The video below shows two traditional Thai fights complete with traditional hand wear with a modern twist: simply wraps and a little bit of tape for the first and then a brutal bare knuckle bout following. Traditionally, Muay Thai competitors would compete with hemp rope wrapped around their hands and while this practice still exists, Muay Thai now uses gloves very similar to that of boxing.

The first anomaly one notices when watching the video is the fact that there are two referees. This can simply be explained by the socio-political happenings of the time between Burma and Thailand. One fighter is Burmese in ethnicity while the other is a Thai so there was presumably some pre-bout debate as to how the bout should proceed.

The video takes place in 2009 and, to give you a brief idea of what was going on between the two bordering countries, tensions were at an all-time high as this was seemingly just months before the Burmese-Thai border wars of 2010.

Thailand and Burma (known as the Republic of the Union of Myanmar as of 1989 yet still referred to as the former) were engaged in a brutal politically based border conflict that had an immense socio economic impact on both countries hence tension and need for two referees in this bout.

As the video progresses it is clear to see that all fighters are competent and capable however it is clear that one fighter is clearly getting the better of the other in each bout and as the crowd, which is so large there are even spectators watching from the trees, becomes more and more involved the violence escalates until the end is reached in stunning fashion!

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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…