page_title: Muay Thai
section_title: Gambling Issue
hierarchical_section_title: Muay Thai / Gambling Issue
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Thai Boxing in Lamai - Koh Samui
context_page_description: Muay Thai, or referred to as 'Thai boxing', is a combat sport of Thailand that uses stand-up striking along with various clinching techniques. This discipline is known as the "art of eight limbs" as it is characterized by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees, and shins. Muay Thai became widespread internationally in the late-20th to 21st century, when Westernized practitioners from Thailand began competing in kickboxing and mixed rules matches as well as matches under muay Thai rules around the world. The professional league is governed by The Professional Boxing Association of Thailand, sanctioned by The Sports Authority of Thailand.
  Muay Thai is related to martial art styles of the Indian cultural sphere such as Musti-yuddha, Muay Chaiya, Muay boran, Muay Lao, Lethwei, Pradal Serey, and Tomoi. Muay Thai developed from the traditional Muay Boran. A practitioner of muay Thai is known as a nak muay. Western practitioners are sometimes called nak muay farang, meaning 'foreign boxer'.
context_section_description: According to a Bangkok Post columnist, "...Thai professional boxing is all about gambling and big money. Gambling on muay Thai boxing is estimated to worth about 40 billion baht a year....all the talk about the promotion of Thai martial arts is just baloney." Rob Cox, the manager of a boxing camp just east of Bangkok claims that, "Without the gamblers, the sport would pretty much be dead. They're killing it off, but they’re also keeping it alive."
  The practice of fixing fights is not unknown. Boxers can earn from 60,000 to 150,000 baht for purposefully losing a fight. A fighter, later arrested, who threw a fight at Rajadamnern Stadium in December 2019 is only the most recent example. An infamous alleged case of match-fixing was the bout on 12 October 2014 in Pattaya between top Thai boxer Buakaw Banchamek and his challenger, Enriko Kehl, at the K-1 World Max Final event.
caption: Thai boxer during a fight on Koh Samui
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