Night at the Fights
Knockout! A left kick to the jaw sends one man to the canvas. The audience drew silent as the young man in blue stood in momentary awe over his downed opponent. I couldn’t help but wonder if the crowd surrounding me was disappointed at such a quick finish: no five rounds of action, no money to change hands following a gambling frenzy. On this night, during the third official bout at Bangkok’s oldest boxing arena, one young fighter finished his job in under a minute’s time. The fighter or nak muay, seemed almost as stunned as his now sleeping adversary, and stood there absorbing what even he appeared not to expect.
Such are the risks and rewards of Thailand’s national sport, muay Thai. Considered by experts to be one of the most effective fighting arts on the planet, Thai boxing has been entertaining fans in Thailand and abroad for decades.
On a recent visit to Bangkok I was sure to spend a Tuesday evening enjoying the pugilist proceedings. This night’s card consisted of ten bouts, including two preliminary events and a demonstration of muay Thai as it was executed during the nation’s Ayutthaya kingdom era.
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There are as many as 60,000 nak muay in Thailand with Lumpini Stadium as one of the top competitive venues. For fight fans, Tuesday night is the height of action. It is said that here, and at Ratchadamnoen Stadium on Thursday nights, the country’s finest fighters come to test their mettle against a worthy opponent.
Originating during the pre-fire-power centuries when the Thai and Burmese kingdoms fought murderous territorial wars, muay Thai has taken the action of the battlefield into the sportsmanship of the ring. Much of the brutality has not been lost, though rather than wielding long-handled swords or hemp wrapped fists dipped in broken glass, nak muay now brandish boxing gloves and blade-like shins.
It is the Burmese who originally recorded stories of this unique fighting form. In 1411 the first writings of the Thai combative style described its ferocity. Throughout the centuries, there have been changes and modifications to this art now transformed to sport. Due to its sometimes ferocious nature, death and severe injury occasionally occurred, leading the Thai government to ban competitions in the 1920’s. Following safety standards and regulations based on international boxing rules, muay Thai in its contemporary form, was reintroduced to Thailand.
This night’s action began with two preliminary bouts and just a few spectators in attendance. As one of the nation’s top venues, the best fighters and their coaches come to Bangkok from outlying provinces for a single night’s competition. Often, they bring along an underling who, while talented, is not yet ready for the big league. It is these boys who entertain the first series of fans as the stadium gradually fills.
And the stadium did fill, slowly and steadily as the night progressed. By the end of the second preliminary bout the betting section, along the top tier of the arena, was crowded. By the end of the third fight, it was packed.
Fighters begin their training early in life and most are retired well before they reach the age of 30. This night’s bouts included boys mostly in their late teens and early twenties, ranging in weight from 100 to 115 pounds. They are young, well-trained, fast and powerful.
Much like western boxing, each event begins with the boxer’s entry into the ring and introduction to the audience. There is a red and blue corner, a referee and three judges who score each round. The boxers wear shorts and gloves and only occasionally behave with the bravado of an American champ. From here, however, the picture of muay Thai changes dramatically.
Following the introductions, a small group of men in bright-green shirts situated beside the ring begin to play the ceremonial music unique to this sport. With pii (a small wooden flute), skin drum and finger cymbals, the band plays the trance-like tune of the ram muay or fight ceremony. Every competitor is required to perform this ritual prior to a bout. A combination show of respect and dance, each ram muay varies according to its camp’s tradition.
The ceremony begins as the fighters circle the ring counter-clock-wise with their right glove running along the top rope. This action is performed in order to “seal” the ring from outside influences or “hexes” from opposing camps. Following this larger circle, the boys circle each other near the center of the ring. After several revolutions, each young man kneels facing the direction he was born.
As the music continues, the nak muay take a brief moment to contemplate as they sit with hands in the wai position (a prayer-like pose which is a show of respect and greeting rather than a holy petition). What follows is a series of bows and symbolic gestures passed down to fighters from their teacher or khru. While varied from boxer to boxer, these moves are highly stylized and express respect for one’s teacher, one’s camp, and the spirit of the art.
The fighters then rise and begin the dance or ram component of the ceremony. Part of the purpose of the ram is to demonstrate a nak muay’s agility, balance and grace. These dances all share basic elements, including a repeated series of movements along each of the four sides of the ring, and a final wai of respect in their corner upon completion.
From here the competition proper begins. The two competitors move to the center of the ring where the referee wipes off each pair of gloves quickly along his shirt front, reaches his arm between the faced-off opponents and with a sharp gesture, cries “chok!” (“Fight”).
A bout consists of five, three-minute rounds with two minute breaks in-between. Contestants are matched according to weight, experience and record in the same fashion as international boxers. Unlike the fisticuffs of the west, however, Thai-style boxers use an array of bodily weapons.
Nak muay strategically punish each other with kicks, punches, elbows and knees. Strikes include shin kicks to all surfaces of the body, forward foot and knee thrusts, elbow strikes to the head and hooking or curved knees to ribs and tender organs. The groin is off limits as a target, as is the back of the neck, but all else is fair game. Once a good bout gets going, the entertainment enthralls. I have been to Lumpini many times and have yet to be disappointed with the quantity and quality of pugilist action.
Lumpini stadium is home to an array of drama each Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. The ring is the locus of activity, but it is by no means the only arena from which one is stimulated and entertained. By the time the officially sanctioned fights were underway, the betting section of mid-aged men had grown to encompass about one third of both the second and third tiers of seating. Many of these men were no doubt fighters themselves at one time. Now they enjoy the action of the ring as well as the intensive gambling that accompanies each event.
This section became a madhouse of wagering as the night wore on. It remained a roiling mass of waving arms and bellowing voices through to the final seconds of the main event. While the action inside the ring certainly warranted such excitement, it was difficult at times to keep my eyes ringside with all the “upstaging” going on in the stands.
In recent years the Thais have begun to market their favorite sport to western tourists, resulting in an audience comprised of westerners and locals alike. Flyers, tour services and every guidebook advertise and extol the excitement of attending a muay Thai bout and guests now run the gamut: from an assembly of Thai men between the ages of 40 and 60 in short-sleeved, plaid shirts, polyester pants and plastic flip-flops, to dread-locked, pierced and fully tattooed young foreigners and gorgeous blonds from god-knows where in spaghetti-strapped tops and tight-fitting tunics looking bored alongside their well-muscled boyfriends. Polite, yellow-vested boys and girls wandered the arena serving drinks and snacks throughout the evening.
When I first attended a night of fights at Lumpini some six years ago, the cost of a ticket was half of what it is today. There were no English speaking announcers describing the basic structure of the sport, its rules and peculiarities. There was certainly no well-choreographed and precisely executed demo performed in the middle of the evening’s bouts, and there were few foreigners, (and fewer women), in the stands.
Back then, the wooden benches forming the top seating section were grubby and litter-strewn. The place is tidier these days, and while cats still roam the partially open-air stadium, (no doubt attending to their rat-control duties between beauty naps), overall, Lumpini Stadium is looking pretty good.
Is Lumpini still open? I sure enjoyed the show both in the ring and watching the spectators and gamblers. I wanna go back to BKK!
Tickets are expensive for FARANG but the bottom line is - its worth it! Great article - makes me want to go back SOON!
Will be headed that way next year and muaythai fights are at the top of my list! Great story!
Hi! Those are definitely tourist prices! There are two different ticket windows, one for farang and one for Thais (the latter being written in Thai, of course!). Once I went with a Thai coach and he tried to get me in at Thai prices - no way! Another time I went with Fairtex Muaythai camp - was writing an article on them and they were sponsoring the card - got in free, then!
I went to see some fights last year in Bangkok and I was surprised how expensive it was. 2000-4000 baht for some average fights where half of them were fought by 14 year old kids. It was more or less only the last fight, out of 6 or 8, that was worth seeing. Are tourists ripped off on these events or do locals pay the same prices? Great article by the way!