Thailand is the home of Muay Thai and therefore the creator and defining body of the rules and judging criteria of the country's national sports.
Understanding the Judging is essential for coaches, fighters and fight fans.
"The first two rounds of a Muay Thai fight are always scored a draw, unless one fighter absolutely dominates or visibly hurts his opponent. The opening rounds are only intended to be used as a feeling out process & a period in which bets can be placed (based on how each fighter is looking). Rounds one and two are an opportunity to size up your opponents and to begin to demonstrate your superiority to the judges but will generally have no effect on the scoring of the fight.
Rounds three, four and five are the decisive rounds and the result of them will settle the outcome of the fight unless there is a stoppage.
A fighter who is already ahead normally seems to get the benefit of the doubt in a close round which means that once a fighter has taken a lead on the scorecards he only needs to be as good as his opponent to win the fight, whereas the opponent needs to clearly demonstrate that he is better. This may seem like merely a semantic difference but it is never the less an important one.
Any strike which lands cleanly scores points but straight knees and kicks to the mid section seem to score more points than any other techniques.
For a punch to score highly it needs to land very cleanly and preferably visibly hurt the other fighter.
Control is extremely important in a Muay Thai fight and for this reason teeps and sweeps also score a lot of points. Putting an opponent on the canvass by catching a kick and sweeping out his standing leg a couple of times will win almost any round and knocking an opponent off balance will also score highly." (James Goyder)
"It is important to understand that the whole fight is judged to decide the outcome of a fight.
If a fighter gets knocked down by a concussive blow or takes a count at any time during the fight, they will lose two points (10:8) on all judges score cards.
If the knocked down fighter otherwise dominated the round or fought back strongly after the knock down they might only lose the round by one point (10:9).
The winner of the fight on an individual judge’s score card is awarded the greatest number of points. However, this does not necessarily mean they have won the most rounds.
When there is a very clear difference between fighters, the fight is usually scored 49:47 and fights that are closer are scored 49:48" (Tony Myers)
Fouls to note:
If the fighters disobey the order of the judge, violates the competition rules in an unsportsmanlike manner, or commits a foul, the referee judge has the power to caution or to declare the forfeiture of the match without giving a prior warning depending on the seriousness of a foul or the circumstances surrounding it.
Fighter will be penalized by deducting 1 point for each time committed.
- Head-butting, biting, eye gouging, or spitting
- Deliberately falling on his opponent.
- Wrestling, back or arm locks or any similar judo or wrestling hold.
- Use of abusive language or swearing during the match.
- Holding the ropes for any reason.
- Causing injury or knocking out the opponent after the referee has ordered the match to stop for any reason.
- Deliberately striking the groin area.
http://www.wmcmuaythai.org/about-muaythai/muaythai-rules/14-scoring-system
http://www.wbcmuaythai.com/rules_select.php?id=16
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