ONE Sued In Thailand For Perverting Muay Thai

A political backlash is brewing in Thailand after ‘entertainment fighting’ has led to a loss of visibility and prestige for traditional Muay Thai.

Don’t call it Muay Thai if it’s not really Muay Thai. That’s the lesson ONE Championship may learn the hard way after the Boxing Association of Thailand has filed a lawsuit against the promotion alleging the combat sports promotion is violating the Boxing Act of 2002.

ONE Championship is a bit of a rarity in the landscape as it regularly features all manner of fights using all sorts of rulesets at its event. MMA, kickboxing, Muay Thai, submission grappling, and boxing bouts have all been seen during ONE events. But apparently if you are going to call a match Muay Thai, it needs to follow very specific rules and regulation, otherwise it’s just ‘Sparkling Kickboxing.’

People in Thailand are just as serious about the brand and identity of Muay Thai as businesses in Champagne, France. And now the Director of Boxing Palat Suwannametakorn has taken legal matters to stop ONE from calling its fights and Muay Thai championship belt ‘Muay Thai.’

In a Facebook post, Channel 44 Chef Boontham posted “This matter, I confirm again, is to protect the art of Muay Thai, which is a national treasure of Thailand, of Thai people, that we are Thai people. We must preserve it for our children.”

“Upon inspection, it was found that Boxing ONE does not follow standard rules and regulations for Boxing Competition (No. 2) 2013, Region 4 … I’ll give you an example to see if in this regulation: Muay Thai fighters must pay homage to teachers, wear auspicious clothes, and dress up to be neat like Muay Thai that fight each other today. But ONE doesn’t follow the rules.”

Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu, a photographer and husband to Muay Thai fighter Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu, gave more context to the lawsuit in a Facebook post.

“Basically, this is a push back on the appropriation of the cultural heritage of the sport, and the Thai government’s inability to regulate it,” he wrote. “Over the last near decade the regulation of Muay Thai proper was circumvented under the auspices of ‘Entertainment Muay Thai.’ These shows were considered not ‘sport’ per se, but rather only entertainment, grouped together with non-sport shows.”

“This struggle has deep political roots, going back more than a decade ago when MMA was not legal in the country (unsanctioned), under the argument that its introduction would threaten Thailand’s Muay Thai. At the time it seemed quite unrealistic that a few MMA shows would threaten anything about Thailand’s Muay Thai which seemed sewn into the very culture. But, Chatri did gain government permission to put on a big MMA show in Bangkok (combined with a rock concert … hence, the entertainment notion) which really helped break open this impasse.”

“At the time Chatri argued that an MMA fight promotion really is no different than a rock concert. Fighters and singers are basically the same.”

“Now, 10 years later, quite unexpectedly the renown National Stadia weight classes and belts have vanished (not MMA’s fault, but the demise is not unrelated to Entertainment fighting),” Duuglas-Ittu continued. “Lumpinee Stadium has transformed into an arena which does not host traditional Muay Thai but does host MMA, and the same arguments that were being used to keep MMA out of the country a decade ago are now being used in a lawsuit directed at ONE.”

The big question here is whether the Boxing Association of Thailand has backing in the current government, and if they simply want ONE Championship to stop holding Muay Thai fights or want to push ONE and/or MMA out of the country entirely. The repercussions could be huge at a time where ONE is trying to get a toehold in North America with its first U.S. show on May 5th in Colorado.