When you listen to “Muay-Thai Boxing” for kids, it might sound like the excitement of after school, but then again, you’re in for a big surprise. Thai boys and girls, even before reaching puberty, have already turned professionals thanks to funding for training and public fights. In modern Thailand, teenagers from the age of five start earning money by participating in a style of professional wrestling, more correctly the combat sport also known as “Science/Art of 8 Limbs” which uses fists, knees and feet as well as elbows.
Young wrestlers prepare their bodies for competition in the rough and ready ring, primarily with the goal of concentrating on body conditioning during daily training exercises. On the other hand, medical professionals say it is dangerous, unsafe and want to ban it. However, when they ask you, why do you fight? a general response from a child boxer is usually “I fight to make my mom and dad happy.”
This 700-year-old Thai martial art can almost seem like there is a spiritual part to Muay-Thai. Once perceived as Thailand’s best resource for defending itself against foreign invasion, but in modern times, Muay-Thai is not a weapon to keep the nation safe; However, the thirst for excitement makes this a fierce and urgent sport. On the other hand, it is also one of the few avenues for thousands of children and their parents in rural Thailand through which they can escape extreme poverty.
Thailand’s leadership applied the official rules to the Muay Boran region, when larger numbers of fighters often suffered fatal injuries, leading to Muay-Thai becoming a sport. Starting from the ancient martial art of Muay Boran, these warriors of skills begin their exercises with only 6 or 7 years. Each young man stands up to exchange the family’s riches for her with a winning blow, as teenage daughters and sons savagely punch and kick each other. others in rustic rings throughout Thailand, while the entertained public places their bets (particularly families, friends, farmers and trainers). In fact, the combat champion will earn more money in an hour than a farmer or factory worker earns in a month.
When the Thailand Children’s Rights Protection Center Foundation in Bangkok tried to influence the Thai government to ban children’s boxing, farmers in the countryside fell into line, arguing that the agricultural economy would collapse if such fights were banned; Thereafter, the motion to ban children’s prize fights failed. Although it is not clear, when it comes to the long-term effects on children, these villagers eventually found these boxing matches to be an economic necessity.
Many disadvantages of children’s Muay-Thai boxing simply cannot be overlooked, where children are exploited by greedy parents and trainers. It may well be wrong to encourage competition at such a young age, but then again, this is not unique to Thailand; For example, beauty pageants for young girls in the United States are very popular with some, but could easily be disputed as exploitation by others.
