Free Essay Difference between Western Boxing and Muay Thai

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Compare: Thai Boxing and Western Boxing are both called "Boxing" and "the art of fighting"

Contrast: Premier Purposes, constituents and rules of Thai Boxing divide two sports to be completely different.

Though both sports are called as "boxing" and "the art of fighting", Western boxing and Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) are totally different. Both sports were originated since up to thousand years ago. Informer without rules or principles, Western boxing and Muay Thai could be brutal contests in which each competitor tried to conquer his rival by any means. On the other hand, both arts of fighting at their well- controlled best are real sports. They are competition in which each man applies to beat his opponent by intelligent use of skills in which he has been thoughtful trained. However, the premier purposes, constituents and rules of the Thai Boxing make the two sports become obviously distant.

First of all Thai Boxing was originated since Sukhothai Period, three thousand years ago, though it took 300 hundred years later to become well known during Ayuthaya period (1560 A.D.). While Western boxing was well advanced by the time of the Sumerians who lived five thousand years ago, which is much older than Thai boxing. The premier purpose of Thai boxing was to be used as the unarmed fighting art by Thai soldiers. It was our traditional martial art in which ancient Thai soldiers used Thai boxing to fight against Burmese soldiers since the age of wars last 500 years ago. In contrast, the Western Boxing were started as " manly art'" or common sport or personal combat, not for the real war. The purposes of Muay Thai competitions during the age of wars in Thailand was not only for entertainment but also for motivating Thai men to be alert of possible wars that they would always prepared. In contrast the early Western boxing competitions were generated as a staging bout for the entertainment. On the other hand, today the Western boxing is a common sport used in the general sport competitions such as Olympic game, SEA game, and etc, unlike Western boxing in Thailand we recognize the art of Muay Thai as the traditional culture. With the reason professional boxers of Muay Thai then are able to enter the Olympic boxing matches.

While Western boxing match allows the contest to start since once both opponents get in the ring, Thai boxing has a lot of process to reach it's real start. Before the start of competition in Thai Boxing bouts there is much process in which the competitors must generate as traditional ritual. Wai Kru is one of them; the method is a way to pay respect to his majesty the king, Muay Thai as a sport, the founder of the Muay Thai, and the last bound to their parents and ancestors. After that the fighters must continue with Mauy Thai dance or Ram Muay. After finished the Ram Muay ritual then the real competition can start. Furthermore, in Muay Thai matches during the fight while the opponents are fighting against each other it is imperative tradition to have live music that conducted in order to encourage the fighters to put forth their best effort, while the Western boxing matches doesn't have one.

Techniques and rules of Muay Thai and Western Boxing are both distinct. Muay Thai boxers must be skilled in all non-armed weaponry of feet, knees, fists and elbows. Differs from the Thai Boxing, using other parts of body than the fists in the Western boxing competitions can cause the fighter to be eliminated from the tournaments. The rules must be followed and disciplined. In Muay Thai tournaments we have 19 divisions of the classification weight. Unlike the Thai Kick Boxing, Western style divides the divisions of classification weight of boxers to 17 divisions.

With information above, which included of the differences of the two sports even both are called " Boxing" my bottom line is that they are totally different and can't be count as identicalness. Purposes, constituents and rules of the Thai Boxing completely split two sports from each other. There was an argument against Thai boxers to enter the Olympic competition. I don't think it's fair for the Thai boxers. To be allowed to use only their fists to fight against the opponent, Thai boxers are not familiar with the new trend either. They must pay attention to learn the new rules of Western style of boxing as much as the so-called "amateurs" of the Western boxing style do too.