Let us say a Muay Thai boxer, is not cross trained and exclusively trains within the art itself. How well suited is this fighter against a grappler? How well suited is this fighter against a stronger larger opponent? Are the conditioning, and development of sparring skills and techniques, sufficient to completey discount the opponents larger size, and/or strength? What are the possible differences if this opponent is skilled? if not? These are just a few question I am curious about.
It depends really mate. There are so many factors. First off lets just say no style is superior. Therefore, the variables left are such ones as how long you have trained for, how hard you have trained, the quality of your school, and in some cases, your size. I know i might get flamed for this, but i have to say it. I do thai boxing myself, but i happen to really admire the skill a grappler has, even more so then a thai boxer. A good grappler is a fearsome opponent. It honestly depends on how good YOU are, not the style. E.G, if a Thai Chi master who had done it for 30 years comes up against an amateur 2 year boxer, i know who my money is on. Sorry for the theft of this quote, but "you make the style what it is"
well if you've ever watched the early Ultimate Fighting Championships, it was clearly evident that the grappler usually won in the end. Not always because he was a superior athlete but because the PURE muay Thai stylist was at a great disadvantage when thrown to the ground. See the famous Dan Severn/Anthony Macias fight. Muay Thai is revered for its effective stand up striking, however it had lost many of its old techniques and never fully developed a ground component. For that reason, fighters began evolving in the No Holds Barred circuit and cross-training in Brazilian jujitsu, sambo, catch wrestling, etc. Now it's almost impossible to find a fighter that hasn't had training in all ranges. This was the very essence of the well-rounded adaptable fighter that Bruce Lee referred to in JKD. Muay Thai is a very brutal effective art like I said and it is possible for a smaller well-trained fighter to defeat a stronger and larger opponent. Again this depends on the individual and the style and how skilled your opponent is and what the environment is. I can't say that 100% of all thai boxers will beat their opponents. But a good majority of cases have been shown to make it a style that comes through time and time again. However a major downside to muay Thai is that it relies too heavily on the human body for punishment. The body goes through a natural aging process and so it may not be possible to rely on such a hard and brutal art in the long run.
