The Contender - Muay Thai

ITV4 - Tonight at 9pm The contnder - Muay Thai
16 Muay fighters from around the world compete in a series of outdoor challenges and matches.
Two episodes tonight, 9pm and 10pm

Should be worth a watch.

thanks for reminding me!!! im defo gonna watch it

Excellent, Didn't even know that was on - will defo be watching

Thanks for the heads-up

Weighting for the heavyweights to call me up hahahaha x
french dude is a slippery customer!

Only managed to catch the second program.

They're all fit lads, but what do you reckon to their abilities?

Over to Mick and Bob for their expert reviews

Like Alan, i only caught the second programme but i was a bit disapointed. Dragon Boat races???

Also i thought the fight at the end was a bit poor, now i have had very limited exposure to Muay Thai, a couple of seminars and through my JKD training but i was not that impressed. Some nice low kicks from the Scottish fighter but why did the ref keep breaking them aprt when they clinched?

I only caught the second program and thought the fight at the end was pretty poor. What rules are they fighting under as i didn't see any use of elboes or skip knees for example. Neither guy seemed to be putting much effort into it or is it just me? I'm hoping the program gets better.

If it's going to be anything like the original Contender then there will be alot of heavy editting of the fights, and even alot of sounds effects thrown in for the punches.
They had a set formula where one fighter would be editted to look like he's getting battered and then comes back strong in the next round, etc.

So maybe we didn't see the best of the fight, but you'd like to think the best bits were kept in - so I agree - not massively impressed by it

And was it just me, or do you think those dragon boats had engines on the back of them - they seemed to be powering along very smoothly - and I noticed the camera didn't once pan back enough to show you the whole boat
Just me with my conspiracy hat on

...if it's not from Bangkok I ain't watching it. Just me being a purist and all that. Most european Muay Thai disapoints me.

I am a boring old git...

well, there's a couple of thai fighters in there. i wanna see the 2 champs go at it, and that french t*** get his arse kicked
agreed though, not exactly amazing viewing, but better than a kick in the nuts. if im honest, id say in my opinion, the only westerner that stands a chance is john wayne. other than him, my moneys on the thai fighters all the way, although for pride in countrys sake, id like to see the brit do well lol.

There's some fights on youtube - but to be honest, haven't watched any of them all the way through

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvBdwZr8ANI&feature=related

With bob on the quality issue
you tube pinsinchai and see what it should look like!

Very disappointed and I watched and taped both!!

Thought the fighters would be top quality and the trials would be combat orientated.
The first episode where 2 guys were tied together and had to sprint / race against 2 of the other team members was boring and dangerous as it had been raining and was wet and slippery, hence one guy fell and cut his arm/ elbow while bringing his team mate down as well.

So far not in the same league as the original Contender and certainly not anywhere near as good as the Ultimate Fighter series!

Show Muay Thai in a good light , I'd have thought they would've made the show as exciting and good as possible, although there is a show on tonight and tomorrow, so the martial artist in me will make me watch it, lol.

John waynes guard was shockingly low!Good to see fafiq get his ticket home though x

...well just as I thought..a load of Americanised crap. This is not good Muay Thai by any stretch of the imagination.

Call me biased but...

Tune into PulseTV at 11pm every weekday...dreadful commentary but some good fights tonight.

Hey bob
any thoughts on his technique?he's the best on the show as well! Phraya pichai's interclubs are 10 times better x

I am not sure how much was edited out. You know what TV's like but I didn't see much good technique if any last night. I have seen better in an interclub to be honest.

Will it get any better?

Any other Muay Thai people out there with an opinion?

I don't really know any of the top level fighters in M.T. at the moment, but I thought the guys on this show were 'supposed' to be world class.

Bob- could you list some of the top thai fighters in the world at the moment for me, Thai's and Europeans if poss.

I was surprised that they were holding on to the ropes and seemed to have bad cardio.

Still not impressed but, I prefer to watch bad martial art stuff than Eastenders or Corrie!!!! lol

Also I don't have SKY, Cable, Virgin, Setanta, etc so I'd need to find these fighters on youtube, etc

I've not watched many of the fights, but wondered why the ref kept jumping in the moment there was a clinch - very odd!

...probably because he didn't know what he was doing!

I'm pretty sure i remember reading some place that under American Thai rules they tend to break the clinch as they reckon it it keeps the action faster and more appealing to the audience.

I know very very little about Muay Thai. fighters etc but have heard of John Wayne Parr, i thought he was supposed to be world class but i was very disapointed with the fight and his technique. Big open hooks more akin to the type thrown by an untrained person, holding the ropes for balance when throwing kicks, poor balance and clinch work. Not impressive.

Gave up after 20 mins tonight, what the f*** has building a puzzle with Chinese Masks on got to do with Muay Thai or Thailand?

Bad news for Muay Thai...that's what this programme is...

Not very popular this is it?
To be honest I've seen the whole season and the fights do get better, although if you're going to watch reality tv stuff, you've got to expect the bizarre challenges and watching the fighters eat dinners and chat that seems to be where the tv people believe the interest is?!