is muay thai safer than boxing

Is Muay Thai safer than boxing?

Both Western Boxing and Muay Thai are very effective martial arts and also combat sports where the main objectives is to knock your opponent out or hurt them so bad they quit.

By nature both, and indeed all combat sports are not inherently ‘safe’, by nature at all.

In fact Western boxing has had a major influence in the development of muay thai. This includes the use of the boxing ring, timed rounds and gear such as gloves.

Prior to the development of modern muay thai form the 1930’s onwards, the Thai art was seen mostly in the form of Muay Boran or ‘Ancient Boxing’.

However given the different rule sets, use of limbs etc, is muay thai safer than boxing?

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This is what we will discuss in this post with the hope that you can gain insight into these two popular combat sports so you can objectively read through the points in this post and make your own judgement after further research.

Overall a argument can be made that muay thai is safer than boxing, especially in terms of head trauma.

In muay thai body kicks, leg kicks and knees to the body score more than punches.

So the head is targeted less overall in comparison to boxing.

Also the legs are favored targets for attack in muay thai which adds another option to target over just the head and body in boxing.

Also muay thai bouts are shorter in length – think 15 minutes of fighting versus 36 minutes of combat. This could allow for boxers to take more damage.

Both Muay Thai & boxing Are not ‘safe’

Becoming a boxer, or Muay Thai fighter comes at a cost.

 Getting hit in the head, again and again, is definitely not good for your brain, and can lead to a lot of problems. 

In fact, about 20% of all boxers get CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy). 

muay boran elbow

The risks of western boxing are well documented, and there are even documents deaths in the ring. 

The same is true with muay thai with the death of a young boy in 2019.

Muay Thai is a very violent sport, and it appears to be significantly more dangerous than boxing since fighters use elbows, knees, and kicks as well. 

However, it can also bee suggested that Muay Thai can be safer than boxing (at least in terms of head trauma).

We can’t be exactly sure, because there are a lot of factors that have to be considered, however, an argument can be made for Muay Thai being the safer sport. 

Boxing targets the head almost entirely

First of all, in boxing, the entire focus of the fighters is on their opponent’s head. 

I mean, sure there are some body shots here and there, but more often than not, fighters want to hit the head. 

In comparison, even though fighters use more of their limbs for fighting, their focus is distributed all over the body.

is muay thai safer than boxing

Instead of head-hunting all the time, Muay Thai Fighters throw a lot of leg kicks and use tips to maintain distance, which can significantly decrease the number of punches a fighter may absorb in one fight.

That being said, a roundhouse kick to the head, where the bear’s shin connects with the skull, is definitely going to be more dangerous than a shot from a heavily padded fist. 

Still, the frequency with which these shots are absorbed makes a lot of difference, and a Boxer will definitely take a lot more heavy punches to the head than a Muay Thai fighter will take kicks and knees. 

Kicks & Knees score much higher than punches in muay thai

The roundhouse kick to the body is the signature muay thai technique.

In fact the roundhouse kick to the body is probably the most commonly used technique in muay thai.

Of course punches to the head, or at least the threat of punches to the head are the best way to set up kicks to the body that cause major damage.

Knees to the body are another well known muay thai technique that score high with Thai judges.

is muay thai safer than boxing

Roundhouse kicks also score highly when landed on the opponents head but are more diificult to land cleanly over body kicks.

Knees to the head also are more damaging than punches to the head for sure so in that respct, muay thai does present the problem of higher chance of major head trauma from kicks and heads.

But in muay thai the head is not the only target as the body and legs are also well known favoured targets.

The KO punch also in muay thai is a spectacular finish to end a fight and on that is favoured by muay mat style fighters.

But overall punches score less with the judges in muay thai fights than kicks and knees.

Muay Thai Bouts are much shorter

Secondly, another reason why Muay Thai fighters usually have hundreds of fights on their resume and don’t take as much damage as Boxers is that their fights don’t last as long as boxing.

In Muay Thai, there are five 3-minute rounds, or in some cases, like ONE caged muay Thai series, five 5-minute rounds, whereas boxing is done for twelve 3-minute rounds. 

So, there is a lot of difference between 15 and 36 minutes of fighting, and even in the fifteen minutes of Muay Thai, the frequency with which fighters are hit on the head is significantly lower than in boxing, where the majority of the strikes are targeted towards the head. 

Lastly, the sparring and training culture in both sports also contributes to the amount of danger they portray. Many boxers don’t spar, by fight even in training.

Since their hands, the only weapons they can use are padded by heavy gloves, they go at it with a lot of force, and many fighters take a lot of damage during sparring.

However, in Muay Thai, the fighter’s knees, elbows, and shins are not as heavily padded, and in most cases, they don’t spar as ferociously as western boxers. 

Is Muay Thai Bad for Your Brain?

Well, the simple and straightforward answer is yes.

Any combat sport where there is a chance of getting knocked out cold, and taking trauma to the head is bad for your brain.

However, a lot of arguments support the idea that Muay Thai is not as bad for your brain as boxing

Final thoughts: Is muay thai safer than boxing?

In conclusion, both fights can be very dangerous and can cause brain damage.

In some specific cases, a boxer may have taken less brain damage than a Muay Thai fighter, however, when we look at the sports in general, Muay Thay does seem like the safer sport, even though it is more violent.

In terms of long-term damage to the brain and the body, Boxing could be considered a more dangerous sport than Muay Thai.