MMA Banned in Thailand

Muay Thai - Illustration from Flickr.com

Really, MMA banned in Thailand? It definitely appears to be the case, somethings which appears kind of odd in a country where the hard hitting fighters of Muay Thai are national heroes and the martial art - considered brutal by many - is the national sport.

Apparently mixed martial arts has been deemed to be 'too brutal' by the governing Thai sports authorities.

Makes me wonder if there isn't some form of political pressure behind this decision.

MMA banned in Thailand

Here's a small excerpt of what bangkokpost.com has to say about this kind of strange move.

SAT officials met this week to discuss whether holding an MMA event was lawful or not following a request from a private company and they finally agreed that under the 1999 boxing law, it is unlawful to stage an MMA event in Thailand.
"Organising a MMA event here would hurt the image of Muay Thai," Sakol said.
There have been two MMA events held in Bangkok and neither were approved by the SAT, according to Sakol. He said the SAT was asking the Interior Ministry's legal advisors to consider action against any MMA organisers.
"If you want to do this kind of business, you should do it in another country," Sakol said. "Organising MMA here could mislead the public into believing that Muay Thai is brutal."

So there you have it - apparently MMA is too brutal, but Muay Thai is OK. Weird logic if you ask me. What's your opinion?