Muay Thai sport attracts international boxers

People can see the charm of Muay Thai sport which is ever growing as the boxers from 16 countries around the world turned up the heat on a Muay Thai tournament staged in Bangkok Sunday.

Organized by Thailand's authorities and held in Thailand, the home and birthplace of the ancient Thai art of boxing, Thai Fight 2010 drew lots of audience to the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium of Bangkok.

Muay Thai boxers from 16 countries including Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Holland, Turkey, British, China, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Thailand took part in the tournament.

Zhou Hongzhang, the 21-year-old player from China, said he has been a Muay Thai boxer for five or six years.

"I used to training Chinese Gongfu (martial art), then I became a fan of Muay Thai after I found out it is fiercer and more exciting."

Indeed, Muay Thai is having more and more fans in China, as well as cross the world, with its unique charm: A beautiful blend of force, dance and devotion. As one of the organizers of this event, Tourism Authority of Thailand, puts it, Muay Thai is the only form of Martial arts admired for its beauty and cultural values as its brutal effectiveness as a fighting skill.

German boxer Bartosz Koscielniak, 20 years old, has been training Muay Thai for 14 years. He said he likes the sport but only here in Thailand he can learn the spirit of it. "This is the forth time for me to get here and stay in Thailand. Every my holiday I will come and stay for three to four weeks, training and taking part in a lot of fights," he said, adding that he like Muay Thai rules that allows boxers to use elbows and knees when fighting.

Though enjoy an international fame and popularity, it is hard to deny that Thailand still has a strong advantage in this sport. Li Baoming, Zhou's coach, admitted that there is still a gap between Chinese boxers and Thai ones.

"The volume of training is the same (between Chinese players and Thai ones) since we also hire the foreign coaches. What we lack is matches. We don't have as many domestic matches as Thailand has," he said.

Li stressed, however, he witnessed the ever-growing popularity of Muay Thai sport in China. "About five years ago, there's only one or two Muay Thai club in China and the Chinese Muay Thai boxers had to go abroad to do their training. Now there are 30-40 clubs across China, and we also have a national Muay Thai boxing team as well as our own tournament." In Sunday's match, Zhou fought Petchmonkong Petchfocus, the most promising Muay Thai superstar in Thailand.

Petchmonkong, only 22 years old, has been practising Muay Thai for 12 years and just won the title of Boxer King of Thailand months ago.

It was not a surprise that Petchmonkong defeated Zhou and entered the second round of the tournament with another seven contestants, which will be held on October 25. The final will be staged on December 6 of this year.

The champion of the Thai Fight 2010 will win an award of 2 million baht (64,000 U.S. dollars) and a SUV.

"I will try my best to keep the championship of Thailand (in Muay Thai sports)," said Petchmonkong.

Source: Xinhua