From Amateur to Professional: The Evolution of a Muaythai Athlete

What does The Contender Asia, The Challenger Muaythai, KMax, K1, Glory, Thai Fight, and Thai Max Have in common? All the superstars have strong backgrounds and ties with IFMA and WMC.

Buakaw, Yodsanklai, Khem, Mardsua and so many others represented Thailand in IFMA World Championships, World combat games and fought for pride and honour for the Kingdom. Female superstars like Chommanee, Caley Reece, Miriam Nakamoto, and Valentina Shevchenko, to name a few, all have been IFMA Champions and have become superstars in their representative countries.

Superstars like Paul Slowinski, Artem Vakhitov, Andrei Kulebin, Dzianis Hancharonak, Artem Levin and so many others also started their careers in IFMA. They all become multiple champions in IFMA before they become WMC Champions and also joined other event series.

WMC Vice President and IFMA General Secretary Stephan Fox stated that this marriage is of the utmost importance for many reasons. First and foremost is that it is important that they, the athletes, can make their way up from amateur competitions like National championships, Continental and World Championships

Only IFMA can give the athletes the chance to fight at Olympic patronized events and the chance to be with other Olympic recognized Martial arts in competitions such as the Indoor Asian games, Asian Beach games, TAFISA Sport for All, Arafura and certainly other IOC Recognized events such as the World Combat Games and the World Games.

This is the difference and this is why all the superstars compete in IFMA by example when it comes to IOC Recognized events. They are also able to join Television shows such as Contender and Emmy nominated reality shows like The Challenger, participate in the WMC world events and have the foundation to join other shows around the world.

Stephan Fox also stated the future of the shows look bright; events like the Fighting Masters in Monte-Carlo, Monaco where HSH Prince Albert II gave patronage to the event is a clear example of how much high profile and credibility the sport of Muaythai has gained. In 2013, Muaythai was also included the World Combat Games under patronage of the IOC and the Indoor Asian games under patronage of the OCA. 2013 also saw Muaythai being included in the International World Games Association (IWGA), and only a year later has been included in the official sport program as well. This year, Muaythai is one of the main sports in the upcoming Asian Beach games, also under the Olympic Committee of Asia. This shows the recognition Muaythai now has and that only IFMA is the true authority of the sport, recognized by SportAccord, IWGA, TAFISA, Arafura, and the Olympic Committee of Asia. The future of Muaythai from the top to the bottom looks bright.