Muay Thai is a combat is a combat sport of Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques.

This physical and mental discipline which includes kicking techniques that primarily focuses on the shin as a point of contact is known as the art of the eight limbs because it is characterized by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees, and shins being associated with a good physical preparation that makes a full-contact fighter very efficient.

Muay Thai became widespread internationally in the twentieth century when practitioners defeated notable practitioners of other martial arts.

Although modern day Muay Thai has employed the use of gloves and a rule set that was designed and put together by a sanctioning body to make the sport safer this has not always been the case. In fact, traditional Muay Thai has very few rules, combatants did not wear gloves, and rounds, as well as the duration within said round, was agreed upon by the combatants and there was not a standard number of rounds or round length. Some practitioners, even today, feel this is the true essence of Muay Thai and anything less is a bastardization of the sport.

Hence the video below, here we see two practitioners of the traditional Muay Thai style. On their hands, you will notice what look like traditional hand wraps, which they are, but Thai style: they are actually hemp rope. These purist do adhere to the modern concepts of the standardized round number and duration but other than that they abide by a more traditional understanding of the rules.

Check out the video below to see a vicious traditional technique end this bout but the question remains…was it legal?

“>

Jacob C. Stevens is a lifelong athlete and cerebral martial arts enthusiast who is also skilled in the art of linguistic manipulation, his published work, Afterthoughts and Handgrenades, can be found here…