ruleWhat is not allowed
สิ่งที่ผิดกติกา · sing thi phit katika
The head is out. The groin, in Thailand, is a more complicated answer.
What it is
Headbutts, biting, eye attacks and strikes to a downed opponent are out everywhere. The interesting exception is the groin.
The long version
The English article records that strikes to the groin were permitted until the late 1980s, and are "still permitted in Thailand itself, and in club or competition events that abide to the traditional rules". Fighters wear a hard cup; that is what the cup is for.
The other silent rule is the head. Thai sources note that some manuals count nine weapons rather than eight by adding the head, and ten by adding the backside. Neither is legal in the ring, which is exactly why the count that survived into the sport's English name is eight.
Connected to
- The eight limbs Why the count stops at eight.
- The cup What the groin rule requires.
Named here by
- The cup Why it is made of steel.
Where each claim comes from
| Field | Tier | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| default | cited | Muay Thai — Wikipedia (en) | |
| text_th | inference | written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated |
Sources
cited Cited — a named source, linked · harvested Harvested — fetched from an open dataset, with its licence · tradition Tradition — general knowledge of the tradition, hedged · inference Inference — this project's own reasoning from the above · field Field — someone stood there