'Muay Thai' or 'Kun Khmer': Neighbors spar over sport's name

Cambodia makes change for SEA Games as Thailand threatens boycott

20220123N SE Asia martial arts

Muay Thai is Thailand's national sport that has been the inspiration for kickboxing. (Photo by Akira Kodaka)

YOHEI MURAMATSU, Nikkei staff writer

BANGKOK -- Thailand and Cambodia are at loggerheads over whether the inspiration for modern kickboxing should be called Muay Thai or Kun Khmer.

As the name suggests, Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand. But Cambodia has maintained that the sport traces its origins to the country's own martial art, Kun Khmer.

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