Although this is certainly a disgusting and embarrassing reflection on the kickboxing promotions themselves they do not bear the blame alone. Portions of the kickfighting community share a substantial amount of the blame. They played, and continue to play, a role in enforcing the status quo by the creation of false narratives, which regardless of the intentions with which they were conceived, have been used to justify the way Thais were and are treated. People within the kickfighting community, either journalist or people on forums or however, have claimed over and over, totally without evidence since Thais were almost never granted opportunities in kickboxing, that either there was no reason to think that the average Thai could succeed or that when bringing a Thai into kickboxing it was a big question mark. Look no further, for evidence of the pervasiveness of this false narrative, than Glory commentator Joseph Valtellini who brings it up every time he calls a fight involving a Thai. Stereotypes about the ways in which Thais, supposedly, fight serve to reinforce such notions. Since Thais, allegedly, can't punch, don't have footwork, don't move their head, etc., then of course they won't succeed in kickboxing. I need hardly add that such claims were almost never made about specific Thais or Thais who had fought in kickboxing but almost always about an abstract Thai boogeyman. And all Thais, allegedly, fight this way; they are completely homogeneous and without individuality. The label for this style of fighting is, of course, "traditional muay thai", in contrast to the "modern styles of muay thai" (dutch style, brazilian etc.) which, allegedly, are very effective. It should be obvious, given the success of fighters like Sittichai, Superbon, Kaew Fairtex that such stereotypes were in no way rooted in fact or, even if they were, have no relevance for determining whether someone will be a successful kickboxer or not. Of course many people already knew that what the upholders of the status quo were saying was bullshit and many of them said as much. In fact many people did and do go further and claimed that the reason for the policies to keep the Thais down was cowardice. And the reason for keeping the Thais out was that kickboxing promotions feared, with good reason, that the Thais would dominate their divisions, if they were given comparable opportunities to fighters from the Netherlands, Japan, America, Oceania etc. However, and this bring me to another point about the ways in which kickfighting community enforced the status quo through false narratives, there was and continues to be a significant effort to discredit people who criticise the kickfighting status quo. Although it amounts to little more than name calling, the critics of the status quo were singled out as being so biased and blinded by their love for the Thais that their criticisms weren't legitimate. These are the so called "Thai nuthuggers", "Thai elitists", "Thai fanboys", etc. Prior to the last couple of years it was often claimed that, since we had hardly seen any Thais had succeed in kickboxing, the whole idea that Thais would dominate kickboxing, if given the chance, was obviously the result of a strong bias. However, since at the time Thais were hardly ever given opportunities to prove themselves in kickboxing, it was very difficult for the "Thai fanboys" to refute such claims. Now, however, it seems pretty obvious that the fanboys are right and that Thais will dominate their weight classes in kickboxing, if given the chance, since they are already well on their way to doing so.
