Eating punches for fitness and prizefighting: The rise of Muay Thai in Dhaka
Muay Thai, once a niche discipline in Bangladesh’s combat sports scene, is rapidly growing in popularity, with gyms across Dhaka now offering classes to cater to the growing demand.
A few years back, finding a combat sports gym in Dhaka was a tall order, with traditional martial arts like Karate and Taekwondo dominating the scene. The few gyms that did offer boxing, kickboxing or grappling classes struggled to stay afloat as student turnout was low.
But today, as combat sports grow in popularity worldwide, people in our country have also started to take notice.
And events such as Xcel Boxing Championship, Khar Nights and Double Horse Knockouts have further exposed the nation to the allure of combat sports, motivating gyms to start offering classes.
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Professional fighters, who had earlier found it difficult to make a living from such a niche set of skills, now find a significant number of students seeking to pursue combat sports professionally, for self defence or for fitness.
The rise of Muay Thai
Up until recently, Muay Thai, a particularly brutal form of kickboxing native to Thailand, had been the underdog in Bangladesh's combat sports world, with the majority of combat athletes either pursuing boxing or mixed martial arts (MMA).
But a recent Muay-Thai-only event, Double Horse Knockouts 001, cemented the sport's legacy in Bangladesh's rapidly expanding combat scene. Many gyms that teach combat now offer standalone Muay Thai classes.
"I have tried to uphold the same international standards in my gym as they did when I was training in Thailand," said Shadman Sakif, coach and owner of Legacy MMA in Dhanmondi.
"Having grown up in Dhanmondi, I could not live with the poor state of combat sports in my area when I returned to Bangladesh in 2020. I am extremely passionate about this sport and I believe that people in our country will have the same passion for it if they had a good place to train near their homes," he added.
"Limited resources kept me from pursuing boxing during my teenage years. Recently, after struggling with weight gain and seeking a healthier lifestyle, I joined without hesitation when I found out Ovi was offering Muay Thai classes at Tapout. The classes are helping me fulfil a long-forgotten dream."
As a professional Muay Thai athlete and one of the national coaches for the Bangladesh Ju-Jitsu team, Shadman has an extensive list of accomplishments, as do the other coaches in his gym.
Legacy MMA has been operating for just over a year and already has multiple batches of people training Muay Thai. The gym offers Muay Thai classes in two batches, on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
While many students at Legacy MMA want to fight in a ring at some point, others join for fitness.
Muay Thai for personal development
One of the fighters at Double Horse Knockout's event, Simeon Ovi, teaches at Tapout Fitness in Gulshan. Ovi has also represented Bangladesh in international bouts.
The majority of his clients are working professionals or simply people who want to lose weight.
As professional prizefighting is not their aim, Ovi ensures that the culture in his gym pushes them to reach their personal goals.
"Instead of being drowned in a toxic culture where people are made to think that weight loss needs to be quick, extremely difficult, and will require them to sacrifice everything they like to eat, Muay Thai has given them the ammunition to have control over their health while building a significantly stronger body and mind," said Ovi, reflecting on the value Muay Thai and combat sports bring to the lives of ordinary working people.
Tapout Fitness offers Muay Thai classes on Monday and Wednesday evenings.
Since he is training them for health, strength and endurance, the three things he emphasises most are quality sleep, a nutritious diet and consistent exercise. His goal as a coach is to help them make their fitness journey their own and maintain it in a healthy, sustainable way.
Md Golam Mahbub Saaj, a student at Tapout Fitness, said, "Unfortunately, limited resources kept me from pursuing boxing during my teenage years. Recently, after struggling with weight gain and seeking a healthier lifestyle, I joined without hesitation when I found out Ovi was offering Muay Thai classes at Tapout. The classes are helping me fulfil a long-forgotten dream."
Women and girls taking keen interest as well
Young women, including kids, are getting more enthusiastic about Muay Thai, given the expanding training facilities.
Many parents are even sending their daughters to learn the tricks of this combat sport.
Eleven-year-old Zayna, for instance, has received an early start at Tapout.
"My daughter has been taking Muay Thai classes since the past month. And she's loving it. She's been going through very intensive physical training. And you can clearly see her confidence level has gone up significantly," said Zayna's mother.
Nawar E Jannat, a Muay Thai student at Legacy MMA, explained, "When I got to observe the Muay Thai classes at Legacy, I realised the sport is very well-rounded as it focuses on enhancing endurance, mobility and power. That felt very thrilling. The classes increased my endurance level within a short span of time. Also, I wanted to learn to defend myself, so that was always a plus."
Yet when you are training in combat sports, even for fitness, it ends up training you for life in ways that regular gyms do not.
Muay Thai takes you through a severely intense and gruelling journey where you learn to be mentally resilient as well as physically capable of protecting yourself in a world where the odds are often stacked against you.
What Muay Thai teaches you, above all, is to take punches and kicks and brush them off like a mosquito bite. Combine that with the ability to throw your own volley of punches, kicks and elbows, and you become unbreakable.
Ovi recalled, "One day, one of my female students came up to me in class and thanked me for training her. She recounted how she had been mugged. But because she had trained in Muay Thai, she was able to run after the mugger, beat him, and retrieve her belongings."
