A dream of mine was finally realized when I made it to the headquarters of Muay Thai in Bangkok. As someone who has a longstanding interest in the martial arts and other combat styles (also via work on embodied and situated cognition), this was a treat indeed. With a ringside seat, I could witness all the action in close-grained detail. What I especially appreciated was the pre-fight ritual but moreover the palpable respect and affection the fighters had for their opponents. Even in the heat of combat, there was no anger at all to be detected — and some really severe blows did not affect the countenance and composure of the recipient. There were two fully-fledged knock-downs that then and there decided the bout. But in the spirit of seeing things through, both participants saw out the time out by not engaging but by doing an Ali, dancing around each other without striking a blow. The bill had some 5 bouts beginning with 2 bouts by what must have been guys not older than 17 years of age. Muay Thai is the one style I’d say has a chance against Wing Chun but what could be very interesting is to see a fighter in MMA who is well versed in both. From my knowledge of both Karate and Muay Thai, 9 times out of 10, I’d wager on the latter coming out top for the reasons outlined here.
manwithoutqualities 