The most amazing thing yesterday was the Thai Boxing (Muay Thai) series of matches we saw. This is how they went:
First, the two fighters participate in a sort of ceremonial dance, wearing traditional flowers necklaces and rope crowns. This dance not only serves as a way to become mentally and spiritually ready for the fight, but also to stretch their muscles.
It's impossible to understand the feeling of watching a fight unless you're there in flesh and bone. Watching a match over TV allows you to become emotionally detached from the actual fighters. But when you see them in front of you, wincing with splashing sweat at each blow to the ribs, you feel how seriously real these people are. They're not just trained fighters, but they're human beings strategically dealing and suffering a lot of pain.
This is how the actual fights usually go:
The fighters usually start very defensively, waiting for an opening to hit the opponent at long range without wasting excessive energy. As the fights progress, energy and emotion start taking over and the fighters become more aggressive and reactive (you get points for effectively countering moves). Towards the end, they are mostly gripping each other and kneeing each other's ribs. They look in pain.
Of course, not all fights follow this pattern. The best fighter (in my opinion) took down his opponent with a (triple?) knockout during the first round. Maybe not coincidentally, he also had the coolest dance.
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