derived. Kickboxing is brutal then it’s completed version, Muay Thai, will be the cruelest.
Hence my final words on the topic that, “Is Muay Thai a Brutal Sport”? Are Yes. Muay Thai is a brutal sport. It consists of lethal strikes and devastating blows that can hurt or injure the opponents and kill them during or after the fight.