The inaugural Weed Boxing Championship event got shut down by the Thai police. The startup promotion in Koh Samui made headlines all around the world with the concept of having fighters get stoned before stepping into the ring.
Not everyone was on board with the idea and some prominent Muay Thai promoters in Thailand went online to condemn Weed Boxing Championship. Media even went as far as to suggest Mike Tyson was involved, which definitely isn’t the case (we just really like this photo).
While Tyson isn’t involved the former boxer turned marijuana mogul would definitely have approved. Unfortunately the Royal Thai Police didn’t and the event on August 27th was shut down.
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New era
In 2022 cannabis was legalized in Thailand and shops opened up virtually overnight. Every single major high street now has a dispensary selling various strains of the weed.
The days when police were given carte blanche to hunt down and kill suspected drug dealers in Thailand seem like a long time ago. But even in this new permissive era it appears allowing an event called ‘Weed Boxing Championship’ go ahead in a major tourist location was a step too far.
The boxers who had been set to compete on the inaugural Weed Boxing Championship were let down at the last minute. They would still have been able to get stoned, and we strongly suspect they did, but the fights themselves were shut down.
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Legal issues
We don’t have any specific information about when or where the next Weed Boxing Championship will be. Or how the promoters plan to overcome the legal issues surrounding these event.
These seem like pretty important details but the latest post on Instagram is accompanied by the word,
“Soon…”
Muay Thai tourism has been a major industry in Thailand for years. People only started travelling to the country to take advantage of the relaxed marijuana laws relatively recently but the team at Weed Boxing Championship clearly believes there is a synergy between the two.
There is clearly a lot of global interest in the event. Unfortunately the local authorities also appear to be paying close attention and everyone will be waiting to see what Weed Boxing Championship does next.
