Muay Thai

Muay Thai is well respected here. I went to a championship match last night. There are two stadiums in Bangkok and they have fights on opposite nights. The night I wanted to go the staium was within walking distance.
The stadium seats a few thousand at the most. The upper tiers, where 90% of fans sat is behind chainlink fence. Those seats are 1000 baht, or roughly 30$. Mine were front row, 2000 baht. Its best just to buy tickets at the gate. You can buy from the tourist bureaus as well, but its the same price at the door.

The stadium is ancient. Thais don't replace anything ever, unless its completely lost its usefulness. The judges tables look like they were bought at a yard sale. Guys with flowered shirts come and bring you chips and beer. The chips are a rip off, tiny bags with only 5 or 6 chips in them.

The first few fights are boring. Young lightweights, 92 lbs for the first fight, who are very reactive and end up throwing the same kicks at each other at the same time, and bouncing off each other. As the fights so on and  the weight classes go up, it gets more interesting. The championship fights was super heavy weights, Thai Style, 148lbs.

The first two rounds of any fight typically suck. Its a feeling out process. The crowd hasn't started betting yet. The last three rounds are fun. Usually by then the crowd has taken a side. When the favorite lands a strike they all cheer "aaaaaayyyyy" when the other guy lands a smaller group cheers a full octave lower "ooooooohhhh" The corners get incredibly animated, 4 or 5 guys all jumping around, yelling instructions. When the fighters end up in a clinch too long the ref separates them. He has to pull them apart physically, like two sides of a grilled cheese sandwich. Sometimes he'll throw his leg in between them to prevent kicks while he pushes back on their faces.

The fighters are extremely respectful of each other, cheapshots are rare but they happen. I only saw it from one fighter. He threw two illegal knees while the ref was pulling them apart, then threw a cross after the bell. He was rewarded with a hard groin shot a round later. He signalled to the ref who ignored him, I'm guessing because of the cheap shots earlier.

I saw a new champ get crowned that night! Here's a vid of the last half of the final round.