Muay Thai Training Thailand : Dragon Muay Thai
How to Score a Muay Thai Fight

If you are a coach or fighter, it is important to have a clear understanding of Muay Thai scoring and rules. Understanding how to score points is essential for a fighter and you are at a serious
disadvantage if your opponent knows how to score points and you do not.

There is often real confu-sion as to what scores and what doesn’t score in Muay Thai. There are a wide range of misconcep­tions ranging from ‘punches don’t score’ to ‘whoever wins round four wins the fight’. Both these state­ments are untrue and highlight the confusion over scoring in Muay Thai.

Catching an opponents kick and countering with a strike will score highly.

 Judging

When a judge is judging a Muay Thai fight, they view the fight as if it is a long distance running race. They judge the fight as a whole, it is not just about who is winning the most rounds.
This means that they will be trying to keep in mind not just who is ahead at any par­ticular moment but also, crucially, how far they are ahead. This is different than the system used in western boxing and means that, in theory, a fighter could lose four out of five rounds by a very narrow margin and win one out of the five rounds by a substantial margin and still win the fight.

In determining how far a particular boxer is ahead in a bout, a judge considers the number of clean techniques a boxer lands on target and delivers on balance, along with the relative effectiveness of the technique and the effect it has had on the opponent’s balance and position. A boxer can deliver scoring techniques while moving forwards, backwards, sideward or against the ropes but balance is essential both before and after technique delivery.

Which techniques score ?

The simple answer is all effective Muay Thai techniques. It is possible to score with all Muay Thai techniques; kicks, punches, knees, and elbows. However while in theory alltechniques have the potential to score equally in Muay Thai, in practise some techniques do score higher than oth­ers.

If a boxer can land clean kicks and knees to the body head or neck with good technique they will score points regardless of the effect they have on the op­ponent. By contrast punches, low kicks and elbows have to have a physical effect on the opponent or cause them to show they are hurt in order to score.

Effectiveness in Muay Thai

Judges are looking at which boxer’s Muay Thai is more effective over the course of a fight. Effectiveness in Muay Thai is determined by the physical effect a technique has on the other fighter. A technique which physically moves the other boxer will score highly regard­less of whether it is due to force or the opponent being off balance.

Effectiveness doesn’t mean a kick or knee has to hurt an opponent to score although a boxer who shows they are hurt will be at a serious disadvantage in scoring and may lose the fight as a result.
Another factor which will determine how well a tech­nique scores is where it lands. Kicks and knees to the body and head or neck tend to be considered more effective than kicks and knees striking other
targets.

A well executed kick to the head will score highly.

So who wins the fight?

Judges judge the fight as a whole and not round by round. Sometimes it is difficult to deter
mine who the most effective boxer is until the later rounds when accumulative damage can be better as­sessed and tiredness has set in showing which boxer is the strongest over the whole fight.

It is usual for judges to make notes during a fight and com­plete the scoring for rounds after the fight has finished; although this is impossible in championship bouts in Thai­land where score cards are collected after each round.

Variety of technique does not come into judging a fight and it is quite possible for a fighter to win by only kneeing their opponent the whole fight.

1. The boxer who strikes with more clear Muay Thai weapons on tar­get wins the round The boxer who lands more clean kicks and knees on their opponent’s body wins the round. If you move your opponent with your kick or can unbalance your opponent first and follow with a technique, that is better still. Balance after delivery is important.

2. The boxer who scores more heavy powerful attacks wins the round
If boxers don’t land cleanly with kicks but hit the arms and show effect, they score equally to kicks landing on tar­get but not showing an effect. Punches and leg kicks can score well if they show real effect on the opponent.
3. The boxer who does more damage to his opponent wins the round
If everything else is close judges look for real differences in the damage caused by blows. For ex-ample, if the same number of kicks and knees to the body landed by both boxers, judges may award a fight to a box­er who made his opponent very tired through being hit with strong weapons or cut their opponent with an elbow or inflicted similar damage.
4. The boxer who shows more attacking techniques wins the round
If two boxers are equal in all of the above respects; perhaps because they are very equally matched or are not skilful enough to score with appropriate tech-niques, judges should award the fight to the boxer who attacks more.
5. Better offensive, defensive, evasion or counterat­tacking skills wins the round

6. The boxer who fouls less wins the round
Judges will award the fight to the boxer with the most ef­fect techniques as well as mental strength, physical con­dition and technical ability. If a fighter is forced by his opponent to show weakness, extreme tiredness or any evidence of not wanting to fight, the judges will award the fight to their opponent.

Round by Round Scoring

Round one is often scored 10:10 in a five round contest, although judges make a mental note of the boxer who edged the round for later reference. This is usually the case unless one boxer has very clearly dominated that round with a knockdown, eightcount or the use of a number of very good scoring techniques.

The second round in a five round contest can also be scored 10:10, if it is deemed to be a close round, or if the boxer who was behind in round one wins by a small margin.

Rounds three, four and five are the most important rounds in determining the fight’s result. Clear decisions are there­fore made for these rounds. In indecisive rounds, or rounds where the fight “swings” from one boxer to the next, the mental notes made in the first, or first and second rounds are used to help determine the outcome.

Again, it is important to understand that the whole fight is judged to decide the outcome of a fight. If a fighter gets knocked down by a concussive blow or takes a count at any time during the fight, they will lose two points (10:8) on all judges score cards. If the knocked down fighter otherwise dominated the round or fought back strongly after the knock down they might only lose the round by one point (10:9).

The winner of the fight on an individual judge’s score card is awarded the greatest number of points. How-ever, this does not necessarily mean they have won the most rounds. When there is a very clear differ­ence between fighters, the fight is usually scored 49:47 and fights that are closer are scored 49:48.

Overall match decision

In professional fights the outcome of a match is deter­mined by considering the majority of decisions given by the judges and not by adding the judges’ point totals to­gether. This is the case even if the judges award a draw. Therefore, if two out of three judges’ award the fight to the blue corner, the blue corner would be awarded the match; if two out of three judges award the match a draw, a draw would be declared.

A well executed kick to the bodywill score highly.

Source : Muay Thai Phuket Magazine