On Muay Thai

It is not just a sport. It is a test of courage. You have to be ready, especially after a lifetime of waiting. In fighting, you have to give it your best shot. You have to overcome your anxieties and look fear straight in the eye and just live the moment. It is a game of trust, in which one sets up the opponent to attack at the right moment. For five rounds, if he makes it, the fighter maintains this stance. He is tested based on his talents and the extent to which he carries himself in the ring as a fighter. There is no room for hesitation or sympathies. Even the underdog shall never stay down. Whether or not you intend to physically hurt your opponent, one has to come to terms with that, for that is the nature of the game.

If anything, it is brutal, even dangerous. Others will adamantly argue that it is nothing more than a human cockfight with bettors yelling from all sides of the arena, directing every step, calling out every move. There will be injuries – not the ones that can be treated at a moment's notice, but the really serious ones that could keep you shelved for months, the ones that are known to have claimed lives. The fighter shall not dwell on it while the match takes place. There is only do or die. When he is knocked down on cold cement, there is nothing to do but to get up just as quickly. After that, win or lose, when he looks back at that instant, he will see just how satisfyingly real it was and how good it felt to have done it all.

At the end of the day, it is all about proving oneself to the world, to the ones you love, and most importantly, to oneself. It is both excitement brewing within you throughout the fight, and adrenaline rushing out after. Anyone can try if they set their heart to it: those who feel that they have to prove something despite of dire prospects, those who feel as though they need it, those who need the money, and those who are just looking for the experience. A kid from the slums, a woman from the fields, and even an educated man from a completely different world had already proven so much in the time that they have invested in it.

Muay Thai then is not just a sport. It runs deeper than that. Only when you have managed to look past the costs and the risks and everything else in between, only when you have begun to understand just what it is that Muay Thai is about, when you have reflected on the deeper aspect of what the world knows as merely a sport, only then will you be prepared for the battle. Only then, will you be able to say that you were born a fighter.