Muay Cherng VS Muay Boo
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
This may not familiar words for you because they are Thai words but written in English. The words “Cherng” when refers the fighter, its an adjective to describe the characteristic of the fighter that he has “intelligent” fighting style. There are variation of the definition of “intelligent” which depends on individual, but for myself it should describes the fighters who use least power at the maximum effective to beat the opponent. By using speed and the ability to foresee the situation, he should also control his opponent throughout the fight, on the other hand the another word to call this kind of fighter is “fight by heart” or “thinker”. Mean while, the word “Boo” refers to the fighters who has characteristic of focusing to use “power” rather than “intelligent” to beat the opponent, they are also called “fighter”.
Even though it looks like Muay Cherng is good and Muay Boo looks like fight by brainless but the fact is both types of fighter has their own unique capability. Even though, in my eyes, it is very rare to see fighters who are Muay Cherng in nature, and a lot of Muay Boo all around. But in the past there were so many of both “thinker” and “fighter”. The good example for thinker is Samart Payak Arun and for fighter is Somdej Sit Or.
As I can see, even in Thailand now we have a lot more fighters than “thinker” but sometimes this is what to market and Muay Thai business wants. As long as the result of the fight is less important than the fighting style that many of Muay Thai fans want too see. When promoter and organiser realise that they have to match fighters who perform very exciting and use “power” to fight and attractive for audience, that is good for both of the fans and their business.
