The thing that worries me when I watch Muay Thai outside of Thailand and the near countries, is the refereeing, and I don’t mean only the judges, who often ignore the scoring based on the Thai holistic model of which I already talked about few months ago on MuayFarang.com (Link).
I actually mean the prevention of eventual accidents, thanks to the ring referee. The significant difference between the Thai and Western referees is that the Thai one lives the fight, exactly as the 2 fighters on the ring, and so he is physically inside the fight and acts with oustanding timing; while the western referees still act too much as if they were just watching the fight.
Sometimes i watch fights and I ask myself if the main referee bought a ticket to stay on the ring or to enjoy the fight closely, obviously I’m joking but often something close to this happens.
I want to show you this video that shows exaclty what it means to be inside the fight, an active referee and to ensure the fighter’s safety.
An emblematic example, but can you find something similar in the western countries?
Read also this interesting article written by Muay Thai Pros blog: Link.
Chok Dee