Underage Thai Boxing – Brutal fighting Sport?

While perusing a magazine recently, I came across a story that shocked me to my core. It was about underage Thai boxing that takes place between Thai boys and Burmese boys in a district along the Thai-Burmese border called Mae Sot. How anyone can enjoy watching a sport like this or actually force children to participate in it is just horrendous. Muay Thai boxing is very popular in Thailand and in many other parts of the world as well, it is a sport regulated by rules and governed by an organising body that oversees the fights. This child exploitation that takes places in Mae Sot is not regulated, has only very basic rules and is unbelievably brutal.

The article which appeared in a 2005 edition of Maxim magazine (UK edition, Dennis Publishing) gave an in-depth look into this horrible sport. Basically what the sport entails is young Thai boys as young as 10 fighting against young Burmese boys, also 10, until one of them cannot stand up anymore or is bleeding profusely from the face or anywhere else. Kicks to the groin and anywhere else are allowed and most fighters go for the neck and try to twist it or break it to debilitate the other fighter. The problem with this scenario, besides the obvious, is the fact that most of the Thai fighters have some level of training under their belt but the Burmese ones don’t have any sort of formal training to rely on. The matches are usually very one sided with the Thai boys beating their Burmese rivals to a pulp.

These matches are a den of illegal activity, with gambling featuring heavily on the cards and also sick paedophiles roaming the rings looking for someone young to prey on. The whole thing is very illegal and extremely dangerous for the poor boys involved, with many receiving life threatening injuries and many dying as a result of them. The Burmese boys fare far worse than their Thai counterparts because of the fact that once the Burmese fighters enter into Thailand they become illegal immigrants and cannot receive medical treatment without a registration card. This fact alone has lead to many deaths and crippling injuries to the Burmese fighters over the years. With so much dodgy activity going on it is a wonder why no one has stepped in to stop this illegal and brutal sport. The Thai government have a moral obligation to ensure this sport is banned and the practice stopped. The Burmese boys are preyed upon and lured to fight because of insurmountable poverty and usually losing their parents and not having any means to support themselves except for fighting this way. They get paid peanuts while the organisers and bookies make a killing from the exploitation of these poor boys.

Any sort of martial arts or contact sport requires rules and regulations because without them our society as a whole descends into chaos and a primitive thug like state. This degradation of society needs to be curtailed by any means necessary and firstly it will involve a ban and complete halt to the practice of underage Thai boxing. By better policing techniques along the border and pushing for higher levels of punishment for organisers, fight promoters and trainers, it can result to an end of this illegal practice sooner than later. Action must be taken against this horrific ‘sport.’

Children need to be children and their innocence is ended the second they step into a ring and start pounding another child. Children should be helped to reduce differences between each other and ending illogical racial differences but instead horrendous sports like this will only help to promote stereotypical violent behaviour in children and that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Thai children will continue to see Burmese children as an enemy they need to destroy by beating the life out of, and Burmese children will feel the same way. It is very sad and hopefully steps will be taken to ensure its end.

However much anyone likes violence and watching violent sports they probably will cringe at the thought of two boys at the age of 10 fighting each other. They will probably get sickened to find out that there are hardly any rules and a lot of these boys die as a result of fighting. Hopefully society will stand up and end brutal fighting sports like underage boxing or violent blood sports like dog fighting or cock fighting in order to rise above injustice and become a more enlightened place to live in for all.