Muay-Thai

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Developed or the battlefeld, the ancient art o Muay Thai fnds a home in modern MMA.

by KELLy CRIGGER by KELLy CRIGGER

TH

E A

RT

OF THE

EIGHT LIMbS

“

K h a i M

u a y

k a p

k u m

m

a k k u p ,

a k k u p ,”

”

Mark DellaGrott

e chan

ts as

he locks up

his Muay Thai Academ

y at

the end

of anoth

er long day of training. As i

f praying, he clasps his

han

ds together at his f

orehead and

bows, utter

ing the Tha

i ph

ras

e

that m

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nyone walking down Cutter

Street in Som erville,

Massachu-setts, would probably regard

DellaGrotte as a

schizophren-ic who talks back to the

voices in his head. But this simple

act of reverence reﬂects the deep

respect that is at the core of Muay

Thai, an ancient form of combat,

and deﬁnes its unique relationship

between the p hysical and the

spiri-tual realms.

Th e Royal Bond

“M uay Thai brought us our freedom,” says Master Toddy, who was born i n Thai-land. “When Burma conquered Thailand (in 1767), there was a man named Nai Khanum Tom who impressed the Bur-mese King with his Muay Thai skills. So the Burmese King asked him, ‘What is it you want?’ And Tom said, ‘I want my country to be free.’ So the Burmese King said, “Defeat ten of my best ﬁghters and I will set Thailand free.’ Nai Khanum Tom defeated all ten, one after the other, and the Burmese King stayed true to his word. That is why Muay Thai is so sacred in my

country.”

The tale is not a tall one, and it’s actu-ally mandatory learning for every school-kid in the kingdom today. Unfortunately, it’s one of the few tangible examples of Muay Thai in the country’s history, since the kingdom’s archives were lost when the Burmese sacked the ancient Thai capi-tal of Ayutthaya in 1767. What is known is that M uay Thai was developed for th e Thai warrior in an era when only hand-held weapons were available, and when a soldier was often left on the battleﬁeld with onl y his hands to ﬁght with .

As such, M uay Thai is not a style de-veloped in a non-combat environment, like Jigoro Kano’s Judo or the Gracie fam-ily’s Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. It was developed and refined as a practical combat system on the battlefields of Southeast Asia over several centuries, and it still commands a deep respect among modern-day war-riors. When Thai soldiers had to develop a way to knock their Burmese enemies off the backs of charging buffalo, they devel-oped the flying knee that’s still a devas-tating weapon i n today’s Muay Thai rings and MMA cages.

We know that from 1350 to 1921 Muay Thai was mandatory training for all sol-diers. It was also the pastime of the coun-try’s kings, who each put his personal stamp on the sport as it was passed down

through the dynasties. Before Nai Kha-num Tom, King Naresuan the Great used Muay Thai to defeat Burmese boxers and gain his country’s independence in the sixteenth century. King Sanpet VIII had a habit of disguising himself to compete in local Muay Thai boxing tournaments, an activity considered taboo because Thai kings were not permitted to mingle with commoners. King Rama I held boxing tournaments on his palace grounds and selected the best M uay Thai ﬁghters to join his personal guard. During this pe-riod, the late eighteenth and early nine-teenth centuries, a tale emerged of two Frenchmen who came to Thailand to challenge the best Muay Thai boxers the country had to offer. King Rama l chose his best man, M uen Phlan, who defeated both Frenchmen in succession despite

be-ing smaller in size . The French should have learned from this event and stayed out of Indochina!

By the nineteenth century the sport was growing in popularity, and was about to experience its golden age. King Rama V established a professional boxing camp and encouraged his nobility to do the same, promulgating the sport nation-ally. Not to be outdone by his dad, King Rama VI went a step further by construct-ing large arenas; allowconstruct-ing commoners to run their own boxing camps, rings, and competitions; and establishing rules and regulations, such as the use of gloves and groin protectors. (Until 1928 the hands were bare or wrapped in hemp, and strikes to the genitals were legal. Thank God for progress!) King Rama VI’s patronage and the expansion of modern transportation M ark Dellagrotte continues an ancient

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caused Muay Thai camps to spring up like a contagion throughout the land, and within a generation the sport transitioned from a military skill and the sport of no-bility to a saving grace for street urchins.

Enter the religious right.

Puriﬁ cation Through Pain

Buddhist monks advocate peace, but their history is littered with violent periods. It’s not surprising when you consider the fact that most conﬂicts around the world are centered on religion, but Buddhism in particular is inseparable from violence and the martial arts. M odern Buddhism believes in purifying the soul through meditation. I n previous centuries, howev-er, physical exertion was the way to spiri-tual enlightenment. Like farming, Muay

Thai was a natural ﬁt for the Buddhist way of life, so temples contributed to the development of the sport as a means of helping others.

“The temple in my village would put on M uay Thai ﬁghts so the kids could make money,” Master Toddy says. “It was their way of helping the kids to survive, and keeping them from becoming little thieves or things like this. That’s where I started ﬁghting, when I was six years old.”

Children’s full-contact ﬁghting would have set off a ﬁrestorm of moral and ethi-cal controversy in western countries, but it’s one of the few survival options avail-able to a poor, rural society like Thailand’s. The connection between compassionate monks and hungry kids is a relationship that’s unique to Muay Thai, and that is where the bond between the physical and spiritual worlds were often formed. But not everyone is impressed with the pur-ported link between the two.

“M uay Thai is practically male pros-titution because it’s only for the poorest sector of society,” says Erich Krauss, an American M uay Thai ﬁghter and author of Muay Thai Unleashed . “It’s basically survival for them because it’s their only alternative.”

Master Toddy echoes Krauss’ senti-ment. “In Thailand the upper class does not let their kids do Muay Thai,” Toddy says. “It’s for poor kids because it’s one of the only ways they can make money. So kids become professional fighters at just six years old, because they don’t make money unless they turn pro. Upper class children don’t have to do that.” Their sit-uation is not unlike that of the inner-city boxing gyms in America, but the two cul-tures are polar opposites in temperament. Muay Thai fighters are bereft of “attitude” and don’t like to admit what they do for a living, while young American boxers prefer the Muhammad Al i style of ma-chismo and braggadocio. In that regard, boxing could probably benefit from a dose of Buddhism.

The Buddhist inﬂuence on M uay Thai runs deeper than its use as a philan-thropic outlet. Going back to the earliest days of border warfare, there is evidence that monks blessed Thai warriors before

a battle, a practice that carried over into the ring with a prayer for the combatants’ safety and a call upon their ancestors to be with them in the arena. Buddhism be-lieves in reincarnation and the ability of bygone people to have a spiritual presence in the physical world.

“The spirits of a ﬁghter’s ancestors are embodied in the head,” M aster Toddy says. “That’s why we wear the mongkol on the head and why boxers in Thailand don’t let women touch their h eads. I t’s also why they jump over the top ring rope, because if they go through the ropes their heads might touch it and they’ll lose their pow-er.” Tattoos are another part of the Muay Thai mystique. W hile tattoos are decora-tive art forms in the west, Thais believe they can actually protect the ﬁghter from being cut in the ring.

But the granddaddy of all Muay Thai rituals is a dance called the Wai Khru Ram M uay, which is performed by each contes-tant before the fight. It’s a carefully cho-reographed set of movements that pays respect to the fighter’s ancestors, teachers, and camp, and demonstrates his abilities regarding balance and control. Kneeling as a sign of respect to God and Buddha and a prayer for the safety of the fight-ers are key components of the Wai Khru Ram M uay. That belief in h igher powers accompanied by a need to appease them may seem like pagan worship to western-ers, but it sets Muay Thai apart as the most ritualistic martial art in the world.

Unless you consider Sumo a viable mar-tial art.

A Rite of Passage

“Back in the day, you didn’t learn martial arts because you paid a guy,” M ark Del-laGrotte laments. “You learned it because a master accepted you into his dojo. Now anyone with a check and a pen can join a gym.” After thirteen years of working his way up through the M uay Thai hierarchy and being named the ofﬁcial conservator of th e art in the United States, DellaGrotte knows the process. M uay Thai clings to the traditional way of passing itself down: by selecting its future gatekeepers through a merit system based on commitment and passion for the art…and by keeping the

“ The spirits of a ﬁ gh ter’s an cestors are em bo died

in th e head ,” Master Todd y says. “ That’s why we

wear the m ongkol on the h ead and why boxers

in Thailand d on’t let wom en touch th eir head s”

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camp clean.

“When I was a boy there was a gym in my village,” M aster Toddy says of his childhood in Prakanow, Thailand. “I was four years old and I would watch th e fight-ers train through the fence every day. Af-ter a year the Kru (masAf-ter trainer, like a sensei) finally invited me in to help train their fighters. They wanted to work on defense and asked me to throw strikes at their champion… and sweep the floor of course,” h e says, laughing.

Rites of passage are nothing new. They’re a facet of most collective orga-nizations, from the Freemasons to fra-ternity houses. But being accepted into Muay Thai is something that stays with each individual and instills a code of re-spect for the art’s elders. It’s not a tangible system of recognition, like belts, but it’s

the unspoken hierarchy of respect that gives Muay Thai a mystical appeal seldom found in modern martial arts.

“In MMA today everyone is like, ‘Wh at’s up bro,’” D ellaGrotte says. “But in Muay Thai we all wai (the traditional ges-ture of holding both hands to the head) and bow to show respect to those who have earned it.”

It’s all about pride in something that you’ve worked hard to achieve and which has given so much back to you in return. National pride in M uay Thai runs deep, which is understandable when you con-sider that it’s credited with saving their country.

“At boxing matches you can hear a pin drop during the national anthem,” Della-Grotte says. “Try that at a baseball game in the States. Every Joe has his cell phone

going off or they’re mumbling to each other. Half the crowd will sing along, but it’s not the same.”

DellaGrotte has achieved what’s avail-able to all, but attained by so few. Many martial arts refrain from allowing insid-ers get too close to their inner secrets. Anyone who’s studied the arts knows the famous tale of Bruce Lee’s ﬁght with his fellow Chinese teachers over sharing the secrets of Kung Fu with Americans. Lee won his battle to teach, but several art forms still remain closed to the unwel-come. M uay Thai is on the opposite end of the spectrum: Thais are generally happy to throw their doors open and teach their art to anyone who wants to learn. But the faint of heart need not apply because, in general, Thai people have no tolerance for farang (westerners) who just want to go through the moves and strike without passion.

“They look for the guy who just wants to have an adventure,” says DellaGrotte. “Any white guys who go to Thailand and don’t show heart and dedication get tossed over to the heavy bags right away and never get the attention they want. As long as you show a sincere appreciation for the sport and give it your all, you’ll get all they have to offer.”

Muay Thai in MMA

And what they have to offer is significant. Muay Thai is not restricted, like west-ern boxing, which only has two striking points, or kickboxing, which only has four. M uay Thai earned its moniker as “The Art of Eight Limbs” because it uses eight striking points—two hands, two feet, two knees, and two elbows —to de-liver crushing blows that can cause im-mense damage and frequently break the skin. The evolution of Muay Thai was in-fluenced by the hot climate of Southeast Asia, where the indigenous people don’t wear heavy clothing that restricts their movements. This allowed the art to devel-op strikes that are efficient and natural. Compare that to the stiffer movements and rigid forms of those martial arts de-signed for a combatant wearing a gi or body armor.

“It’s simple and effective,” says Del-laGrotte, who spent years studying vari-ous martial arts before settling into a life of M uay Thai. “M M A has proven i t. Wi th M M A, we get to see what works and what doesn’t. I came from a Jeet Kune Do background, which weeded out the non-essentials, and Muay Thai has the same

“ D ra g g in g y o u r o p p o n e n t d o w n w h i le

b r i n g i n g t h e k n e e u p c a n d e l i v er u p t o

t w o a n d a h a l f t on s of f or ce”

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philosophy. It’s an art that uses what works and ignores what doesn’t, so it’s very efﬁcient. It’s easy to teach, it’s easy to learn, and it’s effective, not just in MMA, but i n combat and in self defense. It’s a very complete art.”

The History Channel delved into the science of M uay Thai in its Human Weapon series to discover what makes Muay Thai strikes so effective. They foun d that a Muay Thai kick generates roughl y the same amount of force as a baseball bat because of the rotation of the hips. “It’s the same principle that cracks a whip,” according to the program. “Turning the hips just a few degrees forces the foot to travel a much greater distance, and creates a lot of speed as it does. Un li ke Karate ﬁghters , Muay Thai ﬁghters are taught to strike with the hard bone of the shin.”

Almost all martial arts use hands and feet, which makes elbows and knees uni que to Muay Thai. “H uman bones can resist forty ti mes more stress than concrete,” points out the narration in “Human Weapon.” “And unlike most strikes, which land with some combination of flesh and bone, the elbow strike is almost pure bone. All the force is magnified by being concentrated in a small, hard area. Even if the elbow does not deliver a knockout, it will almost always leave a nasty cut.” Examples of this in modern MM A abound. Kenny Florian’s elbow to Sean Sherk’s temple at UFC 64 and BJ Penn’s elbow strike to Joe Stevenson’s forehead at UFC 80 are among the bloodiest fights in the sport.

“You can punch a hundred ways, and there will always be that danger of breaking your hand when you do,” says DellaGrotte. “But if you hit some-thing with your elbow, you’re going to break what you’re hitting .”

The knee is also a Muay Thai specialty that derives its power from leverage. “Dragging your opponent down while bringing the knee up can deliver up to two and a half tons of force,” continues the narration of “Human Weapon.” “The ﬂying knee concentrates all the power of the body into the spear point of the knee and combines it with gravity. It’s the equivalent of hitting our op-ponent in the chest with a sledgehammer.”

The Champion

Maybe that’s what An derson Silva should change his nickname to. “The Spider” was raised on Muay Thai competiti ons, and regards Muay Thai as a critical component of his skills. “When I was growing up I fell in love with the breadth of the discipline, how you could string the various techniques together to form complex combinations,” Silva says.

Known for his formidable Muay Thai striking, it’s his clinch that he credits with winning the most important ﬁght of his life, when he downed former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin.

“What allowed me to domin ate that ﬁght was the Muay Thai clinch,” Silva says. “Where I trained, in Curitiba, developing a strong M uay Thai clin ch is a long tradition. All the professors have spent years mastering it. I spent a good portion of my training on this position alone and even worked on new techniques with it to make it more applicable to MM A. I knew that every time a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner or wrestler goes for a takedown he has to drop his head, so I learned to defend takedowns using the clinch. It was the one thing Rich Franklin didn’t expect. When I tied up with hi m in the clin ch I felt consider-ably stronger. I used that to my advantage.”

Always the student, Silva took the extraordinary step of adapting a Muay Thai strike from a movie to a professional ﬁght. After seeing Muay Boran

legend Tony Jaa execute a reverse back elbow i n the movieOng Bac , Silva prac-ticed the move with his wife, standing on his couch holding pillows. Despite his trainers’ telling him it would never work, he threw it at Tony Fryklund at Cage Rage 16, and added an incredible KO to his highlight reel. It is probably the best illustration of how efﬁcient even th e most unorthodox M uay Thai strike can be.

For anyone who loves big knockouts (and who doesn’t), the strike was jaw droppi ng. M uay Thai is probably the one style that most accurately resembles a street ﬁght, whi ch Americans, and MMA fans in general, appreciate. That’s the least we can do for a martial art that has given us so much.

The Various Forms oF muay Thai

Muay Thai has been called many thin gs, and in fact it was called Krabi-Kabong long before it became Muay Thai. Geographic disparities and stylistic differences have created a plethora of nam es that are hard to keep track of and are always disputed:

muay Boran

The original orm o Muay Thai. Also reerr ed to as Muay Chao Chur.

muay Kaad ChueK

The old orm o wrapping the hands and fngers in unre-fned hemp to protect them. It’s rumored that two fghter s could agree beorehand to dip their hands in glue and crushed glass. Today an annual Muay Kaad Chuek estival is held on Thailand’s border with Laos in which fghters go at it until one is knocked out.

mae mai muay Thai

The mastery techniques are not allowed in sporting com-petitions because they’re lethal (and too slow or today’s proessional fghters), but they’re kept as a tradition.

muay Lang

The power style or Mike Tyson style o swinging or the ences. Emphasizes powerul shots over technical prowess. Muay Lang is also used as a ter m or royal bodyguards in Thailand.

muay ChaLaT

Intelligent style or Felix Trinidad style. Someone who’s reerred to as a Muay Chalat is said to have good eyes and good technique. The strikes are not that powerul, so this orm is used more by the older Muay Thai fghters. Muay Chalat uses timing to deeat brute orce with the least amount o eort possible.

muay PLum

Wrestling style. Emphasizes the use o body weight and control in the clinch to throw the opponent beore str iking.

muay sangha

Includes attuning the fghter’s energies to his nature and chanting to open the chakras o the body.

muay Ba

Crazy style. Just go or it and see what happens.

muay Chaiya, muay KoraT, muay Pra naKorn, Ta sao, muay LoPBuri

All regional styles developed in the fteenth and sixte enth centuries.

muay Bando

Burmese boxing. Muay Bando still uses the head butt, groin strikes, and kicks to the head when you’re on the ground. The Wai Khru Ram Muay is also di erent. It’s a Burmese dance that is not done until t he fght is over.

muay Khmer

Cambodian boxing. Some claim that Muay Thai actu-ally originated in Cambodia, and fgures o men fghting are indeed carved into the walls o ancient Cambodian temples. While there may be some merit to this theory, it’s undisputable that the art was developed and refned in Thailand and so is justifably called Muay Thai. To put it into perspective, Jiu-Jitsu was frst developed in Japan, but it spread to Brazil, where it morphed into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Ater that it was always called BJJ, not JJJ.