People in Malaysia think Muay Thai is violent and create violent society. People in Malaysia think Muay Thai should not be practiced in Malaysia because they come from Thailand (I wonder where does golf come from but it is played here).
Sponsors think Muay Thai fans have no buying power because this sport is only watched by the villagers. Sponsors think Muay Thai fans only available in Thailand. Sponsors think Muay Thai only attract “low class” people but one thing for sure, whoever thinks that way, obviously they have never been to a Muay Thai tournament, they judge Muay Thai only from one angle and that is from NEGATIVE angle point of view.This year, I had the opportunity to go to three events.
The first one was a national level martial art competition held in Kulim. They rented a BIG hall as the venue. And guess what, the number of spectators were around 200 people….and one thing I must tell you, the entrance is free (obviously because the participants are amature, so the organizer don’t have to pay any cash prize money and also…THEY HAVE BIG SPONSORSHIP).The second one was another finale of another martial competition, despite big budget allocated and presence of the minister … the number of contestant outnumbered the audience.The third one was only last weekend.
It was a promotion held in Kulim by a GIANT telco company. When I arrived at the venue, they had about 5 small canopies and 1 BIG canopy with a estimated number of 50 staffs. The best thing was, only four people or I would rather say four potential customers at the venue and one of them was me.I asked one of the staffs, “How much do u spend for this promotion event?” and he replied around 5 – 6 thousand Malaysia Ringgit. And I said to him that I can guarantee a minimum number of 2,000 people will come and visit their promotion with that amount of budget.
He smiled and asked me how am I going to do that. Well, I said to him its simple….”I just bring in my boxing ring and provide local pro Muay Thai fighters to fight at your promotion venue and its free for public to watch, I can guarantee you, you will need the traffic police to control the traffic flows”.
To my surprised, he commented that they might not get the right crowd for their products and services. I asked him again, have u ever watched a Muay Thai fight in Malaysia? He just kept quiet….and again I felt a bit disappointed with the way people judge Muay Thai in Malaysia. Majority don’t realize that Muay Thai fights in Malaysia attract all level of people…just name the kind of people and they are there.
School children, university students, teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, expatriates, c.e.o.s….just name it. But of course, in order for you to have this large number of crowd, proper marketing and promoting plan must be implemented. And why do Muay Thai fights attract people? Simple because they are real and the fight is full of spectacular action.
Daniel Mashamaite, a boxer from South Africa fought four times in Malaysia. During his last fight in Malaysia he said I surely have big sponsorship in my pocket because I organize a lot of tournaments in a year and there are always big crowd watching. He was surprised when I said that for Kedah International Muay Thai Championship the sponsorship amount that I managed to get after begging was not more than 30,000 Malaysia Ringgit when I have more than 4,000 paid crowd and 1,000 free passes (the audience paid 13 ringgit ticket…you don’t have to calculate how much we made, because how much do u think is the cost to organize an international event? ).
Just imagine how many people can I attract if the entrance is FREE…but if I were to do that, who is going to pay for the cost of organizing?Sponsors will surely get maximum mileage if they sponsor Muay Thai event, that I can guarantee. Sponsor will not only get return in terms of branding mileage, they can even generate cash sales in return by sponsoring Muay Thai event, that I can also guarantee 100 % (but sorry guys, cant tell you the method…well, I can tell you how but I am afraid I have to kill you after that ) . The problem is, most of the decision maker, turn down our proposal just because he or she doesn’t like Muay Thai (or maybe our proposal is not convincing….hmmm…I will improve on that).
A conversation I had with an officer of a State Government owned company….she said they are unable to sponsor Muay Thai event because Muay Thai is not related to their company but she also said “but we can sponsor GOLF” … huh ??? is golf related to a state government company when the company’s activity circling around the development of the state?
Well, I guess they sponsor golf because their bosses play golf .. poor you Muay Thai. BOXX is going to operate a Muay Thai centre soon. We are targeting school children to participate and we plan to charge them between 2 – 5 malaysia ringgit a month (in order to cover the operational cost … don’t laugh, ok). I am expecting the majority of the school children who turn up will be the kind of “aggressive children”. The non aggressive might choose piano class instead (maybe these aggressive boys” will go to piano class too…will they?). When these aggressive children turn up for training at .. let say 5 pm .. they will not straight away start punching and kicking.
We are gong to organize a 15 minutes informal classes on anti smoking, anti drug, anti crime and all those positive classes. The speakers will come from various related government agencies ( I hope they support this effort). The speakers will sit among these boys and tell them stories about the bad thing about smoking, drug etc… (they will run away if we conduct the class in a formal way, that’s for sure because I would run away too). We might even get an ex drug addict to relate his experience to there boys. These classes will be conducted from time to time.
My prediction is, after few years, these boys will still be “aggressive boys” because the aggressiveness is already in them but they will be equipped with knowledge. We hope to instill positive values in these boys through Muay Thai training and all those classes.What I am trying to say is…. YOU CAN USE MUAY THAI AS A TOOL TO CREATE A GOOD CITIZEN…GOOD PEOPLE. Only if you are not negative towards it (because I don’t think the boys will attend just an anti smoking or anti drug classes).
No matter what, no matter how big the obstacle is, we will never surrender. We, with the support from all of you with continue with our struggle to position Muay Thai to where it should be …
Last but not least, I would like to thank everybody who has been supporting Muay Thai activities in Malaysia and please continue visiting this blog because it is also a prove that Muay Thai has big fans all around the world.
Written by Mr Zahari Ahmad Razali
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