Why Muay Thai in America Is Still Misunderstood | Pu’u Muay Thai Podcast Ep. 228

In Episode 228 of the Pu’u Muay Thai Podcast, Jonathan Puu breaks down why Muay Thai in America is still widely misunderstood—even by people who think they know what it is.

From being confused with kickboxing or cardio workouts to being seen as “too violent” or “only for fighters,” Muay Thai has often been introduced in the U.S. without its cultural, technical, and developmental context. As a result, many people miss out on what Muay Thai actually is—and what it can offer beyond fighting.

In this episode, Jonathan explores:

• How Muay Thai was first introduced to American audiences through violence and highlight reels
• Why the fitness industry unintentionally stripped Muay Thai of its identity
• How fighting became the only measure of legitimacy in the U.S.
• Why impatience and short-term thinking clash with Muay Thai’s long-term nature
• The difference between borrowing techniques and truly training the art
• What Muay Thai actually represents: discipline, regulation under pressure, humility, and community

Drawing from nearly two decades of experience as a student, fighter, coach, gym owner, promoter, and ring official, Jonathan explains why Muay Thai isn’t struggling because it lacks value—but because it hasn’t always been represented or explained properly.

This episode is a call to protect the integrity of Muay Thai without watering it down, and to help more people understand it as a lifelong practice—not a phase, trend, or workout.

If Muay Thai in America were better understood, fewer people would quit—and more would stay long enough for it to change them.

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Muay Thai in America is still deeply misunderstood. And I don't mean misunderstood by people who don't train. I mean misunderstood by people who think they know what Muay Thai is. All right. But some see it as just kickboxing, some see it as something just violent street fighting. Some think it's only for fighters. And some think it's still some sort of cocktail drink. All right. And others think it's just cardio with pads. I think it's just pad work. Because of that misunderstanding, people miss out on what Muay Thai actually is and what it can give them. So today, I want to talk to you about why Muay Thai is still misunderstood in the US and where that confusion comes from and what we can do better without watering down the art.com.

Speaker 1 1:05

Authentic Muay Thai Lifestyle by Pu'u Definitely go check out the website at pmtlifestyle.com for some awesome lifestyle merchandise. So what do you guys for those of you out there look at getting involved in Muay Thai?

Speaker 1:20

I've been involved in Muay Thai close to two decades student fighters, if you enjoy the podcast, you will enjoy the value inside of it that you get out of the way. You enjoy the podcast to continue. For example, UFC commentators used to change your jujitsu special underground view to tell them the complaints of what's going on. Yeah, people who are now working on the ground in Thailand that are helping us get media, content, all that stuff for post-big reason. The podcast recording was the first recording. Or maybe they just saw like kickboxes. You're gonna really get a lot of value. So Muay Thai became famous as just supporting the podcast. So you have to deep understand Black Room in order to get access to the colour. I'm asking you for your help on the fighters as well. And seriously, when Muay Thai can be introduced value that you're gonna get and just enjoy it. It's only a fetter idea, right? Right, you can cancel it anytime. If you want to go deeper, every little bit counts. Check out the link down in Muay Town. Alright. Anyways, sit back and enjoy the show. What people didn't see were the years of training, the discipline, the respect, the structure, the art, and the cultural context. Without that foundation, Muay Thai just gets reduced to what it looks like and not what it actually is. Alright. So then came the fitness boom. Alright. Muay Thai started getting packaged as a cardio kickboxing, high-intensity interval training or hit training with pads, uh sweat classes with no structure, all right. Heavy bag classes, they call them muay thai classes. You know, for example, you know, Brazilian jujitsu or taekwondo black belt, because they had a black belt and there's no way to verify anything, they would just say that they are teaching Muay Thai. All right. If you're out there and you you know what I'm talking about, okay? Um it's happening less and less, but it still happens. And while there's nothing wrong with fitness, uh that stripped Muay Thai of its identity. Uh and it quite frankly eroded its legitimacy. You know, you have this guy who doesn't know crap about Muay Thai, knows what it is, but doesn't know has about you know pennies' depth of knowledge in Muay Thai teaching it, right? So people started thinking Muay Thai was just another workout. Uh you know, you just punch, kick, knee elbow, that's it, can't be that hard. It's something that you try and burn calories with and move on from. They didn't think of it as a martial art, not a practice, not discipline, and that confusion still lingers today quite a bit as well. Like I get a lot of people who are like, I mean, I need to do Muay Thai, I need to lose some weight. Yes, you can lose weight doing Muay Thai. Absolutely. Another misunderstanding is the idea that Muay Thai is only for fighters. All right. In America, we tend to define legitimacy by competition. So if you don't fight, people often assume you're not serious, you're not like real, all right, you're not an OG in Muay Thai, you're just doing it for fun. But historically, Muay Thai has always been more than just competition fighting. It's cultural, it's educational, it's developmental, it's community-based, right? And fighting is just one expression of Muay Thai, it's not the sole definition of it. Yes, it did start in war, but not everybody that trains Muay Thai is going to use it in a self-defense situation, right? I hope they don't have to. Heck, even the kings of Thailand train muay thai for self-defense. And when we only value fighters, we alienate the majority of people who could benefit from training. There's so many awesome benefits to Muay Thai. Right? If you're out there and you're wondering, like most people at Poo Muay Thai, they don't fight. We have maybe 5% of students that out of our 200 that fight, that compete. All right. So another reason Muay Thai is misunderstood in America is because you know, we're impatient. Americans are impatient. We want fast progress, want fast spells, fast results. I want it now, I want that validation now. That microwave generation, right? Muay Thai doesn't work like that though. It's slow, it's repetitive, it's humbling. Um, you know, fighters they don't worry about loss, right? They're worrying about experience and how many fights they get. In Thailand, also, Muay Thai is often understood as a lifelong practice, much less it's actually a it's a job in Thailand. It's a hard labor job that you can do in Thailand. In America, it often gets treated like a phase. You know, it can't be really treated as a job to train full time like you do in Thailand. You know, you get many uh MMA practitioners that take pieces of Muay Thai without truly training or embracing the art and like understanding Muay Thai. You know, the best MMA practitioners that are good in Muay Thai, like focused on two, three years of just doing Muay Thai at least, right? And they usually do this with jujitsu, they don't just gloss over jujitsu and pick up some basic things, you know. So why are they doing it with muay thai, right? But this disconnect creates frustration for students, coaches, and academies trying to do things the right way. So what is Muay Thai? Right? You might be wondering this. Muay Thai is a system of movement, a way to regulate yourself under pressure, a discipline that builds patience and humility, a form of self-defense, and a community that is rooted in respect. It's not about being tough, it's not about fight all about fighting, it's not about proving anything other than to yourself, right? But it's about developing yourself over time. And when people understand that, Muay Thai stops being intimidating and starts being accessible without losing the integrity and authenticity of the art. So Muay Thai in America isn't misunderstood because people don't care. It's misunderstood because we haven't always done a good job at explaining and representing it. You know, language barriers were a big part of that and lack of education. You know, we didn't always have an educate group in mass talking about it, right? Like you've seen some of the people that we've had here. There's a lot of educators now that are coming out in Muay Thai. And I encourage more of them to do it, right? And uh believe me, a lot of people are like, ah, I don't need to, but this is one of the reasons why content's important, and that's part of the reason for myself too, and many others, and we believe you should always be wearing Muay Thai shorts when you're training or competing. It's to represent the art properly. So that way people know what they're looking at. All right. In time, they know what it is. If you're a combat sports athlete, you know what it is. But everyday people, they still don't know what Muay Thai is. It's growing though, all right. And it matters enough that episode 214 of the podcast of this podcast is entirely about Muay Thai shorts, all right? So go check that out if you're wondering. And that responsibility for educating people falls on coaches, gym owners, you know, also practitioners, promoters, and content creators as well. Everyone that's involved in Muay Thai. We don't grow Muay Thai by diluting it, right? That's why like the influencer fraud, like that shit pisses me off so much. Right, because they're they're diluting the art and not giving an accurate representation of it. They're not giving the whole picture, right? They just want clicks. So we grow it by teaching and educating about it properly. If people understood Muay Thai for what it actually is, you know, a few people would actually quit, you know, with it when they start trading, and more would stay long enough for it to change them. You know, if you're somebody that's out there and you're wanting to start a Muay Thai program and you're like, uh how do I do this? Reach out to me. Go license.puo Moy Thai.com. Again, it's license.puo Moy Thai.com. Fill out the form, watch my free spiel. It's on there. All right. We've seen other martial arts do this successfully as well. And there's no reason why Muay Thai can't do it. All right, there's no reason why Muay Thai can't do what Brazilian Jiu Jitsu did, what karate kung fu did. All right. But I'm gonna get off my soapbox. That's gonna be it for today's episode. I want to hear from you. What's the biggest misunderstanding you've seen about Muay Thai and America? You don't have to be from America, but like what have you seen? Or what are the assumptions about Americans in Muay Thai? Drop it in the comments if you're here on YouTube, or call or text the podcast hotline at 805-456-3316. Again, that's 805-456-3316. I listen to every single message. It would seriously, like I get hype when I I see a text message on there. I haven't gotten a lot by this point. I hope that changes. So maybe you're gonna be the person that's gonna change that. You watching or you listening. Again, 805-456-3316. All right. Shoot me a text. And make sure you subscribe here to the Pooh Muay Thai Podcast for more conversations about culture, training, and protecting art while you help it grow. All right. Until next time, I'll see you in the next episode. So what do you cop? Alright, that's gonna be it for today. Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Poo Muay Thai Podcast. If you enjoy the content, go leave a review over on Apple Podcast on Spotify, give us a rating, give us a welcome. Also, if you want to be a guest on the Foot U Muay Thai Podcast, or if you just want to shout out to your friends, after podcasting, you can see that.