As some of you may or may not know, there was a major milestone for Muay Thai in the United States. A set of unified rules was recently drafted for the States. This is a major breakthrough, as it will provide individual States with scoring guidelines.
Our UK readers may not know this, but the state of muay thai rules in the US and judging is like it was in the UK several years ago. I think UK fighters take it for granted that your bout will be scored properly under muay thai scoring and judging.
In the states it can be very much a mixed bag from show to show… No elbow in certain States, no Prajiad or wai kru in certain places.
One of the individuals who was brought in and consulted when drafting the rules was the UK’s Dr. Tony Myers. Dr. Myers is an internationally recognised expert on Muay Thai scoring and judging. In addition to his judging he coaches fighters at Phra Chao Suua. I had a chance to chat with him on a subject I know next to nothing about.
Unified scoring is the first step in preserving and growing our sport. It will help improve the overall judging and scoring of bouts. In turn it will help create more well rounded fighters.
Many thanks to Dr. Myers for taking the time out of his busy teaching schedule to speak with MMT.
October 18, 2011 at 8:09 pm
It would be up to each state commission if that state even has a commission. The wai kru is a time constraint issue which is up to the promoter.