Muay Thai (Thai Boxing)
Muay Thai is a full-contact fighting sport of the combat sports discipline in which fighters try to defeat their opponents by using hitting and kicking techniques. The sport originated in Thailand, and started gaining international popularity when Muay Thai fighters were able to defeat fighters that practiced other forms of martial arts.
Fighters use different techniques that make use of fists, elbows, knees, and shins. Recently, many fighters in MMA have included many Muay Thai techniques in their fights.
kickboxing matchFights are conducted in a square shaped ring and fighters wear boxing gloves for fights. Shoes are not allowed, but an ankle cap is accepted.
Muay Thai fights are conducted in rounds, where each fight lasts for a maximum of five rounds. Each round is 3 minutes long. There is a 2-minute rest time in between rounds.
Fights are adjudged by a panel of judges who score fighters in each round. The winner of the fight is decided based on points, except in the case of a knockout. A knockout is a result, if any part of a fighter's body, except the feet, touches the floor, or if a fighter is unable to defend himself.
There are a total of 18 different classifications of fighters based on weight, and competitions have fights for all weight classifications.
Muay Thai at the World Games
Muay Thai made its debut into the World Games at the 2017 Wroclaw World Games, with combat as the only discipline. Subsequently, it featured in the 2022 Birmingham World Games and the 2025 Chengdu World Games.
The foundations of Muay Thai are built on five strong pillars - respect, honor, excellence, tradition, and fair play. It is a combat sport that utilizes stand-up striking and different clinching techniques. This sport is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" because it is characterized by the combined use of fists, elbows, knees, and shins.
Every technique in Muay Thai employs entire body movement, rotating the hip with each kick, punch, elbow, and block. Muay Thai matches are decided through points or knock-out, or the referee stopping the bout.
Each round of this sport is a three-minute fight with a one-minute break in between. The best athlete in each round gets 10 points, while the losing athlete gets 9/8/7 points for the round based on his/her performance. Interestingly, if both athletes were impressive in the round, they might get the 10 points for that round.
Here are the medalists who won gold at this event:
| Event | Medal | Name | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's -57kg | Gold | SHELESKO Dmytro | Ukraine |
| Men's -71kg | Gold | SHAKHTARIN Konstantin | Athlètes Individuels Neutres |
| Men's -86kg | Gold | LIVADARI Artiom | Moldova |
| Women's -48kg | Gold | LIU Xiaohui | China |
| Women's -54kg | Gold | BURGOS LOPEZ Laura Fernanda | Mexico |
| Women's -60kg | Gold | HAN Xin | China |
Similar Sports
- Kickboxing —a group of stand-up combat sports based on kicking and punching. V
- Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) — a full-contact individual combat sport that includes aspects of several other combat sports and martial arts.
- Pencak Silat — a fighting sport from Indonesia which collectively encompasses martial arts of various styles.
- Lethwei — an unarmed Burmese martial art similar to other kickboxing styles from the region.
- Karate — a martial art developed in Japan that uses punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes, and some open-hand techniques.
Related Pages
- Muay Thai Demonstration at the Paris 2024 Olympics
- Muay Thai vs. Boxing: Which Martial Art Reigns Supreme?
- Sport in Thailand
- Complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports — a list of every sport from around the world.
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