Fighters Docked Pay for 5th Round

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

Many months ago a new rule was passed in the Muay Thai Sport Authority that fighters who refuse to engage ("not bringing out weapons" is how Thais say it) can be thrown out of the ring and the fight ruled a draw by the referee's discretion. This cancels all bets, so gamblers mainly liked the idea of fighters not dancing around, but also it was proposed that this could easily just lead to new forms of cheating. Most stadia agreed to the rule and Channel 7 (the promoter is Giatpetch) agreed for rounds 1-4 but said the dance off in round 5, when there is already a clear lead, won't be subject to being thrown out. 

Fast forward a few months and yesterday's Channel 7 main event had one of these refusing to engage in round 5 situations. The ref stopped the fight, threw both fighters out and the promoter docked each of them their fight pay by 50%.

Comments on the post I saw aren't in agreement with this decision. Commenters don't seem to disagree with the call to stop the fight, but they take issue with docking fighters their pay. One commenter said it woukd be fair to issue 2 warnings, if not heeded throw them out and bar them from fighting for a year... which is actually way harsher than 50% of one fight, but the commenter didn't seem to think as I do.

 

[jpmoral]

Wow, that seems harsh. Did you see the fight, was someone clearly in the lead?