[anorak]

Originally Posted by manofwar1

There is a ton of old school information (and misinformation in this post). Example, pay in gold is almost NEVER done anymore, and 100,000 THB in your dreams. Average fight is about, 3000 Baht (about 90 USD). Even "A level" are low paid. Muay Thai fighter with good boxing going into boxing? I guess you can make that call based on a few fighters, but that's extremely vague. Minimum age for Lumpini officially is 15, but the "unofficial" age is more like 13-14, you'll see 90-100lbs. kids fighting in Lumpini regularly ( just saw it the other week ).

as he stated though the Isuzu tournament pays out about 80 baht of gold and a pick up truck to the winner and the runner up and 3rd and 4th place fighters also get gold to, there are I think a couple of other tournaments that also have gold as part of prize on final day. As for in his dreams about 100,000 Saenchai is on 100,000 a fight, Anuwat was on 150,000 a fight up until recently, would think it has dropped a little now, but wont be too far off 100,000 and there are a few others on around 100,000, would say the A level fighters would be on 50,000+. 3000 as an average is also a bit off the mark, you would get that as a foriegner fighting on the Saturday afternoon show at Lumpini with small crowd. As for the kids, 15 is the official age at both stadiums, but younger fighters casn fight, but they will fight 5* 2 minute rounds instead of 5* 3's

[patiwat]

Originally Posted by manofwar1

Muay Thai fighter with good boxing going into boxing? I guess you can make that call based on a few fighters, but that's extremely vague.

Every single Thai queensbury-rules boxer (both amateur and pro) of note had a Muay Thai background. I'd repeat myself by mentioning Khaosai, Somrak, and Sot - they are 3 of the greatest Thai boxers of the past 25 years.

Other great queensbury-rules boxers who started in Muay Thai include Olympic gold-medal winner Wijan Ponlid, IBF minimumweight champ Ratanapol "Little Khaosai" Sor Vorapin, WBF bantamweight champ Ratanachai Sor Vorapin, and Olympic bronze-medalist and WBO champion Payao Poontarat.

Name any Thai Olympic-medalist or belt-holder - they all started off in Muay Thai.

[pertiman]

Lumpini Belt >> Rajadamner Belt
WMC >> WBC

[manofwar1]

Originally Posted by anorak

as he stated though the Isuzu tournament pays out about 80 baht of gold and a pick up truck to the winner and the runner up and 3rd and 4th place fighters also get gold to, there are I think a couple of other tournaments that also have gold as part of prize on final day. As for in his dreams about 100,000 Saenchai is on 100,000 a fight, Anuwat was on 150,000 a fight up until recently, would think it has dropped a little now, but wont be too far off 100,000 and there are a few others on around 100,000, would say the A level fighters would be on 50,000+. 3000 as an average is also a bit off the mark, you would get that as a foriegner fighting on the Saturday afternoon show at Lumpini with small crowd. As for the kids, 15 is the official age at both stadiums, but younger fighters casn fight, but they will fight 5* 2 minute rounds instead of 5* 3's

Tournaments are a big difference, you'll rarely see a tournament in Lumpini or Bangkok stadium these days, it's not done as much as before. Mainly 90% of the fights week in and out are 1-1 fights, which bring around 3000 baht (90usd) to the fighter. Just had a guy fight last week in lumpini.

Saenchai / Anuwat and so on, sure a few good fighters score big because of the gambling crowd it brings, but Muay Thai fighters in general do very poorly. The purse is usually around 3000 baht + 500 for winner, the main event card would be around 4500 (120 usd +/-). And, fyi, Saenchai is fighting in Japan right now, not in thailand, so you can't compare the pay. Baukaw makes $10,000 USD/round in K-1 Japan(even extra rounds), so, like anything, you can't compare it to pay in thailand.

Don't try to represent top 10 muay thai fighters in the world as the representatives of the general MT industry in thailand, as it's false. Unfortunately, MT fighters from thailand even have to go to HK or Macao to get a purse of, wait for it............$500 USD (16,000 baht) - for winning of course! The MT industry is in shambles with too many promoters and titles and not enough structure. The people who suffer are ALL the fighers - the top 10+.

You mention lumpini, and saturday night... of course! in BKK lumpini and Bkk stadium handle almost all the muay thai fights. You can't make your judgement of what top 10 MT fighters make to the whole industry. Muay thai fighters in thailand are paid badly and only a TINY portion makes it to the big time.

[ElMeroMero]

Lots of good information in this thread, keep up the good work, thanks.

[Frank Butcher]

[quote=patiwat;21779647]Some other tidbits.

- Muay Thai doesn't get the viewership in Thailand that PRIDE or K-1 get. During the Muay Thai broadcasts, you'll see commercials for fertilizer, mens underwear, pickup trucks, foot cream, and other products that aim more for the rural viewership. It's not really considered a "premium" sport.



I thought Thai Boxing was the national sport.Maybe Soccer is bigger now but still thought Muay Thai would be a premium sport.

[Snerren]

I spend my time on the MMA side of this board most of the time. But I am a fight fan and like k1 and mauy thai aswell.

I found this thread very good and informative I really had no clue about most of these things, I just had some knowledge about k1. So thanks.

[patiwat]

Originally Posted by manofwar1

Don't try to represent top 10 muay thai fighters in the world as the representatives of the general MT industry in thailand, as it's false.

The majority of Muay Thai boxers are what Thais refer to as Muay Wat (temple boxers), i.e., boxers who fight at upcountry temple fairs in front of some stray dogs and drunk farmers. Yes, they make a few hundred or at most, few thousand baht a fight. Read the original post, where I stated clearly that "Muay Thai fighters don't get paid that much."

My comment post on XX0,000 Baht purses referred to the A-list of boxers. In Thai, these boxers are called Muay Ngern Saen (มวยเงินแสน = Boxers worth 100,000). By definition, these are the elite of Muay Thai, the equivalent to K-1 main eventers for their weight classes. I remember that Somrak Khamsing, who would win the Olympic gold medal in boxing, used to get up to 180,000 Baht a fight (about US$4,500) while he was still doing Muay Thai. If a boxer isn't making XX0,000 a fight, he's not really at the top of the game.

[El_Jefe]

Originally Posted by theblackknight

Lumpinee (up to 147lbs) and Rajadamnern (up to 160lbs) are the most pretigious, for the heavier weights the most prestigious are the WBC and WMC

qft

[HumblePilgrim]

Originally Posted by patiwat

Correct.

(although karateka might disagree).

Andy Hugg's ghost would agree!