80's 90's standard > Current standard

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The Kickboxing and Thai fighters of the 80's and early 90's in my opinion were on a complete different level to the current crop especially on the regional circuit.

They were better technically and were far superior mentally to what you will see today.

Discuss.
 
Not really. Kickboxing divisions outside of heavyweight didn't really exist in any meaningful way at that time.

Muay Thai you would have a better case, because I think that the talent pool was much deeper, at at least some points, during that period of time. But even then, I think that fighters of recent times would have still have some distinct edges technique wise.
 
I think the talent level is about the same, we just don't have things as centralized as it used to be. The way things were in the past, if you wanted to prove yourself in Kickboxing, you would enter either a K-1 WGP or a K-1 World MAX tournament. This forced fighters between heavyweight and ~70kg to either cut weight or gain weight, because you didn't really get to do much if you didn't, and it gave the world one easy place to look for top level kickboxing. Nowadays, you have GLORY, Kunlun Fight, Wu Lin Feng, Enfusion, Bellator, ONE, K-1, Krush (which I think is a K-1 affiliate), and a few more I am forgetting. Since all of the really high level guys aren't in one place, it gives the illusion that overall the level is lower, where it's just more spread out. Of course, that's just my point of view; could easily be wrong
 
In Muay Thai i think since the talent pool was bigger, there were a few more special , outstanding fighters and the competition was probably tougher. Top fighters from today could probably beat top fighters from back then though.
 
I don't know much about past kickboxing demographics, but this would make some sense to me. MMA is probably absorbing some of the talent that would have gone into kickboxing in the 80s and 90s.

MT I have no idea. Have there been any demographic or economic changes that *reduced* the number of fighters since the 80s and 90s?
 
Muay Thai? Maybe. Kickboxing? Nah.
You canr compare 1 weight class (openweight) 1 org in the 90s to 6 weight class 6 orgs now.

Fighters like Hoost, Andy Hug, and Cro Cop would cut to 205 or 185 pound if they were in this era. And they would be fighting in diffent org as well.
 
MT I have no idea. Have there been any demographic or economic changes that *reduced* the number of fighters since the 80s and 90s?

We often hear/read that the number of muay thai fighters in Thailand is much lower than in the 80's and 90's because of a few reasons: lower purses; kids flocking to soccer instead of muay thai; and crystal meth epidemy.
 
We often hear/read that the number of muay thai fighters in Thailand is much lower than in the 80's and 90's because of a few reasons: lower purses; kids flocking to soccer instead of muay thai; and crystal meth epidemy.

Very interesting. Do you think they're right about those trends?

(We often hear similar claims made about boxing in the United States -- less money and prestige now, drugs, kids going into different sports, and so on. There might be something to it, at least as far as American boxing goes. It would be very interesting to see parallel processes in different combat sports.)
 
Very interesting. Do you think they're right about those trends?
Fighters make less money now. At least compared to the late 80's to early 90's, the number of fighters who average 6 figure baht purses is much lower. I'm not sure about fighters from the early to mid 80's though.

The number of fighters in camps today vs in the past is much lower. Back in the day you even had camps that day over 100 professional fighter living there at one time. I'm sure that Sor Ploenchit had an exceptionally high number of fighters even for the time. But I'd be shocked if any camp today comes even close to that number.
 
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Fighters make less money now. At least compared to the late 80's to early 90's, the number of fighters who average 6 figure baht purses is much lower. I'm not sure about fighters from the early to mid 80's though.

The number of fighters in camps today vs in the past is much lower. Back in the day you even had camps that day over 100 professional fighter living there at one time. I'm sure that Sor Ploenchit had an exceptionally high number of fighters even for the time. But I'd be shocked if any camp today comes even close to that number.



Fighters make less money now. At least compared to the late 80's to early 90's, the number of fighters who average 6 figure baht purses is much lower. I'm not sure about fighters from the early to mid 80's though.

The number of fighters in camps today vs in the past is much lower. Back in the day you even had camps that day over 100 professional fighter living there at one time. I'm sure that Sor Ploenchit had an exceptionally high number of fighters even for the time. But I'd be shocked if any camp today comes even close to that number.


Huh. That's very interesting. Does the decline in pay correlate to a drop in public interest in MY (gate receipts, etc.) or has the business itself changed so that fighters just aren't paid as much?
 
That's a shame. It's an awesome sport with a long history behind it.

Any signs of revival on the horizon, or do you think this is the new normal?
Its not as popular, but its still hugely popular especially compared to MT anywhere else in the world.
 
I think the talent level is about the same, we just don't have things as centralized as it used to be. The way things were in the past, if you wanted to prove yourself in Kickboxing, you would enter either a K-1 WGP or a K-1 World MAX tournament. This forced fighters between heavyweight and ~70kg to either cut weight or gain weight, because you didn't really get to do much if you didn't, and it gave the world one easy place to look for top level kickboxing. Nowadays, you have GLORY, Kunlun Fight, Wu Lin Feng, Enfusion, Bellator, ONE, K-1, Krush (which I think is a K-1 affiliate), and a few more I am forgetting. Since all of the really high level guys aren't in one place, it gives the illusion that overall the level is lower, where it's just more spread out. Of course, that's just my point of view; could easily be wrong
Some millionaire needs to buy K-1 and make Kickboxing great again, but in Las Vegas. For Muay Thai fights (in this new K-1 promotion) needs to bring all the Muay Thai elite and throw out the music, rituals and that tradition of slow starts of fights. I would change the K-1 rules, small gloves.. MMA size, 3 rounds of 10 minutes, and never that bullshit of more than 1 fight the same night
 
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Some millionaire needs to buy K-1 and make Kickboxing great again, but in Las Vegas. For Muay Thai fights (in this new K-1 promotion) needs to bring all the Muay Thai elite and throw out the music, rituals and that tradition of slow starts of fights. I would change the K-1 rules, small gloves.. MMA size, 3 rounds of 10 minutes, and never that bullshit of more than 1 fight the same night
So in other words a millionaire should buy K-1 (already happened hello Mr Kim how did that work out?) then completely change it to a completely different sport in the US which was a complete failure of a market for Glory. Gotcha.
 
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