Thai boxing - staged or for real?

After Koh Lanta we travelled by boat to Phuket. The 'true backpackers' we had met in Koh Lanta had been to see a Thai boxing match in Lanta and told us that there was no possibility that the matches could be staged as kids were knocked out cold. So we decided to go and see for ourselves in Phuket. The 'stadium', bears little resemblence to Halton's finest and is more like the cow sheds in Widnes's glory days! They still charged about twenty quid though but there were about 8 fights on and it was well worth it.

Thai boxing is brutal. Firstly the fighters get into the stage and their warm up is a a bit like dancing, very strange! But don't be fooled - they then get right in there kicking and punching eachother. The first two fighters were about 11 years old...I couldn't watch! All I could think was that if that was my little nephew in there who is that age, I would have got in there myself to break it up! I was praying that neither of them got hurt, and luckily there were no knock outs in that match. The fights got worse as the night went on as the older fighters punchd and kicked the hell out of eachother with the Thai locals betting on them and cheering them on. There were even two women fighting...rather them than me!

It was a little odd to see the foreign fighters beating the Thai fighters. There was a guy from Canada and Australia and both of them won their fight, with one only lasting a minute or so. Maybe that part of it is staged to please the visitors? I don't know, but it was very entertaining to watch.

On the way back from the boxing, our taxi driver told us that his house had been destroyed in the Tsuanami but luckily his family were out shopping. He said that he wanted to cry at first as no tourists came and he is still rebuilding his house now, years later. The government have given some money but he said they are corrupted and that a lot of the money foreign countries have given has not been distributed.