The Fight
The two children circled cautiously for a few moments, each unsure of the other, until suddenly, the smaller of the two punched the taller boy straight in the face and didn't stop punching until the job was done. The fight was over almost before it had started. The taller child caught his breath for a few moments as he lay on the floor staring at the ceiling before getting up and patting his opponent on the glove. Within minutes, both boys were laughing at their reflections in an old mirror hanging from a nearby chainlink fence, each trying to pull a face more ridiculous than the other. Thai Boxing is not for the faint-hearted.
Despite its rich history as the national sport of Thailand, dating back to at least the 16th Century, there was nothing glamorous about this Muay Thai gym, typical of most in the region. The smell of sweat, grunts of effort, drab lighting, and a leaking roof greet visitors to this gym, located on the side of a railway track on the outskirts of Bangkok.
Unforgiving of anyone who backs away from the challenge, overweight coaches sat on the sidelines, screaming words of encouragement or disapproval as fighters, young and old, picked up their gloves and raised their guards. This is a place of work for anyone stepping onto the tattered mats that covered the floor, and the expectation was that you come to fight. And for centuries, they have been coming. For as long as anyone can remember, children have been walking straight from school to Thai Boxing gyms across Thailand
Why? The reason is simple: in a country where champion Thai Boxers have long been revered as superstars, the sport offers a route out of poverty for many who saw no other way to escape the slums of Thailand. The odds of becoming a champion are impossibly small; it is an incredibly tough physical and mental sport. Almost all will never progress past club level before inevitably hanging up their gloves to take their seat on the side lines screaming their own words to the next generation of fighters. But until that day, there is always hope.
And yet, the real fight for Thai Boxing has only just started, and it isn't being fought in the boxing ring. Over the past twenty years, there has been a significant decline in the takeup of the sport. Where before, dozens of kids would enter the gym for the afternoon session, taking up position to begin the hundreds of press-ups and sit-ups which were a staple of every gym's warm-up, today only a handful will arrive.
The reason is video games. The rise of e-sports and the decline of actual sports are being seen worldwide. To the total bewilderment of their parents, millions of children sit for hours on end playing video games, where game controllers have replaced physical fitness as the vital component of the sport. And while the sporting action may not be real, the money most definitely is. Top e-sport players, and streamers, are achieving vast incomes. The most followed YouTuber in the world, with over 100 million subscribers, started out playing video games online. Children no longer want to be movie stars; they want to be streamers which they see as the new path to a better life. The shift has been sudden, it is real, and very few "grown-ups" have even noticed.
The coaches in the Thai Boxing gyms have noticed, though; it is hard not to notice the empty spaces where there used to be fighters. And while many in society may welcome that fewer children are punching each other in the face, seeing it as an entirely unsuitable sport for children, the coaches in this gym have long grumbled about how few children are prepared to put the effort in anymore. Why fight when you can virtually fight? After all, everyone has a six-pack in a video game.
Thai Boxing isn't going anywhere anytime soon; it remains incredibly popular in Thailand and the rest of the world. There will be the next generation of fighters and the generations after that. But the sport is changing, as are all sports. The attention of children is being intrinsically pulled online. Whether that is a good thing or not is another discussion, but there is no denying it is happening. And while e-sports were once dismissed as nothing but fads, I am confident that many of the world's sporting bodies, not to mention Olympic Committees, will consider incorporating video gaming into their events sooner rather than later.
The future is coming, whether we like it or not.
