World #1 ranked Muay Thai legend and Australia's great John Wayne Parr is holding a fight promotion which is...Muay Thai, in a cage with MMA gloves. Same rules as normal Muay Thai. An interesting concept i must say, and i feel it could work. It feels like more of a throwback to the Muay KaadChuek days where they fought with hemp rope/no ropes. I also feel that it may help gain more attention, especially in the USA (providing it picks up traction) [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU95Vf9cU1g&feature=player_embedded"]Boonchu Cup - EXTREME MUAY THAI - YouTube[/ame]
Looks all flash. Will probably contract scrappy but poor fighters and market to the brawl crowd and never be regarded as a serious promotion. Could be wrong though.
Oh no mate, the fighters fighting on the promotion are all top tier Australian Muay Thai fighters. Some of the best in Australia. I mean, it is being organised by one of the best in the world Everything is the same, the tradition and the rules, but i do fear that some retards from MMA may come over. All in all though, i feel that it wouldn't hurt Muay Thai.
sounds good. nothing wrong with the product ..just like mma, its how you sell it and lets face it mma would be nowere near as big if fights were on mats with big gloves on the cage, the "near" barefist, the hype
Interesting. Putting it in a cage may make it more marketable.... only because in many ways I don't think Muay Thai and for that matter boxing usually gets marketed or sold on properly. So by and large most of the crowd is woefully under educated about the rule set and about the history of the sport and... sigh... about the fighters. So this is could be like a spit shine for it as a promotion. Tons of well skilled Aussies in Muay Thai... it wasn't all that long ago that they basically spent most of the year only fighting each other. Then Parr went to Thailand and sent some shockwaves through the Muay Thai world. I have a love/hate affair with his style but he's a top guy as a person. Never met a nicer, more humble fighter. Always had time to stop and say G'day on any promotion I ran into him at. Swell fella. Best of luck to him with promo!
The fighters involved will have to think more technically with what techniques they want to apply to specific situations. Fighters will not want to get punched by their opponents using the gloves, and as such will make for a technical fight involving more kicks than punches. There may be more knockouts as well lol
Yeah, i agree with that. Before Parr travelled to Thailand, Australia had some pretty good fighters, but as you said, mainly fought each other. Once Parr travelled to Thailand, he put Australia on the inernational Muay Thai map. Also, he revitalised/directly influenced the Aussie Muay Thai community, and ever since, Australia has been producing great fighters such as Soren Monkongtong, Bruce Macfie, Nathan Corbett. And for the current generation, Michael Tomahawk Thompson, Steve Mckinnon, Thor Hoopman, Flip Street. There are plenty more hahahaha. And yes, he is an extremely nice and humble person to talk to, would love to see him again one day.
Yeah man I've worked Macfie and Corbett. Top guys both of them. Proper nice fellas and don't mind havin' a go that's for sure! Hoopman has fought here several times and he's one the bigger in size nak muays I've ever seen.... Flip Street is tops. Nicest fella ya'd ever meet and brilliant technician! He's also been to HK to fight on several promotions and always put on a bang up show!
I wonder how well proper technique will transfer over? I'm assuming the lack of security boxing gloves seem to offer will make it a bit more scrappier, as someone else mentioned but I'm sure it'll bring more publicity to the style and hopefully show some how MT can be effectively used in a cage. Should be pretty sick.