Muay Thai is a martial art and combat sport originated from Thailand. It was initially created as a way to protect ancient emperors from enemies, and it slowly began to spread to other means of use. There are many different varieties of Muay Thai, and many different ways to train using it.
Description[]
Known as the art of eight limbs, Muay Thai differentiates itself from typical kickboxing styles by not only using punches (Chock), kicks (Te) and foot-thrusts (Thip), but also elbows (Ti sok) and knees (Ti khao) as well as holding some point of focus with clinching techniques (Chap kho). Alongside the wide variety of attacks a fighter can use, most attacks require the whole body itself to move in conjunction with the former.
The elbow in particular is an incredibly deadly tool included in the fighter's arsenal and can be thrown from many directions. Acting metaphorically similar to that of a knife, a swift and precise elbow strike can cause great damage, including cuts to an opponent and will usually result in a knockout. A known tactic is to deliberately cut the opponent's brow, resulting in the blood from the wound getting into their eyes and obscuring their vision. This often leads to fights ending by doctor stoppage.
Practitioners[]
- Fahkumram
- Bruce Irvin
- Josie Rizal - (combined with Eskrima based Kickboxing)
- Bryan Fury - (Applies some techniques)
- Mokujin - Through mimicry.
- Tetsujin - Through mimicry.
- Unknown - Tekken Tag Tournament only; through mimicry.
Non-playable[]
- Kinjin - Through mimicry.
Trivia[]
- Muay Thai is recognized as a very effective striking base within MMA, and is very widely practiced among mixed martial artists, such as Wanderlei Silva, Anderson Silva, Maurício Rua, Jose Aldo and many others.
- Muay Thai champions, Suakim PK Saenchai and Nadaka Yoshinari provided motion capture for Fahkumram's moveset.[1]
- Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, a very successful 2003 Thai martial arts action film, starred Tony Jaa as an extremely skilled Muay Thai pratictioner. This movie helped make the fighting style globally famous.[2]
- Muay Thai is one of the parent styles on which Kickboxing was based.
- Katsuhiro Harada stated that at the time that Bruce Irvin was released, Western audiences were unfamiliar with Muay Thai, hence the choice to list him as a Kickboxing practioner.[3]
- Traditional Muay Thai matches are preceded by the the Wai Khru Ram Muay, a traditional ritual of respect to show thanks to the fighter's teacher and family. Fahkumram performs this as one of his intro poses, and the traditional accompanying music to this dance can be heard in the opening part of the background music to Cave of Enlightenment, Fahkumram's home stage. Fahkumram thus performs the Wai Khru Ram Muay to its accompanying music when paired with this stage.
External Links[]
- Muay Thai at Wikipedia