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Brief History of Women's fighters in Thailand.
Thousands of years ago when MuayThai was a purely martial means of attrack and defense, women known as Khunying Mae Yamo fought alongside their men using MuayThai to repel invaders. In the intervening time, the sport became very male-dominated. MuayThai in the 1920s. Over the years since then, there were incidences of women fighting, especailly outside of Bangkok, but never on a fully organised basis.

In the 1960s and 70s - as gender-changes swept the world, things began to change. There were women's fights in Rajadamnern and Lumpinee Stadium also ran a series of women's fights. Unfortunately, until the WMC fights in 1998 at Rangsit Stadium (MuayThai Institute), this was a limited affair.

The resistance to women fighting in Thailand is based on Buddhist beliefs, which have been interpreted to mean that the presence of females is an affront to the spiritual forces, which look over the ring. To give an example, boxers are blessed by monks in a moving ceremony involving the monk walking over the boxer's limbs. However, female fighters cannot partake in this as Buddhist monks are forbidden to touch women.

An incident involving a female TV producer at Rajadamnern Stadium in the late 1970s added fuel to this belief. After she stood in the ring, every fight ended with serious cuts - this seemed to prove the point. The near- total ban, witch followed this incident, was often circumvented. Often promoters had the women fight last so that none would be upset. To this day, female fighters go under or though the middle of the ropes intead of over as the men do.

As the 1990s wore on, more and more women were being seen in the larger stadiums. As the standard of women's fight improved, interest spiraled. Televised WMC fight were a great incentive for trainers to take women fighters more seriously. Responding to Thai women's interest in the sport, they are taking steps to regularize the sport and hold it to the same standard as their male counterparts.

Today women fight in Thailand on the same level as the men -5 * 3 minute rounds with elbows. The fighters do not yet earn the same purses as the men. This mean that most of the women continue at work or school as they compete - not yet having the security of living in a gym and training full time as Thai do.

The majority of the female fighters in Thailand train with a family member - who will make sure they are looked after at fights and shows. There are 60,000 registered profesional mal fighters in Thailand. Because, the women aren't actually professional in the sense of earning all their income from MuayThai, they aren't registered, but an estimate of between 8-10 professional female fighters were featured recently in the Thai press.

These women are the real pioneers of Female MuayThai. In a country where women have traditionally shied away from all sports, to take up the toughest ring sport there is, meaning breaking moulds in a way Western women can't imagine.

Many of fighters are very young, often still at school. They are the new generation. Due to their age we haven't seen many of them fighting aboard yet, this is hopefully something that will change over time. Promotor Mr.Amnuay Kesbumrung took women's fighters to fight aboard many time. Such as Japan, Holland, USA, Canada,....