Which years did Muay Thai peak?

[Intermission]

What are the highest quality fights during peak Muay Thai era?

 

[SuperLuigi]

The conventional answer is late 80s and early 90s. Personally I prefer 2005-2015.

 

[Stoic1]

I call it "The Buakaw Era".

 

[Intermission]

The conventional answer is late 80s and early 90s. Personally I prefer 2005-2015.

What are the arguments for and against each one?

 

[SuperLuigi]

What are the arguments for and against each one?

Most people like the late 80s and early 90s because it was technical but also stylistically diverse. With 2005-2015 you get less muay maats and more fimeus. Its just a matter of which you prefer to watch. I've always preferred watching fimeus because they dont exist in other sports, while I can see guys slug it out in just about any fight sport.

 

[TJ Dillashank]

My favorite has to be when guys like Saenchai, Nong O, Singdam, Petchmorakot, etc were all fighting each other all the time back in like 2014

 

[PrideNverDies]

Some say the golden era ended in the early to mid 2000s

 

[Mickf]

Some say the golden era ended in the early to mid 2000s

Most would say around mid 90's. Definitly by '97 the year of the asian financial crash.
The reasons the mid to late 80's to mid 90's approx is the golden era for me is you had loads of fighters, really deep divisions, aggression mixed with technically skilled fighters, proper ranking sysytems, rapidly rising purses, variety of styles, smaller gloves.
The wider reasons for this is thailand had the fastest growing eceonomy in the world. From approx mid 80's to mid 90's.
But you still had a lot of very poor fighters who were really motivated to earn big purses and opportunities.

 

[Trabaho]

I always watched K1 and kickboxing not Muay Thai. Modern Muay Thai in One FC looks good. I like Japan K1/Max better then todays Glory.

 

[Snubnoze707]

Most would say around mid 90's. Definitly by '97 the year of the asian financial crash.
The reasons the mid to late 80's to mid 90's approx is the golden era for me is you had loads of fighters, really deep divisions, aggression mixed with technically skilled fighters, proper ranking sysytems, rapidly rising purses, variety of styles, smaller gloves.
The wider reasons for this is thailand had the fastest growing eceonomy in the world. From approx mid 80's to mid 90's.
But you still had a lot of very poor fighters who were really motivated to earn big purses and opportunities.

You can just throw on any fight from this era and it's going to be straight fireworks with kill-mode activated.

2000's still had some great fights and fighters but you start to see people fighting for the gamblers, and not to destroy their opponent.

 

[Mickf]

You can just throw on any fight from this era and it's going to be straight fireworks with kill-mode activated.

2000's still had some great fights and fighters but you start to see people fighting for the gamblers, and not to destroy their opponent.

Agreed. Also I forgot to metion the late 80's to mid 90's era had great atmosphere's and big attendances in the stadiums. Mostly standing crowd who understood muay thai. Also steroids were practically non-exsistent.