Dub's wanted a story and this is it:
One of the coolest things I've done so far was going to see the big Muai Thai boxing night in Bangkok on Thursday. It turns out that Thursday night boxing at the Rajadamnern Stadium is roughly the equivalent of Monday Night Football. It's the biggest pro fight of the week with a full ticket leading up to it, which this week included to past champions one forty years old and one fifty but not looking a day over thirty. I ended up ringside sitting next to a guy acting as a tour guide for some trainers from out of town and he was able to explain to me most of what was going on. The stadium is broken up into three sections - ringside, lower and upper levels. There's no sitting on the lower or upper levels, its just concrete steps with a floor to ceiling chain link fence separating the two. The third level is dark and there was a section clearing brawl around the time of the second fight. That's about all I can tell you about it. In the lower section there is mad betting for the first three to four out of five rounds. It is coordinated through stock exchange like hand gestures, with an out stretched thumb meaning the guy with the red shorts and a pinky finger indicating blue with the rest of fingers denoting the odds. These guys are good - they memorize all their bets and money is paid out before the judges have given the official result.
The matches themselves are highly ritualized and start off with some kneeling and praying and dancing and doing things such as facing the crowd, standing on one leg and flapping your arms like a bird - actually if you've ever done the gargoyle on a keg its a lot like that. The first couple rounds are for feeling each other out and then the fourth round is when most of the bets are made and the match is decided. If there is a clear winner, the fifth round is largely half-assed or someone may spend the start going for a knockout and then just kill time for a few minutes at the end. In Muai Thai you can only score points with your legs but can use fists and elbows to go for a knockout, knockdown, ect. At times it reminds me of cage fighting, but it's not just two human beings unceremoniously destroying each other.
When each round starts, so does the music. A rhythmic upbeat, higher pitched temply music that picks up pace intensely as the round goes on. So in the beginning the fighters are slowly bobbing their gloves up and down in time with it and by the end its at a furious pace and so is the action which is further complimented by a special shout going up from the crowd with every point scored. (the best phonetic spelling for it that I can find is 'ohaaay') In the highly contested and highly wagered rounds of the best matches it's a chant that builds along with the music and the sweat flying off the contestants into a feverish tension that peaks and explodes uproariously with the sounding bell. By far one of the coolest sporting events I've ever seen.
