Great East Coast vs West Coast Debate

Here is a great article we found interesting

The last time a debate between the East Coast and West Coast got this heated, we lost Tupac and Biggie. Thankfully, the debate between the east and west Muay Thai scene can be solved sans gunfire. There will still be plenty of fireworks but they will be limited to the space between the four corner posts of a boxing ring. Now, unless you have been living under a rock the last few weeks or are simply not a Muay Thai fan, which would make me question why you are even on this site to begin with, than you know that I’m talking about the comments made by West Coast Muay Thai fighter Chaz Mulkey about the New York Muay Thai scene.

Now a lot of great fighters, trainers, and promoters have given their opinion and I thought I would see what they had to say before I came in to put in my two cents. Honestly, as much as some of my friends in the New York Muay Thai scene would hate for me to say, I think Mulkey has a point. I think the problem for most people isn’t the content of Mulkey’s words but rather the way in which it was expressed. I have long since been a Muay Thai purist and have to agree with Mulkey that Muay Thai without elbows is really not Muay Thai. As my friend John Wolcott said in a previous article, the sport is not called “The Science of 6 Limbs” it’s called “The Science of 8 Limbs”. Fighting Muay Thai without two of it’s most lethal weapons is really going against a tradition that a lot of us as nakmuays have chosen to uphold. I do believe that if New York continues to disallow elbows, promotions should should opt to call it “K-1 Rules” or “Modified Muay Thai” rules in order to let the public really understand, once and for all, what the differences are between Muay Thai and Kickboxing. Because whether some people believe it or not, they are two entirely different things.

Chaz Mulkey’s comments bring up an issue that needs to be resolved. And that is that Muay Thai in the U.S. needs to have a unified set of rules in order to differentiate it from the hundreds of types of kickboxing rules, oriental rules, international rules, and/or any other type of rules that are currently floating around in the U.S. Muay Thai scene. Point is, when people watch Mixed Martial Arts, they know what the rules are because all major organizations that promote Mixed Martial Arts follow the same set of rules. However, when people see Muay Thai they don’t know whether the fight allows elbows or not; or whether it allows a clinch with unlimited knee strikes or a limited clinch with one knee strike allowed before fighters are separated.

This inconsistency in the rules breeds confusion in the common fan, this confusion breeds ignorance, and ignorance ruins everything, including but not limited to the exposure of both Muay Thai and K-1 Style Kickboxing.

Now, where I take issue with Mulkey’s comments is when he deems New York fighters skilled amateurs at best, since in reality it is not the fighters that make the decision to fight without elbows. Let’s face it, as progressive and forward thinking as New York City is, for some reason it has fallen behind in the fight game. Not because of the fighters, but because of the states BS rule that doesn’t allow elbows in Muay Thai and a ridiculous ban on the ever-growing sport of MMA. With that said, when it comes to the current Muay Thai scene in NYC, it really isn’t the fighters fault that the state doesn’t allow elbows. They simply fight within the rules that are stipulated by the promotion or the governing body behind the sanctioning of such events.

Having attended and fought in events in New York…

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