Muay Boran
มวยโบราณThe collective name for Thai boxing before the sporting reform of the 1920s and 1930s. Hands were bound with hemp rope; there was no ring, no rounds, no weight classes.
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About Muay Boran
Muay boran, literally ancient boxing, is not a single style but a collective name for Thai boxing in the form it had before the sporting reform of the 1920s and 1930s. Instead of gloves the hands were bound with hemp rope, kaad chuek. Fights took place without a ring, without rounds and without weight classes, and the arsenal was far wider than today's: besides fists, elbows, knees and shins, it used head butts, throws, locks and attacks on the joints — everything modern rules gradually banned. The regional schools differed in character. Muay Chaiya from the south is closed and defensive, emphasising elbows and guard. Muay Korat from the northeast rests on wide power strikes, nicknamed the buffalo throw. Muay Lopburi from the centre favours accurate straight punches, and Muay Thasao from the north favours speed — it is nicknamed monkey boxing. The best-known story attaches to Nai Khanom Tom, a Thai captive said to have defeated a series of opponents in Burmese captivity in 1774 and won his freedom. The evidence is thin, but Thailand keeps a boxers' holiday on that date. Today muay boran is practised more as heritage and shown at demonstrations; interest in it was revived by the films of Tony Jaa.
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