History

Muay Thai Boxing is commonly known as ‘the science of eight limbs’, those being the fists, feet, knees and elbows and dates back some 2000 years.

Unlike the superficially similar Kick-Boxing, which developed as an artificial fusion of far-eastern high-kicking styles such as karate and Tae Kwon Do and good, honest western-style boxing, Muay Thai has a very long and esteemed heritage.

It was developed some 1-2 thousand years ago as an effective way for Siamese soldiers to keep sharp during peacetime without using edged weapons. Legend also has it that the Thais often couldn't afford swords anyway, having to resort instead in battle to a particularly effective form of unarmed combat. As a spectator sport in its own right it has been recorded at least as far back as the middle ages, as long as if not longer than most of the other better known Far Eastern martial arts.

It was only in the 1930s that it grew into the sport we know today, with the introduction of weight divisions, timed rounds and gloves as opposed to hemp rope or leather thongs wound around the hands. (Incidentally, claims that fighters of old dipped their bound fists into glue and then glass appear to be completely unsubstantiated.) With these developments in safety many Thai old-timers feel their sport has been ruined. Even today in Thailand punches rarely score, and are not viewed as true "weapons" by the local purists.

Nonetheless, the "Art of Eight Limbs" (two shins, knees, elbows and fists), and the unique clinchwork (a form of stand-up grappling) used today would be recognisable in the fights staged for the pleasure of the Siamese kings in the seventeenth century. Only one "limb" -the headbutt - has been totally banned. But more about the pugilistic side later.