VIDEO | A very small Muay Thai fight

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Things are different in Thailand. Just ask our good friend Mike “Quick” Swick.

Check out this crazy little Muay Thai fight between two very young competitors.

According to Black Belt Mag, Muay Thai is commonly known as kickboxing or Thai martial arts. However, it is technically not considered a martial art, but a sport that has been around since 1930. “Its techniques are taken from the more lethal art of muay boran, which originated from the older fighting style of ling lom (air monkey) via the ancient mother art of krabi krabong (stick and sword fighting).”

In regards to Muay Thai fights often being held between very young Thai children, “In 1999, the Foundation for Child Rights Protection Centre in Bangkok petitioned the Thai government to ban child boxing,” reported ESPN in a piece on young fighters and competition. “The motion failed when farmers argued that the rural economy would collapse without the purses their children brought home. A watered-down law — the Boxing Act of 1999 — required only a parental letter of permission for children under 15 to fight. Language to prohibit children from boxing for pay was put into the Child Protection Act of 2003, but the government continued to recognize the 1999 law. The push-and-pull over child pros has continued over the past decade.”

Peter Vail, a professor at National University of Singapore who has studied Muay Thai told ESPN, “Children from poor backgrounds don’t have many opportunities, and the countryside is rife with problems — everything from drug abuse, hooliganism, to having to work in potentially dangerous and underpaid jobs. Conversely, children who box are often admired in school — which many can afford to go to only because of the money they earn boxing — and they have a strict training regimen that keeps many of them out of trouble.

“None of this is to advocate children’s boxing, mind you, or deny its very real dangers. But again I think it has to be seen in context.”

What are your thoughts on the Muay Thai fighters competing at such a young age? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section!