Muay Thai
มวยไทยThai boxing, the art of eight limbs — fists, elbows, knees and shins, complemented by clinch work. It moved into the ring in the early twentieth century.
Quick Facts
ThailandCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Muay Thai
About Muay Thai
Muay thai is Thailand's national combat sport and a direct descendant of the older muay boran systems that served the army. The shift to its present form came in the early twentieth century: a ring, boxing gloves, weight classes and timed rounds were introduced, and the rope hand wraps disappeared. The nickname "the art of eight limbs" describes it exactly. Alongside fists and feet, elbows and knees are used in full, which is the fundamental difference from kickboxing — and with them the clinch, in which the opponent is held by the neck and worked with knees. The clinch is characteristic of the Thai style and is broken up under many other rulesets. Training rests on repeating a small number of techniques to perfection: shin kicks on pads, bag work, clinch and sparring. The signature technique is the shin kick delivered with the whole hip rather than the instep, so much of the work goes into conditioning and timing. A bout is preceded by the ritual dance wai kru ram muay, in which the fighter honours his teacher. The competitive base in Thailand runs deep: professionals start as children and have hundreds of fights behind them before reaching the big Bangkok stadiums. In Europe muay thai is widely available and serves both as a sport in its own right and as the standard striking component of MMA preparation.
Styles & Branches
The 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.
The Thai art of armed combat, which in tradition comes before empty-hand fighting. Its signature is the paired daab swords; training is accompanied by drums, as in muay thai.
The southern Thai branch of muay boran. It is known for a very tight guard in which the body forms a closed shape; it fights from defence and counters.
The form of muay in which the hands are bound with hemp rope instead of gloves. It precedes sporting muay thai and survives in demonstrations and special divisions.
One of the four regional styles of muay boran, from the Nakhon Ratchasima area. It is known for the power of wide-angle strikes thrown from long range.
The oldest of the four muay boran circles, linked to the Mon of Dvaravati. It builds on speed and mobility rather than on power, unlike the Korat school.
Traditional Thai art of clinch wrestling and takedowns.
Traditional holistic school of Muay Boran and self-defense famous for fluid movement.
Northern branch of traditional Muay Boran famous for incredible speed and kicking flexibility.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.