We're not talking about Muay Thai needing to die for Kickboxing to succeed. We are saying that both sports are very similar to the casuals' eyes, and that it would be a lot easier for a big organisation to have success if the talent from both sports was gathered into one (a bit like during the K-1 days where you had Muay Thai fighters, Kyokushin fighters and pure Kickboxers all fighting in one organisation).
The talent being split across 2 sports and several organisations does actually impact the commercial success quite a bit. If instead of having lots of different organisations with a bit of talent you have just one main organisation with all the talent, it means them being able to organise more stacked cards more often and also more of a talent pool for matchmaking across all divisions. Right now we have organisations who tend to have a few divisions where they have some talent and then some divisions where they barelly have any (like Glory which thrives mostly just with heavier weight classes while it's the opposite with One FC).
The issue is you are presumably a fan, so you engage with the product by following fighters that you care about. Fans combat sports vastly overrate the importance of fighters in terms of business, because all the other stuff is relatively dry, and you have to learn about business to understand them.
There is almost no difference from when Glory or ONE stack their cards with their best fighters and ones that do not. Their problems with promotion and business is significantly larger than that.
The best fighters under one banner is good for people already following the product - but the problem is people who already follow kickboxing are fanatics because it is a niche sport. Having an org that has "all the divisions" wouldn't mean anything. The UFC did not have all of the best fighters and it still did well. If the UFC lost half its roster, it would still be worth 7 billion dollars.
The fact is, the reason why people do not watch kickboxing or Muay Thai has nothing to do with not being able to see Ricco and Takeru on the same card. There is just no evidence of that. People in America do not know who they are or care, so the issue isn't that one org doesn't have all these great athletes, it's that they don't know how to make people care about it.
Kickboxing being "split" is very low on the list of things that are "wrong" with kickboxing. Also, I would argue that having talent split among different orgs doesn't make a difference. Soccer and Rugby have many different promotions. Boxing is the biggest combat sport in the world and it is split into countless promotions. Pro Wrestling is a sibling to MMA and all the times Pro Wrestling has been at its biggest is when there were multiple large orgs which obviously split the talent.
Many of the best fighters in the world aren't actually in the UFC, but the UFC has convinced everyone that they are there. That is what makes the UFC, the UFC. It isn't that they have the best fighters, it's that everyone believes that they do. (this isn't a commentary on whether they have the majority of the best fighters or anything, it's highlighting that they are good at marketing, which is what kickboxing needs).
Kickboxing has promotional, financial, broadcasting, and merchandising problems - not really a talent one.
And I don't see why you think that Muay Thai isn't a "spectator" sport. It has been filling stadiums in Thailand for very long and the main reason it hasn't been big in the West is because it hasn't really been marketed properly with a big organisation and proper funding. It is what you call a "recreational sport" outside of Thailand only because it's almost impossible to make a living out of it outside of Thailand, because there aren't organisations with regular events and proper pay for fighters. I'd be ready to bet that they are actually more muay thai fighters than kickboxers even outside of Thailand.
Because it isn't. You just said it is not a spectator sport in this very post if ya think about it. A spectator sport is a sport people go out to watch, a recreational sport is what people practice. Running is a very popular sport, but people do not watch it. People practice Muay Thai far more than kickboxing, but no one watches Muay Thai on TV outside of Thailand.
It seems like you're taking that statement as "Muay Thai sucks, and can't be a spectator sport because it is inherently flawed" - or something of that manner. Yes, Muay Thai COULD become a spectator sport, literally every sport could. My statement is that it is NOT one, so it doesn't actually affect kickboxing commercially at all.
My post was long so sorry if it comes off as hostile. Just trying to flesh out my point.
