How/where to watch Muay Thai in the US?

[Julep]

Any recommendations for ways to watch current Muay Thai (fights that actually happen in Thailand) in the US? The fights don't need to be live, or even very recent, but I'm hoping for something that's broadcast quality. I'm willing to pay for a good quality streaming service or cable channel.

UFC's Fight Pass carries the Absolute Muay Thai promotion, with lots of Lumpinee and Rajadamnern fights up until March of 2020. That's the best I've been able to locate, but it's not ideal. I can't figure out if the announcers are ignorant or just trying to oversell to a US audience, but either way, they're annoying. The video quality is really good, though. 

The fights also seem to be poorly attended. I see a lot of empty seats. Is that typical in the last few years?

 

[515]

Rajadamnern got some livestreams.

https://www.facebook.com/rajadamnern
https://www.youtube.com/c/RajadamnernChannel/videos

[515]

These pages also have a livestream for their events;

https://www.facebook.com/MuayThaiSuperChamp/

https://www.facebook.com/MuayHardcoreCH8/

https://www.facebook.com/maxmuaythaithai/

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Funny you should ask!

We're trying out a new column on our Patreon, free for everyone. Below is an end summary of how/where to watch, but Phan is right now covering the most recent fights, and also what fights to look forward to, twice a month:

How to watch Stadium (BKK) Muay Thai?

Some people find it hard to find a place to watch elite circuit fights and there are many reasons for this, whether it be the language barrier, significant time zone differences, difficulty following the sport or whatever else. In fact, it has never been easier to watch shows live than today. Nowadays, there may be about a dozen shows per week but only three shows are behind paywall (Chefboonthum and Rajadamnern, no way to pay the iPPV without a Thai credit card) and only one requires a VPN (Channel 7). Otherwise, the rest are all either on Facebook or Youtube (or adintrend).

Rajadamnern Stadium typically publishes the entire show 12 hours after the live show itself and Chefboonthum does the same a few days after on Facebook.

The best free (no paywall) shows of the week are typically Sia Boat (Petyindee)’s Muaymumwansuk show on Fridays at 6 PM local time, Muay Jet Si at Channel 7 Stadium on Sundays at 2 PM local, Suk Jitmuangnon (only live link) on Saturdays at 4:30 PM local, and Suk Jao Muay Thai at Siam Omnoi Stadium, every Saturday at 12 PM local.

Following the sport has also gotten significantly easier with the advent of websites like Muay Thai 2000 and English speaking pages dedicated to the sport on essentially all major social media platforms besides Youtube.

 

See his most recent article here:

Best of BKK Muay Thai: fights you missed, fights coming up: vol 2 (early Nov, 2020)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/43771237

 

 

This way not only do you know where to watch, but also what you are looking at, what the storylines are for all the best fights.

 

 

[Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu]

Phan, in addition to his BKK fight writes ups, puts up a Muay Thai show Google calendar, with all the times and links: Muay Thai Show Calendar

Looks like this:

 

 

[Julep]

Thanks to all for the links. It never even occurred to me to see if the big stadiums posted videos--d'oh!

And I am LOVING Phan's new column. It's like a wish come true!

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsN96OvHRSZWiecrdPvy5Wg

This is also a good channel to watch, Petchyindee. You can see when the times are by the videos that are already up, but they tend to stream on Friday nights in Thailand.

[stryka.10k]

Max Muay Thai on Youtube! Their promotion streams from Thailand almost every morning!